Posts tagged George Bush
Fair Game – Movie Trailer
Nov 18th
The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman teams with screenwriters Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth to streamline Joseph Wilson’s and Valerie Plame’s books detailing the explosive outing of undercover CIA agent Plame into a tense docudrama thriller starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. At the time her cover was blown by the George W. Bush administration, Plame (Watts) was combing Iraq for evidence of weapons of mass destruction as part of the CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division. Her husband, American diplomat Joe Wilson was attempting to verify a claim that the Iraqis had recently purchased enriched uranium from Niger when the White House began beating the war drums before any solid evidence had been gathered. When Joe penned an editorial in The New York Times decrying the hasty call to war, a prolific Washington, D.C. journalist took the opportunity to reveal Plame’s identity as a CIA operative, an act that not only put her career in jeopardy, but also left her various contacts overseas in a precarious position. Years later, a jobless and publicly disgraced Plame wages a vicious fight to clear her name, set the record straight, and keep her family from falling apart.
“Fair Game” The Target, Not Spying
Nov 17th
“The Target, Not Spying”
FAIR GAME tells the real-life story of an incredibly serious incident that happened in recent history that is not talked about anymore and unfortunately seems to be on its way to becoming forgotten.
This is unfortunate, because what happened was so serious that the law makes committing it a crime punishable by death.
Ironically, the law was passed during the administration of President George H.W. Bush, former CIA head.
The crime? Exposing the identity of an undercover CIA agent.
And just to make matters more intriguing, a case has already been made that Bush the son was obsessed with outshining his father’s accomplishments and might have invaded Iraq in 2003 because his father had failed to do so in 1991 during the First Gulf War.
The events of this movie are the background for the reasons stated at the time that led Bush the son to invade Iraq.
The subjects who were involved were CIA agent Valerie Plame, played so well by Naomi Watts, and her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, played just as well by Sean Penn.
The movie begins shortly after 9/11 with some stock footage of Vice President Dick Cheney saying to the camera, “We will take whatever action is necessary to defend our security and our freedom.”
What he doesn’t say, but what turned out to be the case is “even if it is illegal.”
Then we see scenes of the professional life and family life of Valerie, who was an expert on the Middle East, but she cannot tell Joe where she has been or what she has done. They communicate by Post-It notes on the refrigerator.
Because of his qualifications and familiarity with Africa, Joe is asked by the CIA to go to Niger to investigate if Saddam Hussein were obtaining uranium from there for his nuclear-weapons program, and Joe’s report is that Hussein was not.
That is not what President Bush said in his infamous State of the Union address, Iraq was invaded, Joe wrote an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES entitled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” and in retaliation the White House leaked that Valerie worked for the CIA.
FAIR GAME refers to the target and not to spying, and it is a great movie that should never be forgotten for its subject matter and its message.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“W.” Greek Tragicomedy
Oct 24th
Greek Tragicomedy
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
W. is an outstanding film by Oliver Stone that should be seen by everyone regardless of political affiliation or how you did or didn’t vote in any election.
And I don’t mean because of its subject matter, which is a dramatization of the adult life of President George W. Bush. I mean because of the outstanding performances of the actors.
Josh Brolin has a lock on an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of “Bush 43,” if not on the award itself. Richard Dreyfuss could easily get one for his portrayal of Dick Cheney. Elizabeth Banks is tremendous as Laura Bush, and the list just goes on and on, including Toby Jones as Karl Rove, the advisor who sits on Bush’s shoulder and tells him what to do.
Just don’t expect a hatchet job, which would be too easy, given the subject matter and the emotions caused by the years of the Bush Administration.
Instead, expect a well-made film about a fascinating person who didn’t exactly have greatness thrust upon him so much as grabbing greatness with his own two hands and wrapping it around his weak, undeserving shoulders.
The film begins in 2002 as President Bush and his advisors struggle to come up with his notorious “Axis of Evil” phrase. Then it shifts back to 1966, and we watch “George College” at his drunken fraternity pledge week impress the brothers with his ability to name the active members and give them clever nicknames.
The story then continues to shift back and forth between Bush’s presidency and his younger years of trying to find a career for himself and pleasing his father, a theme that runs throughout the film.
When George meets Laura for the first time, he tells her, “Call me anything but ‘Junior.'”
There are obvious strains between George and his father, whom George calls “Poppy.”
There is nothing new to be learned, and the only scenes of fancifulness are a few showing that George would rather have had a career in baseball than in politics. Also, there is the strong implication that George’s drinking problem had a lot to do with shaping him and preventing him from succeeding at anything.
So, think of the film as a tremendous dramatization of someone we have already come to know and love or hate.
W. is the stuff of Greek tragicomedy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
