‘The Last Republican’ review: The appeal of Adam Kinzinger’s documentary

This new documentary about former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger wasn’t made by any typical filmmaker, which is a sign of the truly strange political times we live in. final republican partyThe film making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival was directed not by the likes of Michael Moore, Errol Morris or Barbara Kopple, but by Steve Pinker. This only makes sense when you discover one of Pinker’s previous directorial efforts, hot tub time machineis Kinzinger’s favorite movie. “That’s what sold it to me,” Kinzinger jokingly remarked, well aware of the director’s ultra-liberal tendencies. “As a political point of view, you disdain my beliefs,” he admitted.

Now that Kinzinger has become a media personality, a best-selling author and a darling of the Democratic Party (he recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention), it’s easy to gloss over the courage he has shown in defending democracy. Ironically, that’s not why he was forced to resign; Instead, it was the redrawing of the congressional map that sent him into the deep end of MAGA, leading him to conclude he couldn’t win the primary.

The filmmaker was clearly generous in reaching out to his subject in the tense period following the events of January 6 that led him to rebel against the majority of his party. “I naively thought there was no way people would not wake up from this,” Kinzinger said of that infamous day. He blames Donald Trump, of course, but he also blames Kevin McCarthy, whose kissy visit to Mar-a-Lago weeks later revitalized Trump’s political fortunes, if not more. He pointed out that after all, Trump is a “madman”, but McCarthy, a shrewd political operator, knows exactly what he is doing.

Kinzinger acknowledged that he absolutely did not want to serve on the Jan. 6 committee. “I thought, dear Jesus, it’s not me,” he recalled, but said when Pelosi tapped him, he couldn’t say no and only learned of it from her appearance on a Sunday morning political show . He admitted that she did call him ahead of time, but it was at 5 a.m. while he was sleeping.

The hearings naturally form the centerpiece of the film, and the footage inevitably feels eerily familiar. (Anyone interested in watching the documentary will probably do so avidly.) But the personal comments from Kinzinger and his wife, Sophia—who vividly describe her emotions as she watched the events of January 6 unfold in real time— Anxiety and fear for her husband’s life – which turned out to be quite interesting. She said she texted him to advise him to tell police they had won after harrowing testimony from several Capitol police officers. He agreed, tearfully reassuring them: “You win.” Naturally, his heartfelt sentiment was ridiculed by the likes of Newsmax and Tucker Carlson.

Kinzinger paid a high price for his bravery. We hear recorded phone calls to his office in which people threaten him and his family in the most vile language imaginable. He received handwritten letters from 11 family members disowning him and telling him he had joined “the devil’s army”. He was denounced by his own party, along with Liz Cheney. In the end, he was forced to implement 24-hour security at home. “Yeah, people want to kill me,” he commented deadpan. “Bad, right?”

Kinzinger’s lesser-known backstory is interesting, such as the fact that he has been obsessed with politics since childhood. He once dressed up as the governor of Illinois for Halloween and even turned his bedroom into a mock campaign office. As a child, he was a Civil War reenactor. “For the North,” he quickly pointed out.

An incident in his past proves that his courage started early. As a young man, he impulsively intervened in a late-night incident in which a man tried to stab his girlfriend in the street. Kinzinger was not injured in the fight, although he believes he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. There’s even surveillance footage of the tragedy, providing the emotional hook of a film that documentarians could only dream of.

The handsome, charismatic, eminently articulate politician was a natural subject for the camera (which is what made him a TV staple) and self-deprecatingly took pains to downplay his moral stances. “I don’t believe what I did was brave. I think it was just me being surrounded by cowards,” he said.

He also gave a fascinating account of how, after the impeachment vote, he tried to persuade the nine other Republican members of Congress who voted with him to join forces in an attempt to use the pause in corporate donations and Trump’s (interim) donations to regain control of the Republican Party. Others, he lamented, fell silent instead, resulting in missed opportunities. It goes without saying that we’ll probably pay the price this November.