Cynical Cinema

Sometimes, it takes star power to get people to watch a movie.  And in this case, the star power comes from George Clooney, the man with about the most star power alive.  Also, of course, Don Cheadle, who actually factors far more into Darfur Now.  Cheadle knows just how powerful a movie can be, having of course starred in Hotel Rwanda.  However, Hotel Rwanda, Shake Hands With The Devil, and dozens of other similar movies share something in common.  They all came to the theatres, to DVD, and to the consciousness of the world AFTER the genocide was over.  In Rwanda, in Cambodia, in Germany and Poland and Yugoslavia and Iraq and elsewhere around the world, the world’s attention was drawn to the horrific events after the fact.  Much of the media tried, in certain circumstances, to tell the story.  But people avoid that until they get it in the more-palatable movie form.

Here is yet another time where we, the people of the world, can actually make a difference before it’s all over and a race of people are wiped out.  In Darfur, a small part of Sudan, there is a genocide taking place.  Right now.  It was the subject of a documentary last year called The Devil Came on Horseback, which was a fine look at the problems actually happening in the region.  Darfur Now focusses more on what real people are doing to prevent the extermination of these innocent people.  Cheadle and Clooney do what they can, using their star power, to convince China to stop trading with Sudan, or at least to acknowledge the genocide taking place.  The fact that they are the highest-level delegation to approach Chinese officials on the subject is, as they say themselves in the film, deeply sad.

There is another young man, a college student at UCLA, who with no political experience whatsoever, who manages to pass a state bill in California to prevent any money going to Sudan.  A Darfurian woman who has joined the rebel forces fighting the Janjaweed, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, a United Nations humanitarian who actually takes the film makers through his attempts to deliver aid and food to the refugees, and a community leader in a Darfur refugee camp.  These six people are all trying to do what they can in a cause that is lost unless they can make the people at the top of the governments of the world respond in some way. 

And therein lies the problem.  Not only are governments notoriously slow to respond to things like “genocide” - after all, how long did it take the U.S. to go after Saddam Hussein for gassing the Kurds after it happened?  Fifteen years?  And even then, how much did they really care about the genocide?   Darfur Now, in addition to being compelling viewing, is an attempt to mobilize people, create awareness and call attention to one of these situations that is taking place right now.

When Arnold Schwarzennegger ran for governor of California, it was a complete media circus.  Stuff that would ordinarily have been completely ignored was blown up to an international level by the media.  Mary Carey, a porn star, was also running for governor.  How many of us would have known that if not for Arnold.  And the sound bites!  Oh, God, the sound bites!  The idea that a guy can get elected based on closing every speech with lines from his movies?  “I’ll be back”.  OK…back to where?  From what?  What does that have to do with this election?  What’s happening?  “Hasta La Vista, Gray Davis”.  OK, at least that makes a little sense.  Poor Gray Davis though.  Here was a guy who got tossed in this special recall election, blamed for a lot of things that were his fault, and still others that were most assuredly not.  This is the tone of the Arnold movie.  And it’s true - Davis took more than his fair share of criticism, and lost to a guy who spouted catch-phrases and platitudes.  It’d be like losing an election to a corporate logo.  Can you imagine losing your job to Tony The Tiger, or Chester the Cheetah, or the Pillsbury doughboy?  This is actually what happened in California.

 Running With Arnold traces Schwarzennegger’s origins, from a young buy growing up in Australia and becoming obsessed with body-building, all the way to his landslide victory in the California gubernatorial election.  Most of the stuff in the middle we already know.  Remember Hercules in New York?  And Conan the Barbarian, and True Lies, and of course The Terminator?  Even if you don’t, there is a lot of film footage that has virtually nothing to do with the film.  The main point of the movie, it seems, is to paint Arnold as an incredibly power-hungry individual, driven to the point of obsession to be the absolute best and biggest he can be.  (Biggest, both literally and figuratively.)  Even as a young boy in Austria, he wanted to be president of the United States, because it was the Most Powerful Man In The World position.  He was never satisfied, always wanted more, even after winning five straight Mr. Olympia titles.  Even after conquering Hollywood and becoming the most bankable star in the world.  And now, even after becoming governor of the fifth-largest economy in the world.  Now, he is trying to get the constitution amended so that he can run for president!

The movie seems to be fairly anti-Arnold.  It’s narrated by Alec Baldwin, and constantly makes “is this man really qualified for the job?” statements.  They seem to suggest that this limitless ambition on his part is a sign of egomania and that it should somehow preclude him from doing things like changing the constitution of the United States!  But I say, more power to him!  Who ever becomes president, prime minister, governor, an elected official in any capacity, without having a larger-than average ego?  And although I thought Arnold’s victory was the end of the world when it took place - he was installed into the position by the same Republican crap-machine that managed to get Bush elected, with an eye toward helping get Bush re-elected.  He had some very shady ties with Ken Lay and the top guys at Enron.  And he ran on nothing but slogans!  It must have been the apocalypse!  But then something happened.

 Somehow, somewhere along the way, Schwarzennegger took a sharp turn to the left.  And distanced himself from the Bush Republicans as much as anyone ever has - stem cells!  The idea that stem cell research should be outlawed while abortions remain legal is asinine, and Arnold understood that.  He had some good advice on this one.  And he decided to forge ahead with stem cell research in California.  Then, he takes a hard-line stance on the environment.  HARD-line.  Cutting California’s air pollution by 50%.  Taking serious measures to copmletely cut California’s dependence on foreign oil.  All of a sudden, this guy is doing the right thing.  Time and again.  So…what happened?  Did he use that Republican BS machine to get elected, wait an appropriate two years and then start doing whatever the hell he wanted to do?  God, I sure hope so.  And was Gray Davis really that put-upon, come to think of it?  I somehow get the feeling that had Arnold been governor in those days of the rolling blackouts and power shortages in California, that he would have done something.  He wouldn’t have cared at all that he was in bed with Ken Lay.  You’re screwing with my state, we’re done.  Cut all ties.  Which is, sadly, the only way these days in the U.S. to be a good politician.  Stroke the right folks until you get where you want to be, then break away, completely.  I hope he gets the amendments he wants.  I hope this man has a chance to run for president once Barack Obama has served his eight years.  Because although he isn’t perfect, and he’s kind of sleazy and slippery, once he gets in there, he will actually listen to good advice and act on it.  Which is more than you can say for most politicians.