September 01, 2006
Gabriel Range's Clone War
The blogosphere is quite abuzz over a British-made mock documentary that envisions a world in the wake of the assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush, where an Emporer Palpatine-like President Dick Cheney institutes a totalitarian government in the United States that instigates a cascading series of wars against Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Cuba.
While I think that filmmaker Gabriel Range made a film that he hopes is supposed to be taken quite seriously, this dark historical fantasy seems to be more of an exploration of the psychology of the darker, more twisted depths of paranoid agi-prop than an attempt to define a realistic alternative future in the event of an assassination.
Is Range truly convinced that the American people would spasmodically accept the nationality of a presidential assassin as a justifiable pretense for war? Americans have certainly had the opportunity, and yet did not try to invade Italy when Giuseppe Zangara tried to kill FDR, nor did we stage a knee-jerk invasion of Iraq in the wake of the 1993 attempt on President H.W. Bush's life by agents of Saddam Hussein.
No, Range assaults the intelligence and the individuality of all Americans, assuming we would embrace the imposition of his fictional totalitarianism and an ever-escalating series of wars without having any mechanisms, or even an inclination, to stop them from occurring. He lumps liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, into one stereotype of a bloodthirsty kill-anyone-we-can-because-we-can cartoonish monolith that has never existed in this or any other American lifetime.
We are not clones, Mr. Range.
More than any other, this country is naturally inclined to entertain radically different ideas at the same time, making this war-loving future United States of Death laughably sophomoric, and in the end, next to impossible to believe for anyone who knows the American psychology at all.
We'll learned nothing about an alternate American future from what I've read of this film, but I think we have learned quite a bit about what Gabriel Range thinks of Americans.
You forgot some:
- We didn't invade Poland when Leon Czolgosz murdered William McKinley.
- We didn't invade Cuba or the Soviet Union when Oswald killed JFK, despite the assassin's affinity for both communist "paradises".
- We didn't invade the Republic of Georgia when Vladimir Arutinian attempted to kill the current President Bush last year.
No doubt the storyline is compelling in this movie, but to make it about a sitting president regardless of party is repugnant in the extreme.
Posted by: John at September 1, 2006 08:00 PMThis is what you get when moonbats go off their meds.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at September 1, 2006 09:15 PMVery relevant and nice post, CY, but I have come to the awful conclusion that these Leftists in Britain(and the EU, and the US and Canada as well) are true believers in their cause celebre', that cause being the destruction of the US as it now exists. They seek a UN/EU type entitiy here in the US that would become a cash cow for their socialist utopia. That they have the minds of children in their dealings with the Islamists is indication enough that they will fail, but the damage done by them is likely to allow the fascists of the prophet to succeed where they fail. The fact that these idiots would be some of the first to face the axeman is about the only satisfaction I can muster from this whole mess.
Posted by: jesusland joe at September 1, 2006 09:27 PMWow, a totalitarian government in the United States that instigates a cascading series of wars.
How awful!
Posted by: ClearwaterConservative at September 2, 2006 04:58 AMSo, basically, he saw "V for Vendetta" and instead of saying "it's been done" he said "boy, I can capitalize on that!"
Kind of like Blair Witch 2.
I think I'll call it "V for Vomit."
What kind of amazes me about the "artsy community" is how they are constantly patting each other on the back for their "courage" for saying and doing exactly what everyone around them always says and does.
Posted by: Merovign at September 4, 2006 11:15 AMi think america needs more movies like this to open up their eyes, and realize what our world is coming to.
Posted by: dsfsdgsd at September 5, 2006 08:54 PMYou haven't seen this film at all.
It's not a bit like you describe. Seriously. There's no war in it, Cheney barely features, and it's all about the mechanics of the judicial enquiry after the assassination.
Please get your facts right before dismissing a film.
Bet you don't have thje moral courage to display this...
Posted by: Mr Blobby at September 7, 2006 11:48 AMWars against Iran, Syria, Venezuala and Cuba.
Presumably Rumsfeld will still be Secretary of Defense. I recall that a few years ago when one of the newsies at a press conference said that with the forces comitted in Iraq, the United States did not have the ability to fight a war anywhere else. Rumsfeld replied that we could fight twenty wars at the same time. It's just that nineteen of them would be nuclear wars.
Posted by: Mark in Texas at September 7, 2006 08:29 PMThis comment is not only about the film, but it is also about some of the other comments and their authors (as I percieve it and them).
I don't need to see this film to judge it and know beyond all doubt that I don't agree with it.
Plain and simple.. It's insulting, beyond bad taste, and just WRONG, and not just because it involves the assasination of President Bush.
The doctored picture that was published, as well as some of the comments here, speak volumes to me about the opinion of the writer/director, Gabriel Range and those authors.
Range, and others of his ilk, are HATERS (in this case BUSH). He and those like him, be they in this country or another, make me physically ill. These people make this type of statement, then attempt to hide behind the 1st Amendment and/or some form of political correctness, and all of the so-called popular "artsy/celebrity" crowd pander to them. Then those enamored with the celebrities pander to them, thus proving that intelligent life on this planet is LACKING!
I can't imagine any reasonably SANE/RATIONAL person even attempting to defend this movie, or it's creator for any reason, or on any level.
Posted by: Mr Libertarian at September 8, 2006 07:37 PM
