{"id":4297,"date":"2019-02-06T00:21:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T00:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog-proxy.atomtickets.com\/?p=4297"},"modified":"2019-02-22T18:34:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T18:34:39","slug":"oscars-2019-the-rotten-heart-of-vice-is-exactly-what-its-meant-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/rotten-heart-of-vice-why-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscars 2019: The Rotten Heart Of &#8216;Vice&#8217; Is Exactly What It&#8217;s Meant To Be"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Vice<\/em> has generated a number of Oscars nominations, including a Best Picture nod, along with a Best Director nomination for Adam McKay and acting nominations for Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Sam Rockwell. Yet even with all those accolades,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/vice\/277896\"><i>Vice<\/i><\/a>\u00a0is proving one of the most divisive films of <a href=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/oscars-2019-academy-award-nominations\/\">this year\u2019s Academy Awards nominees<\/a>.\u00a0Chronicling\u00a0the life of one of America\u2019s most controversial public figures in former Vice President Dick Cheney, played with startling accuracy by an eerily transformative Christian Bale,\u00a0is going to ruffle some feathers on either side of the political divide.\u00a0It is not a feel-good story. It is not an aspirational true story. More so than being a simple biography,\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>\u00a0is the story of the last 40 years of the conservative movement told through a single man\u2019s life,\u00a0and how over those four decades these men were able to completely reshape the playing field of American politics.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The opening narration from Jesse Plemons\u2019 character establishes McKay\u2019s thesis succinctly: \u201cAs the world becomes more and more confusing, we tend to focus on the things that are right there in front of us. While ignoring the massive forces that actually change and shape our lives.\u201d<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g09a9laLh0k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>This Isn\u2019t Your Conventional Biopic<\/h2>\n<p>As\u00a0he did in his 2015 Oscar-winning film\u00a0<i>The Big Short<\/i>, Adam McKay uses\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>\u00a0to ask one simple question:\u00a0How in the hell did we get here?<i>\u00a0<\/i><i>The Big Short<\/i>\u00a0has characters break the fourth wall to bluntly explain the seemingly complex machinations behind the 2008 financial collapse. With\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>,\u00a0though,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a0more difficult task because most people watching were\u00a0alive and politically active in the run up to the Iraq War in 2003\u00a0and various controversies of the George W. Bush years. This has led to many critics understandably writing off\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>\u00a0as smug and condescending, tackling a well-worn topic and operating without any poetic grace or subtlety. But<i>\u00a0Vice<\/i>\u00a0isn\u2019t a movie aiming for political nuance or even attempting to change any minds.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Instead, McKay sees a nation in the grip of sickness and the only way to truly understand the illness is to\u00a0rip out the rotted-out heart beneath the surface.\u00a0It\u2019s easy to conclude that the rotten heart is Cheney himself. However, Cheney is\u00a0just a\u00a0symptom of a larger illness, which comes in the form an insular political movement not defined by ideology but a raw hunger for power.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>An array of techniques\u00a0pull back the curtain on\u00a0the massive forces that have changed and shaped American\u00a0life. There are the fourth wall breaks, an unconventional narrator, and a timeline that moves blisteringly fast through recent American history. Moments\u00a0such as an unexpected end credits sequence midway through the movie or a brazen Shakespearian soliloquy keep the movie full of offbeat humor to help counteract any feelings of helplessness or despair as the film goes through the Machiavellian maneuvers of the infamous VP.\u00a0\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Nixon, Watergate, And The Power of Secrecy<\/h2>\n<p>Dick Cheney enters the\u00a0insulated world\u00a0of conservative politics\u00a0in 1968, just as Richard Nixon takes the White House after a campaign that played upon culture war divisions.\u00a0Cheney begins to work for the cantankerous and contentious congressman Donald Rumsfeld (played by Steve Carell).\u00a0Here the future vice president will get a crash course in <em>realpolitik<\/em>, punctuated by the moment he asks Rumsfeld, \u201cWhat do we believe?