What is worse than the assassination of George W. Bush? Having to talk about President Cheney. Especially since he wouldn't be term limited. Let's say that Laura Bush's loss would be one hell of a gain for The Dick. That's the scariest image to come out of this movie.
I am so glad I was given the opportunity by Newmarket Films to watch it. I actually was thisclose to leaving the theater after seeing the first 15 minutes. The way everything was set up, with "activists" being painted as freakazoid Bush haters really pissed me off. Then, the movie throws us an interesting monkey wrench : the honest FBI agent.
Given this is a fictional documentary, all the characters address the camera a-la Frontline [1]. Meaning, the acting is low key, restrained and as "objective" as possible. This may be why the movie rubs people the wrong way. The possible actions laid out in the aftermath of this fake assassination are as credible as the material evidence of history has shown us. Can you see Dick Cheney ... I mean, President Dick Cheney rallying the hawks to go after Syria? Yup. How about stoking the chilling flames of fear and terror to get a newer and tougher Patriot Act? You betcha.
This impassive portrayal of the possible outcomes is what makes the movie so chilling. The subject may be sensationalistic but the movie, as an end result, is a cautionary tale.
With the honest FBI agent --a man searching for objective answers, not political sound-bites-- the narratives begin to unravel and intertwine at the same time. Assumptions we had of "who did it" get broadsided with each new character introduced into the picture.
I am not going into all the details of the movie, especially since we do end up knowing who kills the president. This outcome, is so pivotally anti-climatic that you need to see the movie to fully appreciate why it happens with a bang but without fanfare.
Yet, there's the making of the movie.
The movie is actually a classic whodunnit. Agatha Christie would have been proud. What is groundbreaking is the execution of the movie. By using edited real-life footage and sound archives of Bush, his cabinet and current events, the cinematography and editing are nothing short of groundbreaking.
Contrary to the opinion of some, what is most interesting about this movie is what is almost left unsaid.
For example, real footage of Bush is intertwined with fake footage of surveillance cameras found in the area where Bush is fakely assassinated. The assumption being that this fake surveillance footage is not only harvested from the very real security videos found in most commercial videos. What I have not seen discussed yet in reviews about this movie is reference to the fake surveillance footage that would supposedly come from Chicago's very real city surveillance cameras.
Cameras filming Chicagoans every move, in part thanks to the Patriot Act [2]. Cameras that are the pride and joy of its Mayor :
Security and terrorism won't be an issue if Chicago wins the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games because, by that time, there'll be a surveillance camera on every corner, Mayor Daley said Wednesday.
"By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras," Daley said.
"By 2016, I'll make you a bet. We'll have [cameras on] almost every block."
Source [3]
The fact that this seemingly small detail has yet to be discussed by reviewers points to what the director, Gabriel Range, has said about Americans' changing attitudes towards civil liberties. It's obvious we have experienced an enourmous cultural shift when critics have not pick up on how the cinematographic play on real and fake surveillance video footage points to a larger political problem in this country.
The US has morphed into a culture that celebrates the Rodney King videos, Paris Hilton'sex videos or the Big Brother TV show. All celebrated at the same time it finds The Patriot Act necessary, considers using RFID chips on their kids, thinks it's cute to have surveillance cameras spying on their nannies or snoops through their kids closets --because they can. A culture that has turned people watching into a sport and --until it is done to them without warrant or notice by the NSA. The "good intentions" towars privacy are absolutely opposite to Americans actual actions on privacy.
"What I wanted to do with this film was offer another perspective on what’s happened in the last five years, and look at how the war on terror, and the invasion of Iraq is changing America", wrote Gabriel Range about his movie. Well, he has most definitely outline how our present could give us a truly repressive government with this horrendous "what-if".
That's what's most satisfying about this movie. Yes, it has its eye-rolling moments and, as much as the editing is Oscar-worthy, to the trained voice-over ear, you can tell where in some instances (as when President Cheney gives his eulogy to Shrub), you can tell were the sewing of fact and fiction happens. Overall? The movie really lays out how this country is barrelling down a point of constitutional no return in a very democratic, very culturally "forward" sort of way.
Go watch it --and right after you do so, add your review to this one.
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