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Old February 2nd, 2019 #1
steven clark
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 2,277
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This is a bio film I saw along with The Favorite, and is about Dick Cheney. The director, Adam McKay, wants to show how evil and rotten Cheney is, and I was never a Cheney fan. When I wrote a screenplay a few years ago, a female character says to her male antagonist:'You're too obedient. Would you jump off a cliff if someone told you to?' he replied 'Only if I was George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney told me to.'

So I'm not a fan of Cheney. I really detested all the crap over 9-11 and Iraq. However, I kind of liked the movie. Cheney, played by Christian Bale, comes out, yes, as a scheming monster ready to take over the government and start wars through some fine print he found, but he begins as a decent if unfocused guy in Wyoming. He's a telephone lineman, drinks too much, and Lynne, his wife (Amy Adams), tells him to shape up or else. he does, and goes to Washington. He comes under the wing of Rumsfield (Steve Carrell...who seems to make a career out of playing assholes) and Wolfowitz (Eddie Marson), and so becomes inducted into the evil cabal of GOP conservatives.
Mckay plays it that way. As if we're too stupid to get it, he has many inserts and bits of info of how this GOP leader and that GOP policy leads to corruption, evil, etc. Reminds me of Roger Moore's lefty rants, and the film has a narrator who eventually shows us Cheney's ultimate sin...taking the narrator's heart when he dies, so Cheney can have a new heart in an operation.
Well, I detest Cheney, Bush and all of them, but it's absurd saying not one word about the corrupt left assholes in DC, and Mckay happily gives clips of Rush Limbaugh and Trump as...well, VNNers, you get it by now.

But again, McKay shows a human side to Cheney I like. He and his wife have a strong marriage, and she goes to bat for him when he campaigns in Wyoming. Amy Adams is in high form, reminding me that Hollywood detests her playing good, wholesome characters...I'm sure they're pushing Amy to play alongside some black guy.
A scene in bed where Cheney and Lynne start speaking Shakespeare (Macbeth), is hilarious and worth the price of admission. Also, one of their daughters is gay, and Cheney accepts it, although when running for office, he keeps it quiet. I thought it was a human touch Mckay probably didn't intend except to show how EVIL he is in not going whole hog for gay rights.
Also interesting is Sam Rockwell's George W. Bush, shown as a drunk, then running for office, and kind of dim but energetic when he pumps Cheney to run as his veep...which will enable Cheney to acquire secret power to rule the world, etc.
It reminded me of a National Lampoon bit years ago where Claude Brinnegear, the Secretary of transportation, was shown plotting to get into power as his boss Nixon was sinking...'just 14 heartbeats away from the presidency.'
Again, I found the story of Cheney as a human being likable, and the prevalent way of showing conservatives as monsters kind of silly. It would be nice to show how the Deep State really works, or all of the leftist assholes who are just as crappy, but of course JFK, Clinton, Obama, etc., are always the holy ones, although last year's movie Chappaquiddick did some good equal time on the Kennedys.
I wish Mckay had dumped the little inserts and just told the story without nudging us 'see how nasty these guys are? SEE??'
 
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