I can dream, can't I?
The movie opens with demonstrations against Bush as he visits Chicago in 2007. As he leaves a hotel after delivering a speech, he is shot by a sniper in a nearby building. A police hunt leads to the arrest of a Palestinian man on flimsy evidence. Later the man is convicted of the assassination and kept in prison even as evidence points to another person as having committed the crime. "The reaction of the general public was very good," Range said in an interview with Reuters about the opening night response.
Commentary
Between a fictional Josiah Bartlett and an equally fictional President Dick Cheney, putative future assassin of George Bush in "Death of a President" can be glimpsed a deep yearning for an alternative reality. And those who yearn for it will be well for as long as they can distinguish between fiction and reality. But the real danger of persistent fantasy is to the fantasist himself; in the moment when he can no longer distinguish between desire and deed; between pretense and actuality; when an ever larger dose of daydreaming is required simply to get through the day. Some people think that reality is all about the message. The message of September 11 is that it did not exist. The message of the present is that it should not exist. Take two aspirins and see your doctor in the morning.
posted by wretchardthecat at 9/12/2006 09:18:00 PM
20 Comments:
I can see this movie spurring some whacko over the edge.
Let me guess, the real killer isn't a Middle Eastern terrorist, it's a National Rifle Association member from Katy, Texas.
According to the fictional Necromonger religion, "life in this universe is a mistake which must be corrected". And I can see how this outlook can have a certain appeal. But wait: is it a fictional religion?
Swinish, ugly. Like the 911 conspiracy buffs, promoted by moral idiots who have no idea that they stand for something, stand with something, very very bad.
I am frankly surprised that the attempt hasn't already been made, I've been expecting it for several years. The secret service must be plenty busy, and damn competent too.
And those who yearn for it will be well for as long as they can distinguish between fiction and reality. But the real danger of persistent fantasy is to the fantasist himself; in the moment when he can no longer distinguish between desire and deed; between pretense and actuality; when an ever larger dose of daydreaming is required simply to get through the day. Some people think that reality is all about the message.
Fantastic! You've finally realized that the Bush administration's foreign policy has been an utter disastrous, and needs immediate correction.
geek, you're right. national interests, and right-and-wrong, should never drive foreign policy.
"My personal safety from nutjobs" is what should determine a great nation's president's policy.
One wonders what would happen to leftist media, especially Channel 4, if this movie does actually incite an assassination.
Sadly, I've been assuming that if any assassination were to occur, it would be accomplished not by any of the "usual suspects". Instead, I think the murder would be accomplished by an upper middle class son of privilege (probably White Anglo-Saxon Protestant from New England) who has become a true believer in the thesis that Bush is the new Hitler. Such a man would be inspired by the Channel 4 "documentary" to not only kill the President, but also recruit one of his friends to kill the Vice President so our nation would then be "saved" by President Pelosi.
The problem, though, with the Democratic Party gaining power in this way is that it would be drinking from a poisoned chalice. Either the public would recoil in disgust and horror at the Left's embrace of assassination or the tactic of the media painting a target for lone geeks to kill would be adopted by outfits other than Channel 4. Or both.
Please note there are occasional authors who imagine apocalyptic scenarios but who don't print them in public even at the cost of personal poverty and lack of prestige because they are responsible citizens. I am well aware how easy it would be to write a book (such as "The Turner Diaries" or "V for Vendetta") inciting some lone nut to blow up newspapers, television stations, and movie studios.
"I don't need to kill anyone. I think it." -- Charles Manson
I'm reminded somehow of the magical typewriter from "Sabrina the Teenage Witch".
What's next? A new game or literary competition where the object is to write a novel, short story, or screen play imagining the murder of someone the author doesn't like?
Sabrina's aunt's magical typewriter does give a new definition to the concept of "Murder She Wrote"...
They're just so mind-numbingly stupid.
"Bush's foreign policy" is itself a cultic slogan, a zombie password.
Liberating 60 million people from sadistic homicidal tyrants?
Fighting back against a quarter-century of armed attacks against his nation?
Stimulating a global economy lifting literally billions of people into better, happier, more secure lives?
"Oh, yeah, man, that Bush's foreign policy really sucks, maaaaan."
Complete idiots. No clue. Far more despicable than the terrorists themselves, who are at least fighting, rather than laying back in the lap of luxury biting the hands that feed them.
I believe Mr. Range thought it absurd that anybody could possibly be motivated to carry out his fantasy. Besides, many movies have revolved around assassination, and he consulted with the FBI and the Chicago PD when filming it, so it's legitimate.
This has to be the first time a film about assassinating a non-fictionalized president has been released while said president was still in office.
Yet another new low.
a good title for it might be
"What Was He THINKING?"
I don't think I'm hurting anyone's feelings by posting spoilers here, but in the movie a Syrian man is eventually found, tried and convicted at the killer. However, the movie goes on to show that the real killer was a the parent of a black soldier killed in Iraq.
Just incase you're keeping score:
1) To quick to judge Arabs
2) Oppressed American minority
3) Aggrieved parent of soldier
From other plot synopsi I have read, there is more of the same in there. In fact, Cheney comes of as a real Darth Vader. I'd kind of like to see the movie because it sounds real campy.
Cincy Sheehan will be inspired I'm sure. All this mucking about with agitprop... could've had a V8!
better watch that dissin' Cheney, Elam.
He's subject to "taking you hunting down in Texas", you know.
When the democrats came out against path to 911, it came to me that the reason they objected so strongly was because they wanted to get the message out the the faithful "don't watch this movie".
In the same vein, I wonder if this is somehow red meat for the faithful.
Joe Buzz, I know what he was thinking: "If the President of the United States of America can't molest the interns, who CAN?"
elam bend,
Just incase you're keeping score:
1) To quick to judge Arabs
2) Oppressed American minority
3) Aggrieved parent of soldier
I'm keeping score and I'll give it a perfect, politically correct 10. It clearly rates higher than the recent movie Flight Plan in which 4 Arab Muslim men are wrongly suspected and a Stewardess and the Air Marshall turn out to be the terrorists. I only give it a 9, because it doesn't include the parent of an American soldier among the villians.
These movies are clearly made for consumption by the self-loathers on the left. You know the ones whose vehicles display the "Worlds Greatest Terrorist" bumper sticker with a picture of GWB on it.
The chasm between the realities of those on the left and those on the right contiues grow.
If Bush is killed, I fear for the United States - it will be a step towards Civil War in this country.
It would have the same effect as John Brown's Raid did in radicalizing the South.
As per: 'The Secret Service must be really busy'
One, Dick Cheney is a kind of assassination insurance. But that wouldn't deter a real whacko.
Two, the Secret Service makes sure all the whacko protestors have to do their whacko protesting somewhere at a reasonable non-charge-attacking distance away from the president. It makes it hard for them to hide amongst their own crowd and run out suddenly.
Three, GWB looks to take wearing his protective gear seriously - if you recall that 'strange back bulge at the debate' kerfluffle take another look. Ask yourself if it's not caused by a bulletproof vest under there.
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