The Good, the Bad, and the Cowardly

[em42]

Showtime's 'DC 9/11' Is A Shameless Bush Booster
By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 6, 2003

Simultaneously dull and disgraceful, "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis," a new Showtime movie, uses the tragic attack on America in 2001 as the basis for a reelection campaign movie on behalf of George W. Bush.

The film is an insult to those who perished in the attacks and, really, an insult to America generally, but it's so insanely boring that people aren't likely to become very outraged over it. Written by conservative Republican Lionel Chetwynd, who admits to a bias in Bush's favor, the film -- premiering on Showtime tomorrow night at 8 -- is primitive propaganda that portrays Bush as the noblest hero since Mighty Mouse.

Nothing in historical record suggests Bush acted particularly heroically Sept. 11, 2001, but Chetwynd's script has him all but saddling up a horse and riding over to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban man-to-man. When Bush announces he will give a speech to the nation from the White House and aides try to talk him into seeking a safer location, Bush bellows, "If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come on over and get me. I'll be home!"

Bush repeatedly demands he be taken to the White House as Air Force One flies aimlessly about on that horrible September day: "I've got to get back to Washington because I'm not going to let those people keep me from getting home," he barks. And earlier: "Get me home! . . . The American people want to know where their damn president is." And still earlier: "People can't have an AWOL president!"

All this may be pure fantasy that occurred only in Chetwynd's head, or wishful thinking by members of the Bush administration, who cooperated with Chetwynd in his research. Actual footage of the World Trade Center towers burning and collapsing is used as part of this love letter to the president, an especially unseemly touch.

Even those predisposed to accept the movie's fanciful version of what happened will be hard-pressed to see it through to the end. Overlong at two hours-plus, the film bogs down repeatedly in meetings -- meetings of the Cabinet, meetings of the war cabinet, meetings at Camp David, meetings in the Oval Office, meetings, meetings everywhere. In his zeal to proselytize, Chetwynd forgot how to dramatize.

He tries to make Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress, with the nation watching on television, the climax of the film. So there are repetitious scenes of Bush speechwriters fretting over the address, and then Bush himself fussing and fine-tuning it. During a scene in which Bush and wife Laura make pillow talk, she tells him, "Don't ever forget about how they treat women. That's a big part of this."

Who does she mean by "they" at this point? Terrorists? Islamic radicals? Arabs generally? It's left vague, and it sounds like one of those remarks that probably never got remarked in the first place.

Chetwynd is so enamored of the president's speech, delivered Sept. 20, that he includes a huge portion of it in the film, a sure-fire snooze inducer. We see Timothy Bottoms as Bush delivering the speech intercut with news footage of real people in the House chamber listening and applauding -- even a shot of Hillary Rodham Clinton clapping in rapt approval. It was a good speech -- but good speeches do not make good drama, especially when we've already seen the real thing.

Suddenly, Bottoms vanishes and the director, Brian Trenchard-Smith, cuts to footage of the real Bush finishing the speech, adding to the impression that the film's first mission is Bush-boostering.

Chetwynd has a checkered but not undistinguished career. One of his best TV scripts was turned into a moving story about real heroism, "Falling From the Sky: Flight 174," in 1995. This time, his priorities are all screwed up. Trenchard-Smith tries to enliven the replicated meetings with such gimmicks as overhead shots, but nothing helps. A couple of very pretty overhead shots of Air Force One are rigged up by the special-effects department, but otherwise the film is visually inert.

Obviously some of the most troubling issues raised by the attack -- including the horrendous failure of U.S. intelligence -- are not mentioned or are briskly glossed over. Chetwynd is determined to show Bush and all the little Bushkins behaving like living saints. Even sinister adviser Karl Rove, the Dr. Strangelove (Strangerove?) of the administration, is turned into a human platitude, though at one point he does dare to note it would be "politically wise" for the president to make his speech to the joint session of Congress.

Rove also gets to utter such glowing estimations of his boss as, "This is a man who feels very deeply." It's one more encomium in a movie already so slanted that it risks sliding right off the screen.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

http://www.awolbush.com

[Veyron]

The makers of the movie admit that parts of it are very pro-Bush.

