Not All Memories Sweeten With Age
I really didn't expect the reaction I had watching HBO's docudrama, Recount. I thought that I had so neatly packaged and packed the Florida election debacle that the movie would be a bit like taking in a review of Watergate on the History Channel -- not our proudest moment, but in the rearview mirror enough to feel some distance, have some perspective.
I even had a mindless paper-sorting project in front of me. Docudrama, it practically screams multi-task! Silly me.
Two hours later, paper-work forgotten, I found myself in an HBO-induced fog repeating the words: it's only a movie, it's only a movie, all the while knowing in the deepest regions of my psyche that it wasn't just a movie.
I'm guessing I got a very small taste of the PTSD experienced by an adult child of abuse after watching Mommie Dearest. It was far too fresh a wound to rip the bandaid from.
I remember the night of the election as the stations began calling for Gore. I had a feeling, early on, that something was up. The conservative commentators weren't buying it and I could hear in their voices that they knew more than they were allowing. I still wonder...did they smell the rat in the room or had there been a preemptive meeting of select minds?
I want to say it took weeks to get past it, but the truth is I never recovered. Neither did our country. Neither did the planet.
This was a crock heard round the world and the echo of its report still reverberates in places like New Orleans and Iraq.
Reviewers of the movie question its accuracy, criticize the portrayal of Warren Christopher as an elitist who waved the white flag of diplomacy far too early in the game. Democrats -- they never learned to play street ball. I think that's what got so many of us in a quandary over Hillary. The girl's a fighter...do we want a fighter?
I heard an interview with David Boies, the attorney who represented the Gore argument before the Supreme Court. Throughout the whole movie he just kept hoping for a new ending. Yeah -- me, too.
Re the film as an artform -- the best thing they did was casting. Tom Wilkonson played a villainous James Baker so well I wanted to boo and hiss when he came on screen. John Hurt became Warren Christopher and Kevin Spacey's torment as Ron Klain, the man who just wanted to be loved, was right on.
As far as I'm concerned, though, the Emmy goes to Laura Dern as Katherine Harris. Okay, I'll admit it...there was a lot of material to work with, Katherine was an easy read. But Dern held nothing back. She was the image of Sleeping Beauty's thoroughly evil and foolishly vain stepmother; and history's mirror reflects to us a woman ill-prepared to oversee a Girl Scout Cookie drive, much less an election.
If there is wisdom to the timing of this movie, maybe it's to warn us that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Beware, Mr. Obama, beware. There be beasties afoot and you are in their sites.
I even had a mindless paper-sorting project in front of me. Docudrama, it practically screams multi-task! Silly me.
Two hours later, paper-work forgotten, I found myself in an HBO-induced fog repeating the words: it's only a movie, it's only a movie, all the while knowing in the deepest regions of my psyche that it wasn't just a movie.
I'm guessing I got a very small taste of the PTSD experienced by an adult child of abuse after watching Mommie Dearest. It was far too fresh a wound to rip the bandaid from.
I remember the night of the election as the stations began calling for Gore. I had a feeling, early on, that something was up. The conservative commentators weren't buying it and I could hear in their voices that they knew more than they were allowing. I still wonder...did they smell the rat in the room or had there been a preemptive meeting of select minds?
I want to say it took weeks to get past it, but the truth is I never recovered. Neither did our country. Neither did the planet.
This was a crock heard round the world and the echo of its report still reverberates in places like New Orleans and Iraq.
Reviewers of the movie question its accuracy, criticize the portrayal of Warren Christopher as an elitist who waved the white flag of diplomacy far too early in the game. Democrats -- they never learned to play street ball. I think that's what got so many of us in a quandary over Hillary. The girl's a fighter...do we want a fighter?
I heard an interview with David Boies, the attorney who represented the Gore argument before the Supreme Court. Throughout the whole movie he just kept hoping for a new ending. Yeah -- me, too.
Re the film as an artform -- the best thing they did was casting. Tom Wilkonson played a villainous James Baker so well I wanted to boo and hiss when he came on screen. John Hurt became Warren Christopher and Kevin Spacey's torment as Ron Klain, the man who just wanted to be loved, was right on.
As far as I'm concerned, though, the Emmy goes to Laura Dern as Katherine Harris. Okay, I'll admit it...there was a lot of material to work with, Katherine was an easy read. But Dern held nothing back. She was the image of Sleeping Beauty's thoroughly evil and foolishly vain stepmother; and history's mirror reflects to us a woman ill-prepared to oversee a Girl Scout Cookie drive, much less an election.
If there is wisdom to the timing of this movie, maybe it's to warn us that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Beware, Mr. Obama, beware. There be beasties afoot and you are in their sites.
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