Filmmaker R J Cutler seems to be establishing something of a career out of making documentaries of self-centred stubborn arrogant people who have no respect for their colleagues and totally disregard their viewpoint. His last one was on Anna Wintour in ‘The September Issue’ and apart from her dress sense and her political views, she seems to have a lot in common with this manipulative egotistical man
I’ll fess up straight away that as a dyed in the wool Democratic that my opinion about Dick Cheney is as partisan as the current crop of Republicans in the Senate, but I was fascinated to try to learn what made this man tick as he has unquestionably been the one Vice President in history who successfully carved himself a very real slice of power.
Cheney came from humble beginnings in Wyoming and managed to flunk out of Yale twice, and by the age of 21 years old had been arrested for DUI, also twice. He married his childhood sweetheart Lynne who made him get his act together and over an extended period finally graduated from the University of Wyoming. (Not mentioned in the movie is at the time he got 6 deferments from the Draft and thus avoided fighting in the Vietnam War.)
His political rise was meteoric and on his mentor Donald Rumsfeld’s coat tales went from advising the Secretary of Defense to become the youngest White House Chief of Staff when he served President Ford. Cheney & Rumsfeld featured constantly in each other’s lives right up to the end of the last Bush Administration by which time their roles had reversed and Cheney was the Boss.
By the time George H. Bush was elected President, Cheney had been a Congressman for several terms and was more than happy enough resign his seat to accept the offer to become the next Secretary of Defense, when Bush’s first choice John Tower could not get confirmed by the Senate. During his tenure at Defense, Cheney oversaw the invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East, for which Bush Snr. awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
When Clinton was in the White House, Cheney scurried off to the private sector to make himself a tidy fortune, but when George W. Bush decided to run for President he enlisted Cheney to head up his Vice President search team. Cheney put all the candidates through the wringer and demanded unprecedented medical, financial and personal records that went back years and years. As they all fell by the wayside one by one Bush, ‘persuaded’ Cheney to stand, and without subject himself to the same rigorous demands or disclosing all his heart problems or his DUI charges, he accepted. I suppose with Bush’s own drinking history, the latter fact would not have been any stumbling block anyway.
The most extraordinary and scary revelation came next when it was revealed that after the Gore/Bush Election debacle when both of the would-be Presidents were distracted watching Katherine Harris, Florida’s Secretary Of State ensuring that Bush was the victor, Cheney was up in Washington in sole control of selecting the next Cabinet which Bush confirmed with only minor changes when he finally came back in to town.
In Cutler’s film, Cheney makes neither the slightest apology or defence of the fact that as V.P. he was a very key figure in the decision to invade Iraq based on the most spurious of ‘information’, and that he was a (the?) major advocate of all the various torture methods. In fact in all the lengthy interviews he did for this movie, he never hesitates in stating his view/opinion brimming over with confidence because even when the entire Cabinet sided against him (as they increasingly did in Bush Jnr’s second Term) he still knew that they were ALL wrong. Even when confronted by confirmed facts that disproved his point entirely, he still calmly and unhesitatingly refused to acknowledge the truth. He is either the best actor ever to occupy the VP ‘s office, or one of the biggest prevaricators the White House has ever seen (no mean feat that!).
I think one of the (many) scary facts that you track from this profile is that Cheney total indifference to the fact that he never ever accepted responsibility or blame for any of the myriad of mistakes that the Bush Jnr Administration made. When confronted with the fiasco of the W.M.D when it was confirmed they never existed even though they has been the reason to justify the war with Iraq, Cheney simply changed ‘the essence of the message’. He stated (and Bush repeated) that ‘Saddam had the will and the intent to make nuclear weapons’ and that was still enough justification for starting the War. Even when it spiralled out of control and civil war erupted, and insurgents started killing countless American troops, Cheney very noticeably blamed EVERYONE else for this.
This very belligerent and annoying man is a very complex character and with a wealth of parts of his story never touched on …. like his lesbian daughter’s wedding and his about turn on some gay rights, or his real involvement with Scooter Libby’s downfall etc. …. this should have been a mini-series and not just a 90 min. movie. But like George W Bush at the end of his 2nd Term, I too was so really pissed with this man, that like the ex President I would also be more than happy if I never had to see him again.
Good film, but instead of taking a box of kleenex that I often encourage you take, try a box of over-ripe tomatoes as you will so want to hurl them at the screen. This is actually a Showtimes Presentation and will be heading for the small screen in the US sometime in March.
★★★★★★★★★
Labels: biography, documentary, political, Sundance