[YogsVR4]

For goodness sakes - it’s a movie

It was written to show Bush in a good light just like that Travolta film did for Clinton a few years back. Big flipping deal. I can’t believe the Post would waste that much space in their paper – oh wait, I can. I forgot their montra, nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time. To continue – he can do no right. He is always wrong unless the French also believe it.

Good grief.

[freakray]

*sniff* *sniff*

Anyone else smell a gigatron coming on?

[BLU CIVIC]

night of the living threads old news

[TexasF355F1]

Originally Posted by freakray

*sniff* *sniff*

Anyone else smell a gigatron coming on?

Smells like it to me.

[Cbass]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

For goodness sakes - it’s a movie

It was written to show Bush in a good light just like that Travolta film did for Clinton a few years back. Big flipping deal. I can’t believe the Post would waste that much space in their paper – oh wait, I can. I forgot their montra, nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time. To continue – he can do no right. He is always wrong unless the French also believe it.

Good grief.

If nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time, it's because there is nothing good to say about a man who has crippled the US economy, sent hundreds of thousands of US citizens to foreign nations to be shot at and blown up over his neo-conservative ideals and insatiable lust for oil, lied to the American public time and time again, bullied the rest of the world, attempted to undermine the United Nations, which is representative of ALL NATIONS, not just the US and France, supported the brutal apartheid regime of Arial Sharon and on top of all that, he wasn't even elected by the American people.

[YogsVR4]

Originally Posted by freakray
*sniff* *sniff*

Anyone else smell a gigatron coming on?

Originally Posted by Cbass

If nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time, it's because there is nothing good to say about a man who has crippled the US economy, sent hundreds of thousands of US citizens to foreign nations to be shot at and blown up over his neo-conservative ideals and insatiable lust for oil, lied to the American public time and time again, bullied the rest of the world, attempted to undermine the United Nations, which is representative of ALL NATIONS, not just the US and France, supported the brutal apartheid regime of Arial Sharon and on top of all that, he wasn't even elected by the American people.

I'd say its arrived....

[Pick]

Originally Posted by Cbass

If nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time, it's because there is nothing good to say about a man who has crippled the US economy, sent hundreds of thousands of US citizens to foreign nations to be shot at and blown up over his neo-conservative ideals and insatiable lust for oil, lied to the American public time and time again, bullied the rest of the world, attempted to undermine the United Nations, which is representative of ALL NATIONS, not just the US and France, supported the brutal apartheid regime of Arial Sharon and on top of all that, he wasn't even elected by the American people.

hmmm......1.senseless speculation

2.senseless speculation

3.senseless specualtion

You just struck out. Bring back some facts and we'll consider viewing anything you say......right now, nothing you say is even worth reading.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by Pick

hmmm......1.senseless speculation

2.senseless speculation

3.senseless specualtion

You just struck out. Bring back some facts and we'll consider viewing anything you say......right now, nothing you say is even worth reading.

Where are the facts in this post?Pot calling the kettle black again?

[YogsVR4]

Originally Posted by taranaki

Where are the facts in this post?Pot calling the kettle black again?

Wrong!

Pick was a bit off in calling CBass’ post speculative. It was factually incorrect as well as idle speculation.

If nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time, it's because there is nothing good to say about a man who has crippled the US economy,

The economy is not crippled. I see no evidence presented that it is.


sent hundreds of thousands of US citizens to foreign nations to be shot at and blown up over his neo-conservative ideals and insatiable lust for oil

Does anyone actually believe that Bush would want hundreds of thousands of people to be shot an blown up? That’s as believable as thinking every Muslim would like every Jew skewered.


lied to the American public time and time again

No facts listed here. Just some of that speculation.


bullied the rest of the world, attempted to undermine the United Nations

Which is long overdue. Leaving the United Nations and letting that ineffective corrupt organization wither away would be the proper course of action.


which is representative of ALL NATIONS, not just the US and France, supported the brutal apartheid regime of Arial Sharon

Apartheid regime? I don’t see any facts here either. More speculation.


and on top of all that, he wasn't even elected by the American people.

