In Contention

Tag: politics

  • ‘W’: bush league?

    Josh Brolin is George W. Bush in WI need to tread gently here and if offend that is not my intention…at all.

    I am not an American but I’ve always been fascinated with American history and politics. While I would never presume to know more about America than its own people, I must admit I struggle with the idea of George W. Bush as president for many of the same reasons Americans do. All of the previous individuals who have held office in my lifetime possessed intelligence — it burned in their eyes — but I do not see that in President Bush at…all.

    Time Magazine did a feature about a year or so ago asking whether or not Bush was the worst US President in history and I believe he won by quite a margin.  Is he fodder enough for a film?  Should it be right now? Should it be directed by Oliver Stone?

    (more…)

  • Andrew Klavan, bastion of subtext, calls ‘Knight’ pro-Bush

    Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark KnightThe first I heard of this Andrew Klavan op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal was over at Awards Daily. I blew off the pathetic stretch for a parallel between Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and the disastrous administration of George W. Bush as just that, pathetic. This is, after all, the author of such seminally vacant thrillers as “True Crime” and “Don’t Say a Word” we’re talking about.

    Then I noticed Rupert Murdoch pop up on Keith Olbermann’s list of the “worst people in the world” in response to the mogul’s paper publishing the piece this week, and I figured I would give it a closer look.

    Good GOD what moronic copy. A taste of the absurdity:

    …like W, Batman understands that there is no moral equivalence between a free society — in which people sometimes make the wrong choices — and a criminal sect bent on destruction. The former must be cherished even in its moments of folly; the latter must be hounded to the gates of Hell.

    “The Dark Knight,” then, is a conservative movie about the war on terror. And like another such film, last year’s “300,” “The Dark Knight” is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.

    That’s right, he brings up the old (and equally stupid) “‘300’ is an allegory for the Bush administration” stand-by from over a year ago.

    Oh, you want some more? By all means:

    The moment filmmakers take on the problem of Islamic terrorism in realistic films, suddenly those values vanish. The good guys become indistinguishable from the bad guys, and we end up denigrating the very heroes who defend us. Why should this be?

    The answers to these questions seem to me to be embedded in the story of “The Dark Knight” itself: Doing what’s right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous. Many have been abhorred for it, some killed, one crucified.

    Alright, dear readers. Shake it off. I know the sheer ignorance is both deafening and infuriating. The sad thing is, Klavan has a thesis worth exploring in there somewhere. That it is buried in this partisan hogwash and sublimely inadequate reasoning within such a staunchly pro-conservative view point ironically reflects the very direct approach of liberal-minded filmmaking he’s apparently railing against. But you already knew that. You’re smarter than this…guy.

    Oh, but don’t blink, or you’ll miss Klaven stumble right past the entire point of “The Dark Knight” on the way to missing it completely, and manipulating it to his own ends:

    As Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon says of the hated and hunted Batman, “He has to run away — because we have to chase him.” That’s real moral complexity. And when our artistic community is ready to show that sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values…then and only then will we be able to pay President Bush his due and make good and true films about the war on terror.

    Wow, right? Then there’s this blurb at the bottom of the page:

    Mr. Klavan has won two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. His new novel, “Empire of Lies” (An Otto Penzler Book, Harcourt), is about an ordinary man confronting the war on terror.

    Can’t wait to see how morally complex that piece of shit will be. Now, I need to go to out to the driveway and grab my sun-faded copy of the Journal so that I can burn it properly.

    (Mr. Nolan — if you happen to be reading this — I implore you to rebut this nonsense in your own op-ed.)

  • Happy 4th

    It’s a bit odd celebrating it from London, but then again, Guy and I raised a drink to Canada Day on Tuesday with Gerard over in Covent Garden (the three of us lucked out and found ourselves in the same place at the same time this summer).

    Anyway, where our American readers may be, Happy 4th — and here’s to change.

  • In Berlin

    Sorry for the down time on my part. It’s been go, go, go since I landed in Berlin Friday. It’s back to London tomorrow morning, so I should be back on track.

    But to toss out a few random thoughts:

    1) Clinton’s “I’m finally getting out of the way” speech contained all the right words, but damn if she didn’t seem completely incapable of shielding the fact that she was swallowing some tough medicine.

    2) Berlin is one of the most agreeable cities I think I’ve been to in my life, and I can’t seem to place my finger on why. Despite the frequent bout of communication breakdown, I could easily see myself living here.

    3) I’ve been watching “Syriana” on my laptop when I can get a moment, a few minutes here, few minutes there. It’s the first time I’ve revisited the film since its 2005 release, and I have to say it is aging well in the face of the changing times. I never felt it to be an out-of-the-park effort, but it remains one of the more ambitious projects of the decade and, in its own way, a solid portrait from a dedicated filmmaker.

  • It is accomplished

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=Xxa0ihsoiYI

  • “Clobama”

    I hereby coin thee.

  • Have we finally put this thing to bed?

    From the Associated Press:

    Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, becoming the first black candidate to lead a major party into a campaign for the White House. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, signaled an interest in joining the ticket as running mate but stopped short of conceding to Obama or dropping out of the race.

    Obama arranged a victory celebration at the site of this summer’s Republican National Convention — an in-your-face gesture to Sen. John McCain, who will be his opponent in the race to become the nation’s 44th president.

