10 Films That Predicted The Trump Presidency
9. A Face In The Crowd
Much was made of the connections between Lonesome Rhodes (Andy Griffith) and Trump in this Elia Kazan film when his candidacy was announced. The more the man who loved to brag about his wealth and power attempted to identify with the downtrodden and the poor, the more disingenuous it appeared. It was all a show.
By the end of A Face in the Crowd, young journalist Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) has plucked Rhodes from a tiny drunk tank, his song and dance routine about being conned by the bigshots and scammed by politicians - the "elite", the "deep state", call it what you want. It rings true to middle America, and soon he's got a TV show.
Eventually, Jeffries destroys Rhodes by switching on the live feed between commercial breaks, revealing Rhode's cynicism. It's the kind of euphoric end to a dark time in America we won't see, and the likely reality is Walter Mathauu's bleak prognostication of Rhodes future.