\u201d The na\u00efve question is answered with uproarious laughter.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The biggest lesson learned\u00a0for Cheney\u00a0during the Nixon years was the power of secrecy.\u00a0Rumsfeld gives Cheney a little bit of inside baseball, alerting his underling to a secret meeting between Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger\u00a0in Kissinger\u2019s office\u00a0where the two discuss the expansion of the Vietnam War to\u00a0Cambodia\u00a0with a secret and illegal bombing campaign. These meetings and the topics discussed were not part of official records keeping.\u00a0This would inform Cheney\u2019s later operations as he oversaw various counter-terrorism operations\u00a0(such as the enhanced interrogation techniques, a.k.a. torture)\u00a0or meetings with industry leaders and lobbyists, all matters he liked to handle without any scrutiny.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>When Nixon falls amidst the Watergate scandal, Cheney sees where the disgraced president erred. It wasn\u2019t the rampant criminality. It wasn\u2019t the coverups. It was, as\u00a0Bale\u2019s\u00a0Cheney\u00a0bluntly\u00a0says in the film,\u00a0\u201cNixon forgot the voice-activated recorders were there. He got sloppy.\u201d\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>A\u00a0Loose Look At The Law<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/vice\/277896\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1544479187\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1544479187478_277896_cops_8.jpg\" width=\"1440\" height=\"960\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>Vice<\/i>\u00a0outlines just how Cheney and his collaborators were able to game the legal system in their favor through reverse-engineering. They figured out what they wanted to do and then figured out how to argue its legality instead of trying to spearhead these policies through the legislative process. Like so much of what\u2019s chronicled in\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>, it\u2019s both brilliant and absolutely terrifying.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After Nixon, Cheney\u2019s next stop in the world of politics is as Chief of Staff for President Gerald Ford.\u00a0The\u00a0presidency has been\u00a0weakened in the wake of Watergate.\u00a0Cheney looks for a way to bolster the executive authority of his boss.\u00a0He learns of an interpretation of the president\u2019s powers known as the &#8220;unitary executive theory&#8221; from\u00a0an attorney rising through the ranks of the Justice Department \u2014 Antonin Scalia. The premise is really quite simple: Whatever the president does can\u2019t be considered illegal because it was done by the president.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>McKay likens this immense power to the classic Marvel Comics character\u00a0Galactus, devourer of planets.\u00a0Of course, Ford\u2019s\u00a0eventual electoral\u00a0defeat means that this immense power isn\u2019t used in the late \u201870s. But Cheney knew it was just\u00a0lying in wait for a Cabinet member with the knowledge and will to use it.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0hotly contested election\u00a0of 2000\u00a0is decided by the Supreme Court, on which an older Antonin Scalia sits.\u00a0Following the horrific events of 9\/11, Cheney is able to use aspects of the unitary executive theory to create large swaths of morally abhorrent policy, including the aforementioned torture. Cheney surrounds himself with legal minds to bend the language of the law to fit their intended purposes, be it David Addington (Don McManus) arguing that the vice president is both a member of the executive and legislative branch or John\u00a0Yoo\u00a0(Paul\u00a0Yoo) writing legal memorandums\u00a0known as the torture memos, laying out a legal argument for torture.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Divide And Conquer: Manipulation Of Language And The Media<\/h2>\n<p>In 1978, Dick Cheney ran for the House of Representatives looking to be the lone\u00a0representative from Wyoming. However, on the campaign trail Cheney first encountered his heart problems. After he&#8217;s sidelined for rest, Lynne Cheney (played masterfully by Academy Award nominee Amy Adams) takes to the campaign trail\u00a0taking lessons learned from Nixon\u2019s divisive campaign of \u201968\u00a0with her.\u00a0She plays\u00a0upon social and racial divisions as a means to motivate voters to vote <em>against<\/em> their\u00a0opponents as opposed to voting <em>for<\/em> something. Nixon laid out the blueprint and it was so effective it is still ingrained in American politics to this very day.