Vice
01/02/19 Filed in: Cinema
Dick Cheney is a name I know but that's about as far as it goes. This film seeks to educate me, which indeed it did. The murky world of American politics is at best incomprehensible and at worst a cesspit of duplicity. And in Dick Cheney, if the story told in the film is to be believed, we are certainly well towards the duplicitous end of that spectrum.
In Cheney we're shown a Harvard dropout who after one last warning from his wife, Lynne, gets himself on a government intern programme, where he judiciously assigns himself to Donald Rumsfeld, another politician who operates at the wrong end of the spectrum. Loyal, astute and hungry to make good, Cheney does very well from this partnership. Distancing themselves from Nixon the two men come to the fore when Nixon resigns, Cheney becoming White House Chief of Staff and Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford. It all comes crashing down when Jimmy Carter is elected as president.
A spell in the House of Representatives follows. He gets there largely because his wife Lynne runs a spirited campaign while he is recovering from the first of a number of heart attacks. His campaigning style did in fact leave a lot to be desired, and the fact that Lynne stepped in probably saved the day. He serves as Secretary of Defense under George Bush senior but when the opportunity presents itself, decides not to run for the top job to protect one of his daughters, Mary, who has publicly come out as gay.
When Clinton is elected, Cheney becomes CEO of Halliburton, hardly surprising given his previous support for a raft of pro-business policies favouring the fossil fuel industry. This life is interrupted when George Bush junior, who is portrayed as not far short of being an idiot, asks him to run as Vice President. Initially Cheney rejects the idea, offering to scout for suitable people, but he finds that he can manipulate Bush so as to boost the power of the VP role, taking responsibility for such 'mundane' things as energy and foreign policy. With Rumsfeld as Bush's Secretary of Defense, we all know what followed. After 9/11 the Cheney-Rumsfeld partnership is shown to be both instigators and chief flag-wavers for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Part of their manoeuvring was to talk up a then little known al-Qaeda terrorist, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who we are told was so lionised by their propaganda that he went on to become the self-proclaimed Caliph of Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS). His presence in Iraq was used to link the country with al-Qaeda in support of the invasion, a superb own goal as it turned out.
And, as they say, the rest is fairly well-documented history, although we are shown how his non-gay daughter, Liz, destroys the relationship with her sibling when she publicly disowns same-sex marriage in order to win the race for Representative in Wyoming. Truly a chip off the old block!
This is not an easy film to watch. It attempts to get a lot of information across, concerning some pretty complex goings on in the halls of power. It jumps about a lot and although I wasn't too confused by this, I found that it interrupted the narrative and at times detracted from the enjoyment of the film. Christian Bale is almost unrecognisable as Cheney. I hope he finds it easier to lose that extra weight than I would! Amy Adams is her usual capable self as Cheney's wife Lynne, while Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush is very believable, and a remarkable likeness. Steve Carell as Rumsfeld conveys the deviousness of the man, which again may or may not be true. And on a final note, if only a fraction of what this film reports is true, then America has serious problems.
During the credits we're treated to a little cameo showing how the actions of these men, and their Administration, have had far-reaching effects on the sentiments of the American people. And now we have Trump, who you could say is the natural outcome from the seeds that Cheney & Co. sewed.
When Clinton is elected, Cheney becomes CEO of Halliburton, hardly surprising given his previous support for a raft of pro-business policies favouring the fossil fuel industry. This life is interrupted when George Bush junior, who is portrayed as not far short of being an idiot, asks him to run as Vice President. Initially Cheney rejects the idea, offering to scout for suitable people, but he finds that he can manipulate Bush so as to boost the power of the VP role, taking responsibility for such 'mundane' things as energy and foreign policy. With Rumsfeld as Bush's Secretary of Defense, we all know what followed. After 9/11 the Cheney-Rumsfeld partnership is shown to be both instigators and chief flag-wavers for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Part of their manoeuvring was to talk up a then little known al-Qaeda terrorist, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who we are told was so lionised by their propaganda that he went on to become the self-proclaimed Caliph of Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS). His presence in Iraq was used to link the country with al-Qaeda in support of the invasion, a superb own goal as it turned out.
And, as they say, the rest is fairly well-documented history, although we are shown how his non-gay daughter, Liz, destroys the relationship with her sibling when she publicly disowns same-sex marriage in order to win the race for Representative in Wyoming. Truly a chip off the old block!
This is not an easy film to watch. It attempts to get a lot of information across, concerning some pretty complex goings on in the halls of power. It jumps about a lot and although I wasn't too confused by this, I found that it interrupted the narrative and at times detracted from the enjoyment of the film. Christian Bale is almost unrecognisable as Cheney. I hope he finds it easier to lose that extra weight than I would! Amy Adams is her usual capable self as Cheney's wife Lynne, while Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush is very believable, and a remarkable likeness. Steve Carell as Rumsfeld conveys the deviousness of the man, which again may or may not be true. And on a final note, if only a fraction of what this film reports is true, then America has serious problems.
During the credits we're treated to a little cameo showing how the actions of these men, and their Administration, have had far-reaching effects on the sentiments of the American people. And now we have Trump, who you could say is the natural outcome from the seeds that Cheney & Co. sewed.