He was elected by the American people. At what time did someone else win the election? http://www.archives.gov/federal_regi...otes_2000.html

• George W. Bush and Richard Cheney received 271 Electoral Votes
• Albert Gore, Jr. and Joseph Lieberman received 266 Electoral Votes

The people who don’t think he won the election are not speculating – they are either delusional or outright lying.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by YogsVR4

Wrong!

I beg to differ.

You have made a very tidy and worthy argument dissecting CBASS' post.Pick's effort is little more than a stream of obnoxious invective.If he had taken the trouble to construct an argument before blowing off about Cbass' point of view,he might be worthy of a serious hearing.

Slamming other peoples' opinion without having the courtesy to debate the issues is just plain ignorance.

[Pick]

Originally Posted by taranaki

I beg to differ.

You have made a very tidy and worthy argument dissecting CBASS' post.Pick's effort is little more than a stream of obnoxious invective.If he had taken the trouble to construct an argument before blowing off about Cbass' point of view,he might be worthy of a serious hearing.

Slamming other peoples' opinion without having the courtesy to debate the issues is just plain ignorance.

my response to his post was exactly how I stated it. It was pure speculation at its best. Pure speculation based on ill-constructed, biased rhetoric.

[taranaki]

Originally Posted by Pick

my response to his post was exactly how I stated it. It was pure speculation at its best. Pure speculation based on ill-constructed, biased rhetoric.

Do you have any facts that you can use to support your assertion?

[Pick]

Originally Posted by taranaki

Do you have any facts that you can use to support your assertion?

What facts would I assert in response to such blatant speculation? Well....here it goes.

Originally Posted by Cbass

If nothing good can be said about Bush in any way at any time, it's because there is nothing good to say about a man who has crippled the US economy

wrong. We've had to spend money rebuilding our crippled military. And all the social programs that continue to plague us are nothing but economy back-stabbers. The current state of our economy is also directly due to the residing of the computer/technological boom of the late 90's. And I pose this question: WHAT EXACTLY HAS BUSH DONE TO THE ECONOMY?? . What is your response to that? how can you blame one man for "crippling" something that he has no control over? Whenever he does try to create solutons, he is shot down by party-line inbeciles.

Originally Posted by Cbass

sent hundreds of thousands of US citizens to foreign nations to be shot at and blown up over his neo-conservative ideals and insatiable lust for oil

ABSOLUTE SPECULATION !!! Hundreds of thousands of US TROOPS , not citizens forced to go to combat(there is no draft), have been deployed. And if the stat you presented is true, then less than 1% of them have died.
The bit over his neo-conservative ideals and oil lust is absolute speculation. There are no facts to back this up. If that's what you truly believe, then you don't even deserve to have a response. That is just crazy.

Originally Posted by Cbass

lied to the American public time and time again

about what? Tell me what president or politician has never lied to the people before. The real liar was in the oval office for eight years before this, in case you missed him.

Originally Posted by Cbass

bullied the rest of the world

yeah, Bush is really a renegade gun-slinger. Let's talk bullying: is terrorism not bullying? How about genocide? How about raping and killing women? How about attacking a country that is defenseless for oil and gold? How about systematically gassing women and children because they are different? How about blowing up a tower full of civilians with no regard or descrimination of who's inside? Who's the bully now? HUH??

Originally Posted by Cbass

attempted to undermine the United Nations, which is representative of ALL NATIONS, not just the US and France

and he suceeded!
GOOD!! The United Nations is useless and ineffective in matters of military importance and has been for years. We continue to fund it and reap absolutely no rewards and recieve no thanks from other countries for it. And it is not composed of all nations, here's a tad-bit for you: http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html

Originally Posted by Cbass

supported the brutal apartheid regime of Arial Sharon .

No side is more brutal in that conflict. We fight for the ones that should control Jerusalem.

Originally Posted by Cbass

and on top of all that, he wasn't even elected by the American people.

Electoral Votes:
Bush-271
Gore-266
Ummmm......271>266
WRONG!!!!

There's my response to his speculative assertations.....it's so hard to come up with a response to such idiocity.