We ARE Seeing the Movie

  

One of my unpursued dream careers in life is that of a Hollywood casting director. After major news events, I was always wondering who might play whom in the inevitable feature film. I was sometimes disappointed when the movie came out, and I thought a key figure in the actual news story had been miscast. Why didn’t they pick X?

The goal of many docudramas is to show us what went on behind the scenes in major news stories. We know the basics of each event, but it takes either a long investigative New Yorker-type article to connect the dots or some PBS TV show like Frontline or American Experience. Most of us however, will wait for the feature film to do it.

The difference between the January 6th incident and say, Watergate, is that in the modern one, there seem to be fewer behind-the-scenes moments. The scenes are right in front of us, documented from almost every angle, enhanced by an actual filmmaker’s work. We have seen much of this saga already, and more is coming. A feature film would be kind of a pale afterthought, not like All the President’s Men.

Take the committee hearings themselves. Who could play Liz Cheney besides Liz Cheney, or Bennie Thompson, or any of the Proud Boys, General Milley, Ivanka Trump, or Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards, without leaving us a little disappointed? Even Saturday Night Live might not work now, largely because nothing is funny about all this anymore, least of all Donald Trump. Are the days of spoofing him over?

A good deal of the case against him for interfering with the peaceful transfer of presidential power doesn’t even need proving. There is the tape of him asking the Georgia election boss to find him 11,780 votes. And there is the fact that he did virtually nothing to stop the riot.

Look, I understand that January 6th is beginning to fade in importance when compared to inflation, the economic and social upheavals caused by the pandemic, mass shootings, and the war in Ukraine. All the more reason to hope that we can stop talking about Mr. Trump and see him just go away, But it seems like he is going to have to be PUT away. Will the remaining hearings in Washington help get that done? I think there’s time to head out to the theater lobby and get a refill on the popcorn.