THE DUST BUSTER

"From now on you can call me the "Dust Buster." I'm stronger than dirt." - Libby Holden (Kathy Bates)

Kathy Bates truly deserved an Oscar for her performance in Mike Nichols’s 1998 comedy-drama Primary Colors, which I still believe is one of the best political movies of all time. In the film, Bates plays Libby Holden, a political consultant working for Jack Stanton (John Travolta, essentially playing Bill Clinton) and his wife Susan (Emma Thompson as Hillary). Her role is to uncover any past scandals in Stanton’s private life and to prepare for surprise attacks from political opponents who seek to weaponise his secret affairs during his campaign to run for the White House.

What’s remarkable about Bates’s performance is how she manages to bring a moral centre to the satire, using humour, pathos, sadness and melancholy. This role showcases the full range of her talent as she embodies a complex, multidimensional character who is deeply committed to holding Stanton and the Democratic Party to a higher ethical standard than their Republican opponents—yet understands, ultimately, this may be a futile ambition. As the Stantons drift further from their core principles in pursuit of power in Washington, Libby remains their conscience, akin to Jiminy Cricket, tirelessly fighting their corner while her faith in Jack inevitably erodes as she finds herself unable to stomach the senator's mounting hypocrisy. As she wades deeper through Stanton’s moral turpitude in a bid to help him secure the presidency, even her moral pragmatism eventually finds its limits and when her breaking point finally arrives, it irrevocably shifts the film’s tone from comedy to tragedy.