Blandlife News Translation Service (To be known as BNTS)
Blandlife feels your pain. Too often we read a news story and don’t really know what to think. It becomes difficult to pick out the jewels of truth in a fog of the reporter’s own biases and propaganda. It has taken me years of burning newspapers, broken TV remotes and repairing holes in drywall to reach my current omniscient state - and I am ready to share my knowledge with the rest of you. On this edition of BNTS we will start light - just a small story about the upcoming HBO movie Recount: The day every democrat became a constitutional jurist. I have seen the previews for the movie and to be honest - they are quite comical. One of my favorite scenes is Kevin Spacey (great actor, gay) shouting “Just tell me who won!?! Who won!??!”. This editor was under no delusion that Recount would treat Bush fairly or even that the movie would be informative or entertaining (in that awesome MST3K kind of way), so when I came across this story our reaction was ‘not shocked’. What follows is a seemingly harmless story about the movie with comments added to help us understand the real truth behind the article.
Officials Hit HBO Documentary On Florida Recount
Former Secretary of State Warren “Weasel Face” Christopher, who represented the Al Gore team during the 2004 Florida recount, has denounced (trashed) the HBO drama Recount, scheduled to air on May 25. In an interview with today’s (Thursday) New York Times, Christopher said that he had asked to see a script of the film before production began but never received one. After reviewing a transcript provided by the Times, Christopher said that he was stunned (We are used to Hollywood types agreeing with us and marching forth to do our bidding). “Much of what the author has written about me is pure fiction, (The real story is too boring and the whole recount was done to appease a large portion of our party who don’t understand how we have elected presidents for 200 years much less why the electoral college ensures a more accurate representation of the nation’s sentiment) ” he said. “It contained events that never occurred (I don’t remember any hookers - why wasn’t I invited? I am one of Bubba’s boys!), words I never spoke and decisions attributed to me that I never made.” (Look, I never wanted to do that in the first place. I had chosen my team long ago and was just being a good soldier. I knew that Algore was full of it, had no basis to force multiple recounts and that, in the end we had no shot) Bill Daley, Gore’s campaign chairman, who said that the filmmakers agreed to make changes in the script about his role in the recount, called the depiction of Christopher “absolute fantasy.” Even James Baker, the chief Republican adviser at the time, who is depicted in the film as outsmarting Christopher at every turn, commented, “I don’t think I was as ruthless (that’s what Democrats call a Republican who is effective) as the movie portrays me, and I know he was not as wimpish (I am not saying I couldn’t whoop his ass, c’mon his nickname is Warren Weasel Face) as it makes him appear.” Screenwriter Danny Strong, who interviewed (that is the extent of his research - he interviewed the three men. Probably for about 20 minutes per. That’s all the screenwriter needed to know. Strong had watched the whole thing unfold on MSNBC. Ashleigh Banfield told him the whole story with her dry-erase board) the three men, acknowledged that he decided not to send Christopher the script “because I didn’t feel that he was being totally candid in our interview.” (I am the almighty, all-knowing and all powerful screenwriter for HBO! My words are to be recited by the great Denis Leary (much funnier when he bagged on the Kennedys) and Kevin Spacey (failed stand-up comedian/impressionist). Only I can judge who is telling the truth and who is trying to cover up the greatest election swindle in modern time! Bow before me and I will impart my wisdom unto thee! Come to me and I shall decide the worth of your soul and the integrity of your heart!) Meanwhile, the drama is getting some solid reviews.(Actually we could only find one. Not one positive review - just one review total) Syndicated (gossip)columnist Liz Smith called it “one of the most viscerally powerful, fast-moving, literate, magnificently acted roller-coaster rides ever put on-screen.” (I am not a film critic, nor am I qualified to comment on the accuracy of the story or the validity of the recount, but I have always thought of myself as a something above a tabloid journalist, so I crafted a cliched, vapid review of a bad movie to enhance and solidify my liberal credentials).
There you go! If you have any news you would like translated, post the link in the comments and we will get on it. Oh, and as always, you are welcome.
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Comments
can’t wait! Thats why we like you trn. You save us the hassle of having to read Huffington or watch MSNBC whilst holding our noses.
You’ve nailed it. The critics [?] who have supposedly praised the film conveniently ignore that it’s more “truthiness” than truth.
Danny Strong, a first-time screenwriter, apparently felt the story of what actually happened in 2000 wasn’t sufficiently compelling to attract Hollywood interest. So he created a story line out of whole cloth: George Bush won the 2000 recount battle because the Democrats–principally Warren Christopher and Bill Daley–were too weak, too genteel, to withstand the Jim Baker-led steamroller. Not even the heroic, efforts of Ron Klain, the only Democratic operative in Florida with the fortitude to take on Big Jim, could save the ship. (Klain, by the way, was taking orders directly from Al Gore.)
Strong knew he had some delicate gaps to fill in the story line, including how to establish the ineffectuality of the Democratic side of the fight. He decided to handle the problem by creating a scene or two in which Warren Christopher, a key spokesman for Gore, would utter words of compromise, naivete and illogic. In just a few screen minutes, Strong could establish a major, overarching theme of the film and, if he were lucky, could manage it without ever talking to Christopher.
Presumably someone at HBO told Strong he couldn’t just stiffarm Christopher. So he just waits to make the contact until the day the scenes involving the Christopher character are shot. When he does talk to the former Secretary, he refuses Christopher’s request for a copy of the script, even though he accorded that courtesy and scene veto rights to Jim Baker, Klain and others depicted in the film.
Warren Mr. Christopher learned that the film was in production when his tailor told him he was making a suit for the actor who was playing him in the film. In other words, Strong felt it was important to get the wardrobe right for the Christopher character, but didn’t regard the facts as rising to the same level of importance.
What Strong did not want Christopher to know was that the script contained scenes in which his character declares that the recount dispute can be compromised and that no lawsuits will be filed on behalf of Gore. Strong knew that once Christopher read or was told of such scenes, he would denounce them as “pure fiction.” Strong also knew that if he pursued with any neutral party in the legal community the question of whether the words he proposed to put in Christopher’s mouth were consistent with what they knew of the man, he would have learned that he was about to distort beyond recognition the character of a man universally regarded as a quintessential litigator: smart, clever, and tough. Ethical? Yes. Weak-kneed? Never.
The truly weak-kneed are those who chalk off to “dramatic license” the gross distortions of the sort Strong has pushed on the public, while simultaneously proclaiming reverence for the faithful preservation of history. Like it or not, today’s viewing public increasingly treats as fact what is fed to them as “docu-drama,” unaware that in most cases they are consuming an ounce of “docu” to every gallon of “drama.” And like it or not, what they treat as fact becomes fact for others, in this generation and those following. While producers of this species of film say their goal is simply to entertain, it is plain they also appreciate that viewers of this genre are more “entertained” if they believe they are watching what actually occurred. HBO sure as hell doesn’t trumpet this film as “the story of the 2000 presidential election” to alert viewers that they aren’t going to be seeing a faithful rendition of what went on in Tallahassee.
Good rundown. You would think that with the readily accessible knowledge base that exists with the internet, the psuedo-documentary business would be on the decline but instead it doesnt.
Also, half-thought out commentaries seem to be on the rise as well.
I am jealous I want my first screenplay to be an HBO Docudrama, that would be way cool, and if I could interview James Baker, if only for 20 minutes awesome.
Brilliant… this is going to be a great feature. There are like a hundred Huffington Post articles I want to BNTS.