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But why stop at simple stump speeches? Division is an effective political tool any time of the year, not just election season and Cheney made this a core part of his philosophy. There was always one impediment, however \u2013 the fairness doctrine,\u00a0an FCC regulation that\u00a0required stations to present a fair, equitable examination of controversial issues. Simply, you have two sides of an argument presented. Cheney finally accomplished getting it struck down in 1987 when he served in the House of Representatives during the Reagan administration.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The repeal of the fairness doctrine\u00a0clears the way for Roger Ailes, who we briefly encounter in the Nixon White House,\u00a0to finally bring to reality his long-held dream of a news network devoted entirely to the Republican Party,\u00a0something he proposed\u00a0while working as a media consultant for Nixon.\u00a0Eventually,\u00a0it would\u00a0come to fruition as Fox News.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1544479202\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1544479201781_277896_cops_10.jpg\" width=\"1440\" height=\"960\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In <em>Vice<\/em>, McKay clearly sees the raw power that\u00a0can\u00a0come from a network with an aim to\u00a0shield\u00a0a political movement\u00a0from accountability\u00a0within the ranks of its own voting base.\u00a0The current occupant of the Oval Office is a testament to the power of this massive undertaking of misinformation,\u00a0repeating the talking points that motivate his core base of voters in an echo chamber that has created alternate realities within America\u2019s political divide.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s another powerful aspect\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0propaganda machine\u00a0covered in\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 market research.\u00a0Focus groups\u00a0were\u00a0employed\u00a0not\u00a0to see what policy was preferred by the public, but how to frame the language\u00a0to make them more appealing. It\u2019s an Orwellian manipulation of language, a marketing gimmick employed to create a post-truth world.\u00a0Here\u2019s the scary thing: it worked\u00a0and continues to work.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>And The Continuing Aftermath<\/h2>\n<p>The film concludes with an ailing Dick Cheney approaching death\u2019s doorstep until he receives a life-saving heart transplant.\u00a0We reach the end and\u00a0McKay\u00a0is\u00a0finally able to show us the rotten heart as the\u00a0camera lingers on the failed organ\u00a0pulled from Cheney\u2019s chest.\u00a0There\u2019s then a\u00a0blistering montage of Cheney\u2019s legacy \u2013 unending wars, economic strife, and a country more divided than it has been since the Civil War.\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Part of the reason we all love movies is because they\u2019re a place where heroes triumph and villains fail. That doesn\u2019t happen in\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>.\u00a0The film is divisive\u00a0not just because of its unconventional approach but because it never gives the audience that much-needed moment of catharsis. There are no consequences. There is no comeuppance.\u00a0No hero swoops in to save the day. This is just where we&#8217;re at now and where we continue to be.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The world is as you find it,&#8221; Bale\u2019s Cheney scolds the camera in the film\u2019s final moment of breaking the fourth wall. That\u2019s the bitter truth at the heart of\u00a0<i>Vice<\/i>. Cheney found the world at a moment of vulnerability and with his robust cast of cohorts changed its very nature, rewrote the rules to game the system so it now serves them.\u00a0The rotten heart\u00a0has been laid bare. Here is the world as remade by Dick Cheney. Now that you\u2019ve found it, what are you going to do about it?\u00a0<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>You Might Also Like<\/h2>\n<hr style=\"color: #000; width: 95%; margin-left: 0;\" \/>\n<!-- The Grid Plugin Version 2.7.4 --><div class=\"tg-error-msg\" data-grid-name=\"Home Featured\">No post was found with your current grid settings.&#xa;You should verify if you have posts inside the current selected post type(s) and if the meta key filter is not too much restrictive.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice has generated a number of Oscars nominations, including a Best Picture nod, along with a Best Director nomination for Adam McKay and acting nominations for Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Sam Rockwell. Yet even with all those accolades,\u00a0Vice\u00a0is proving one of the most divisive films of this year\u2019s Academy Awards nominees.\u00a0Chronicling\u00a0the life of one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-4297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oscars","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4297"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4312,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions\/4312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}