    The 46-year-old Obama outlasted Clinton in a historic campaign that sparked record turnouts in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial and gender divisions within the party.

    And CNN:

    Sen. Hillary Clinton on Tuesday told New York lawmakers she is open to being the running mate of Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, two of the lawmakers told CNN.

    Sen. Hillary Clinton trails Obama by 159 delegates and is 201 delegates shy of capturing the nomination.

    Rep. Charles Rangel, a senior member of the New York Democratic delegation, also told CNN, “I have reason to believe she is open to the [vice president] slot.”

    One of the sources added that former President Clinton has been privately pushing for a couple of weeks for his wife to be No. 2 on the ticket.

  • Someone put Wolf out of my misery…

    He’s embarrassing himself, asking the same question over and over again when it’s clear the callers from Indiana just don’t have any insight into the matter.

  • Vulture takes a piss out of ole’ Dubya

    In my daily trek through the ranks of New York Magazine’s Vulture blog this afternoon (increasingly my favorite stop on the net), I came across a couple of posts ripping into our Commander in Chief (*shiver*).

    First up, a very insightful entry, actually, concerning how the evil leader of our gloriously broke and battered nation has come to be embraced with pity by pop culture, rather than accosted on appropriately venomous levels.

    Here’s a look:

    The two places that George W. Bush is showing up in pop culture this spring — besides, of course, taped appearances on game shows — confirm that the culture no longer views him as relevant to the discussion. The Times’ Dennis Lim refers to Bush’s depiction in this week’s stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantánamo Bay as “arguably the most sympathetic movie portrayal of him to date” — but apparently he hasn’t read the widely leaked early draft of the screenplay to Oliver Stone’s biopic. Both portrayals mostly bypass direct criticism of the president, substituting bemusement and — dare we say it? — affection. He’s not a bad guy, just an amiable buffoon — a figure to poke fun at, like an eccentric uncle, but not to revile.

    It’s admirable, in a way, that at his lowest point — with his popularity in the cellar and his political influence in the toilet — pop culture is willing to cut George W. Bush some slack. It’s also disheartening that the leader of the free world is so unimportant that even self-righteous Hollywood blowhards can’t be bothered to get angry at him.

    Also, the webmasters over there got a copy of that widely circulated “W” screenplay that Oliver Stone is hard at work filming down in the Bayou at the moment (or that was the plan last I checked). Along with the help of some of their buddies at the Upright Citizens Brigade, they filmed five scenes (just, you know, to give you an idea of how ridiculous this script really is).

    Take a look, if you can’t stomach it. And yes, “serious as dick cancer” is a line in this thing. Along with the now infamous “Freedom Fries” quip.

    Oy.

  • It’s go time…

    EDITED (6:09 p.m.): Well…that was fast. The power of negativity lives on as the old school triumphs one more day.

    EARLIER: Polls closed in Pennsylvania one second ago. Now we wait. Let’s hope the media doesn’t drop the ball here with exit polls like they did in New Hampshire.

  • Springsteen backs the Bamer

    Not that I needed a nudge toward Obama or anything. My days of indecision on which candidate to deem “my own” within the Democratic party are months behind me. But it’s nice on any day to see that The Boss is batting for your team.

    It’s kind of like when you know you’ve got that clutch slugger in the clean-up spot. With Pennsylvania on deck, having Jersey’s son step up to the plate couldn’t have come at a better time. Let’s hope he brings the Crazy Janys and Killer Joes of the Keystone State with him.

  • Reading “W”

    Boy, they sure are leaning on some hyperbolic recent dubya lore to push this thing along. I’m only about 50 pages in or so and already more than a few things turn me off about this script, but I’m also somewhat surprised that writer Stanley Weiser has gone the way of presenting Bush in such a deep character study.

    I’ll probably write up a “Page to Screen” article later in the fall. But I’m definitely looking forward to Josh Brolin in this role.

  • Can’t stop watching

    Not Oscar related, but what is in March? Win, lose or draw, this will be one of the all time greatest speeches. And I just keep watching it.

    httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo

  • Waxing politique

    Interviewing Viggo Mortensen last Thursday at the Four Seasons brought with it the inevitable political discussion, prompted by my referencing statements the actor had made calling for the impeachment of President Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The following is his political stance and word for word dissection of the administration. Though not pertaining to A History of Violence or film in the slightest, I feel it an important statement that deserves its own coverage. And I agree with every syllable:

    “What I don’t want is just for Bush to be impeached, because the last person I want in charge of the world is Cheney. He’s a total pirate. And this doesn’t have to do with left wing, right wing, it doesn’t have to do with democrat, republican, it’s about honesty. I know that politicians – that’s the way the business is, politics – most of them, at some point or another, act in a two-faced way, by necessity it seems, and that governments generally lie. But what Bush and his backers have done is so far beyond, in terms of lying consistently, over and over again. They’ve taken it to a whole other level, and at the risk of sounding crude, I guess I would ask you this. How can you justify having impeachment proceedings that are costly and extremely distracting to a president that is trying to run the country and deal with things like terrorism? How can you compare having impeachment proceedings against someone for lying about a private sexual encounter or encounters, with a guy who is taking the United States to hell in a hell basket? It’s just unbelievable.

    (more…)