About

You can stream Tanner '88 (1988) on Criterion Channel with a subscription.

In 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics.

Robert Tanner navigates a manufactured political identity that blurs the line between genuine leadership and a scripted media circus. This satirical experiment captures the exact moment when television spectacle began to swallow the American presidency whole.