Rating (2 out of 5)
Summary: Let me provide context…I am not a fan of Dick Cheney and believe he was one of the worst people to be in government in our history. However, in my youth, I stood proudly to be counted as Republican and proudly identified myself as a Reagan Republican. Even though I have left the Republican party, I still believe in the some of the
“Vice” is essentially a smear campaign, not just of Dick Cheney, but also of the Republican party. Under no circumstances would I recommend this movie to my high school daughter to see, as she would not receive facts but instead be shown an extremely tainted liberal viewpoint. Also, the positions shown are provided without context and therefore seem outrageous. From the 1970s to the 2000s there were monumental shifts in global economics and technology, if provided as context, make many of the decisions and changes seem extremely reasonable.
Plot: Dick Cheney’s progression to become Vice President of the United States.
Detail: Usually, a biopic thoroughly explores the characters goal either business or personal. The film fails to explain his motivations and/or beliefs or those of any individuals involved. They even imply Dick Cheney had no political leanings when he went to Congress as an intern. Therefore, I can merely assume the goal would be authoritarian rule by the president was Dick Cheney’s motivation in this film.
They present a black picture of Dick Cheney, but even I would have liked to know what motivated him. He was a screw-up early in life, his wife yells at him, he interns in Congress and suddenly Dick Cheney morphs into a far-right-wing conservative? His wife sounded like a conservative from her early college days.
Why did he want to attack Iraq and Afghanistan? Did he genuinely believe military action to make the world safer? They tried giving him a motivation at the end of the movie but it was way too late.
We needed more, we deserved more.
Noticed they conveniently left out the fact that notable Democrats (Obama and Clinton) voted for the war on Afghanistan and Iraq. There were very few in Congress and the Senate standing against any bill deemed unpatriotic, War, Patriot Act, etc. A surreal fear existed after 9/11 permeating every city and town in America.
The explanation of the reduction in taxes on the transition from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan is wrong. Taxes were absurdly high because the US was paying for the Vietnam War and Reagan brought the taxes down to a reasonable amount. Reagan even overcorrected and had to raise rates to compensate for lost revenue.
Instead of praising Republicans for their ingenuity in rebranding certain terms, they made them seem evil. Noticed they didn’t pick on the general populace for buying into the rebranding change, nor did they criticize Democrats for not employing the same tactic. To this day, I still don’t comprehend why the Democrats don’t market their policies better.
Again, the characterization of the Gore/Bush election felt like a liberal viewpoint. The Florida election was a mess and I watched the hearings like many in the US. In the end, the Supreme Court had to issue an opinion and the movie implies the judges were siding with a party, rather than clearly making a legal decision. This point of view I believe to be insulting to the Supreme Court. One of the parties was going to be upset. Al Gore was probably one of the least exciting the Democrats the party could have put forward.
I did find some of the facts about the constitutional and legal authority of the president and vice president extremely intriguing. Especially, how Dick Cheney developed these legal opinions over an extended number of years. Again, I think this movie fails to compliment the man on his genius and persistence, even if you don’t agree with his position.