DICK CHENEY AND THE FILM ' VICE'

THE FILM VICE - A BIOPIC ABOUT POWER
VICE is one more film that comes marching out of the garbage can of American political history. It is not for me to place Dick Cheney, a once vice-president of the United States of America into a category of any sort - good, bad or something worse - as this film clearly does.

Written and directed by Adam McKay where sometimes the words are in short supply and certain scenes are clipped short. Media announcements are added in together with the unforgettable planes being flown into the twin towers. The question that I ask is this. Is this a film about one man or about the state of the world in which we live? Okay, Dick Cheney is the vehicle on which this film moves on. And I suppose it is which side of politics you inhabit would depend upon whether you loathe this or hate it. What concerns me is where the dividing line between truth and fiction falls. Or maybe it is all true!

There is nothing pleasant about this film, but at times there is humour. In fact it is listed as ‘biographical comedy drama’, but for the most part I took it seriously as it is scary.

Cheney, as shown in the film, was a wild character that became a man seeking power which he obtained by subterfuge. He sees the ‘Vice’s’ job as a nothing job, but changes it when he talks George Bush Jnr. into letting him have the offices that holds the power. He re-writes the law too.
There it is; all that power without being president.

There are domestic scenes that play out well and there is love too. Also there is the dark side of human relations with the in-laws and a clear indication of abuse and an un-investigated death of his wife’s mother. There were scenes where love was apparent particularly when his daughter declared her sexuality and in the death scene. I liked the way a working man was chosen to give us some facts and to talk us through a few sequences. That was a nice touch.

The events depicted show how easy it was to go to war and the brief scenes of prisoner brutality are both excused as it was to combat terror. I wish that I had the heart to say that the world is in a better place for it.