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By Joe Leydon Documakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck methodically assemble a damning case against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the pugnacious Texas Republican and former House majority leader who has been indicted on campaign fund-raising charges. Chief asset of the pic is its easy-to-grasp explanation of his alleged crime: DeLay (who, not surprisingly, refused to be interviewed by the filmmakers) is charged with breaking a Texas law that prohibits corporate donations to individual candidates. Full Review »
By Robert Wilonsky How Tom DeLay Stole Congress makes a better subtitle—not only because it's sexier, but because it's a more honest representation of a documentary laid out as a procedural in which Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle makes his case for big bidness corrupting Washington. Initially a doc about the journey to indict DeLay and his political action committee (Texans for a Republican Majority) for their successful attempts to redraw the state map without so many Dems clogging up the works, Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck's movie found its (happy?) ending with DeLay's indictment last fall and resignation this spring. It gives the doc a thriller-noir vibe, despite its abundance of talking heads prone to smirking whenever DeLay's damned or snarling whenever he's defended. The filmmakers capture a battle for the soul of a state and country; we're all damned, no matter our choice of red or blue, unless things change sooner than later, says a movie that will divide like nothing since Michael Moore took the nation's temperature.
By Jeannette Catsouls Propelled by lively interviews with a wide range of subjects, including the columnist Molly Ivins and the former Texas agriculture commissioner Jim Hightower, "The Big Buy" is a rough-hewn and melodramatic attack that nevertheless presents its evidence clearly and with a welcome sense of humor. Though Mr. DeLay's grinning image is plastered all over the film (he refused to be interviewed), the real star is the Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle. Full Review »
By Mark Hinson ..for anyone who gets a kick out of watching messy, crazy-as-a-cut-snake politics in Texas, "The Big Buy" is more feisty and fun than a drunken barbecue in Beaumont. Politics-wise, the Lone Star State makes the Sunshine State look like a model of decency and sportsmanship. Full Review »
By Robert Philpot Birnbaum and Schermbeck begin their film with two women, lifelong Republicans, driving around DeLay's home base of Sugar Land, talking about their love of the GOP but dislike of DeLay. The exchange comes off as contrived, almost scripted, but the filmmakers soon find a groove and methodically construct their case against DeLay, whom they charge with misusing corporate funds and engineering the 2003 redistricting of Texas to give Congress a Republican majority. Does The Big Buy have an agenda of its own? Burka, who appears in the film, makes the point in his Texas Monthly article that DeLay has a target on his back -- one his own zeal and excesses put there. B. Full Review »
By Tom Maurdstad For a documentary that is largely self-financed by a pair of Texas filmmakers, The Big Buy has gotten a lot of press. It's been the subject of articles and comments in national magazines and newspapers and on news telecasts and Web sites. And that's before its release. That's what happens when you decide to tell a tale of political corruption as that story is breaking in the headlines, which brings us to The Big Buy's subtitle, "Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress." Full Review »
By Moriarty The film itself does a very good job of being "Texan", the state where multimillion-dollar oil barons can be seen at the HEB wearing snakeskin cowboy boots and a red shirt with fringe. The Big Buy captures the strange dichotomy of the Wild West and the international business center that is the Texas identity ... a satisfying movie that does not feel like homework, and it also has an air of "reasonable" that is missing from a film like Fahrenheit 9/11. Full Review » The Capital Times By Rob Thomas While "Big Buy" could have gotten away with being a one-sided hatchet job, filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck seem to bend over backward to give DeLay's supporters screen time to defend him, and to clearly lay out the case against him ... There's a lot of juicy anecdotes surrounding DeLay and his operation, but the filmmakers are probably wise to keep "The Big Buy" quick and clean, focusing on the tussle between two larger-than-life enemies in DeLay and Earle. Full Review » The Movie Chicks By Cherryl Dawson This film certainly encourages you to learn more and trust less – and makes you wonder whatever happened to government ‘by the people, for the people. If the aim of this documentary is to rile people up, then it’s effective. It’s nearly impossible to sit and watch all this footage about the corruption of government and abuse of power and not get stirred up. Full Review » One Guy's Opinion By Frank Swietek The rise and--especially--the fall of Tom DeLay is the subject of this cheeky documentary, a sort of David-and-Goliath tale that pits the powerful Washington congressman against Austin D.A. Ronnie Earle, whose indictment of the Republican Majority Leader on a variety of election-law violations in Texas ultimately brought “The Hammer” down for good. For some viewers, it will be a simple hatchet-job; for others, a joy to watch. The truth is, it’s both. Full Review » | ||
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