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."

Using the Documentary 101 approach of intercutting interviews, video footage and location shots, Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck, who produced, wrote, filmed and edited, attempt to be the viewer's one-stop source of the campaign financing and state redistricting scandal that have inextricably linked the names Tom DeLay and Ronnie Earle.

The story is an old-fashioned Western set in the new-world jumble of big business and media warfare that politics has become. It's a duel between (now former) House Majority Leader DeLay and Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. But which one is the good guy and which is the bad depends on who's telling the story. And as the movie indicates in oh-so-many ways, such as the eerie tinkling of keyboards that plays whenever Mr. DeLay is on-screen, the white hat belongs to Mr. Earle and the black hat is worn by Mr. DeLay.

The Big Buy may not be Fahrenheit 9/11, but neither does it disguise its agenda. And that may be as good as it gets in this age of partisan politics – at least the film is forthright about where its makers are coming from. But that unapologetic partisanship underscores the central question and problem of The Big Buy: For whom and what is it intended?

It seems to presume an interest in the subject and a desire for more perspective and information on the part of would-be viewers, since there is almost zero entertainment or film-experience value to the movie beyond its subject. There's nothing here in terms of style or technique that you haven't seen before. Parts of The Big Buy are so basic as to have an almost public-access-TV quality to them. Nothing wrong with that, and it might have been wiser for the filmmakers to stick with that approach rather than accompany it with video montages. The cut-and-paste images have a goofy, kitschy quality that is out of step with the serious tone of the movie's message.

So is the movie made to rally believers or to persuade the opposition? It may do the former; it's hard to imagine it achieving the latter. To their credit, the filmmakers provide interviews that are contrary to the chorus of outrage and disbelief at Mr. DeLay's tactics. The two die-hard Republican women driving around Sugar Land in an SUV while discussing where their beloved party has gone wrong are priceless. But for the most part, the other side is represented by disclaimers saying that no one from the other side would talk to the filmmakers.

Perhaps the biggest problem is the timing of this movie's release – it seems exactly wrong. The first wave of the story has broken and receded and the second wave (Mr. DeLay's trial and a jury's verdict) is still out there. The question for The Big Buy is this: Can it sell a story that doesn't yet have an ending?

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