HBO's John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls cared too much about spit-shining McCain's image rather than giving insight into his life

The Outline

"The adulatory tone of the documentary’s description carries over to the film, which is almost entirely narrated by McCain himself and 'illuminates' very little other than that the senator thinks he kicks ass, and his friends and family agree," says Alex Nichols. "He’s a maverick, he sticks to his guns, he puts country above party — if you were alive in 2008, you know the drill. The whole endeavor of enshrining McCain’s life on film at this late a date is a bit paradoxical; the point is clearly to spit-shine his public image, but writing his own hagiography from his deathbed ends up making him appear insecure and self-involved. But this duality has always been central to McCain’s character. There is the soldier McCain, stoic and individualistic, and then there is the politician McCain, who would do just about anything to get positive media coverage."