Former U.S. congressman Adam Kinzinger was among the 10 Republicans who voted in impeach former U.S. president Donald Trump for instigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. In The Last Republican (premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival), Kinzinger allowed director Steve Pink to document the impact of Kinzinger’s stance against Trump, including being pushed out of his political party, his family losing their social circle and receiving terrifying death threats.
“I’ve always been a political junkie and interested in telling a political story,” Pink told Yahoo Canada about what compelled him to make a documentary about Kinzinger. “At first Adam Kinzinger, being a conservative Republican, wouldn’t be a story I’d be even remotely be interested in as a far left progressive.”
“But in the wake of Jan. 6 and standing up to Donald Trump and his party, he sacrificed a lot. Sacrificed his friendships and family and his career, and I really admired that. So I had to kind of reconcile in my head, on the one hand, the idea that there is this person out there whose political views I oppose, and on the other, that same person is doing something that I really admired. And it was through that, that I kind of realized that there’s a film to be made.”
It’s clear from the start of the documentary that Kinzinger and Pink are aware they don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on many issues.
“You have contempt for what I believe.” Kinzinger tells Pink at the beginning of the film. “I think in any other situation, you probably would be protesting my office.”
“That’s kind of mean,” Pink says in response.
But there is one area where they have common ground and that’s a love for Pink’s 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine, with Kinzinger calling it a “cinematic masterpiece.”
“That became a common ground for us, to have a shared sense of humour,” Pink said. “I didn’t actually know that he loved Hot Tub Time Machine before we started working together, so that was a really great surprise.”
‘I do think he hopes his party wakes up’
While much of the film is set around the aftermath of Kinzinger’s stance on Trump and the Jan. 6 insurrection, it also documents Kinzinger’s interesting backstory that has shaped who he is today, including a traumatic incident when Kinzinger fought a man attempting to stab his girlfriend on the street.
“I thought I was making a movie about a guy who sacrificed his career, but in the moment he talks about that event in his life, he also talks about his desire not to lose his willingness to serve,” Pink highlighted. “The thing he didn’t want to sacrifice is his willingness to go and help in any circumstance, and to not become cynical in the face of overwhelming obstacles. … That became what the film was about.”
“He really deeply didn’t want to lose that part of himself that he felt slipping away by virtue of the difficult experience of being thrown out of his party and losing his social circle. … He still didn’t want to become cynical and lose that part of himself that wanted to help.”
As we hear Kinzinger says in the documentary, “I’m not the one that’s changed, the Republican Party has changed.” And now we see he has endorsed Kalama Harris in the upcoming election. But Pink highlights that, as we see in the film, Kinzinger has been a passionate Republican his whole life.
“He has such a love of the party. He grew up being a Republican. I think he’s in a tough spot,” Pink said. “I think the party obviously has left him behind, the party has transformed itself into a cult, essentially, at least largely transformed itself into a cult, and has seemingly given up its value system in the name of its pursuit of power.”
“I mean, that’s how it appears to me. I think it appears to Adam that way as well. Remember, it’s in your job description to uphold and defend the Constitution. That’s the oath you take. And so I think what was the most shocking to Adam is that all of his colleagues immediately violated their oath of office. And I think that’s his starting point. … I think he’s going to respect any Republican who upholds their oath … and I do think he hopes his party wakes up. He even says in the movie that he hopes it will continue to be a viable political party, but that’s hard to see.”
‘It’s kind of incumbent upon all of us to not villainize the other side’
Watching this film at a time where the world feels particularly divisive, also coming up on a U.S. election, The Last Republic really proves that the only way forward is to find a way to have constructive discourse.
“I am absolutely … convinced, after making the film, the way forward is figuring out how to have conversations and engage socially with people you disagree with, and deeply disagree with,” Pink stressed. “I think that people should go out there and find the person you most disagree with and have a conversation with them, and give them grace.”
“The other thing I learned is, because we all have this desire to either prove your own point is correct, or convince them by virtue of proving your point that they change their view and come over to the other side, I think we have to stop that. I think we have to understand that we’re going to have political differences, we’re going to have differences in the way we view life and we have to give each other grace anyway. Understand that we are going to have disagreements, but through just engaging in and of itself, is the way we, I think, get to a better society. I think it’s kind of incumbent upon all of us to not villainize the other side.”