Current mood:	cynical
Entry tags:	movie review, nlp, programs

Swing Vote (Movie Review)

I see a lot of movies, but very seldom do I feel sufficiently moved to write what amounts to a review of one. Yesterday, Wendy, myself and another friend went to see the new Kevin Costner film, SWING VOTE, and despite myself, I just can't seem to keep my mouth shut.   Nothing new there, I suspect.

Overall, the movie was pretty damn funny.. Costner is an old drunk with a young daughter; he can't seem to keep a job or hold his life together in whatever fashion we would consider 'normal' in this country. He's a fuck-up, but he loves the kid and she loves him. The set-up of the movie is that the kid is bright and has an interest in civic affairs, at an age when she is beginnig to buy into the propaganda we feed our children. You know the stuff - voting is our civic responsibility; jury duty is our social contract; every vote counts... blah blah blah.

If you've seen the previews, you know that Costner becomes the one guy whose vote will matter. There's a long set-up as to why this is so, and if we can buy into that, it turns out that whoever he votes for will be the next president of the US. Of course, this leads to him being courted by both sides, and so the film consists of watching the machinations of politicians as they attempt to please this one sole voter, and actually go so far as to begin changing their entire political platforms in order to swing him to their side. There are some hysterical scenes in the movie - one in particular where the democratic candidate begins touting anti-abortion, and we see healthy children vanishing in a poof of smoke on some idyllic playground.

So there are some funny moments in the film. Maybe worth the price of admission. But... and it's a huge but...

SPOILER WARNING... (if you plan to see the film & don't want to know the outcome, read no further).

After all this build-up with how Costner is basically just a beer-guzzling ne'er-do-well, he decides virtually overnight to change his ways, mend his evil habits, and become socially responsible. Okay, maybe that's a good message. Maybe. But then comes the speech. {You knew there would be one, right?}

As Costner faces down the two presidential candidates in what is supposed to be "the final debate", he begins talking about how he feels ashamed for not voting, how he feels ashamed for losing sight of whatever minor dreams he had as a young man, how he feels ashamed of himself for being the fuck-up he is...

Hmm. At this point, I started to notice something about the audience. With the theater almost full, people were leaning toward the screen, some were mumbling "Amens!" of one sort or another, the lady two rows behind me was sniffling as if riveted to the final scene of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and for the most part, these sheeple were buying into the propaganda - cleverly delivered in the form of what amounts to neurolinguistic programming - and by the time the film ended, the audience cheered, while I was sitting there wide-eyed, feeling somewhat like I had just been slammed upside the head with a large 2 x 4.

"Don't they see the program?" I asked of Wendy. "Don't they realize they've just been spoon-fed a guilt-trip which is designed to do nothing more than drag them to the polls come November?" "Don't they GET that the movie is now shaking a finger at THEM, when perhaps it needs to be shaking a finger at 'the system'?"

They don't get it. That much was obvious. And, in fact, the other friend who was with us was quick to defend the film, attempting to say, "Well, it's just a fantasy film! No different than Batman!"

Er... I don't see it that way. The timing says otherwise. With the election only a few months away, it seemed far more rooted in agenda - and an agenda which relied upon essentially programming its audiences to feel guilty if they don't vote. Um... er... has everyone conveniently forgotten the fact that the LAST election wasn't decided by "the people" at all, but by a bunch of stuffy politicians referred to euphemistically as "the electoral college"? Nobody's vote counted! The guy who legitimately won the election isn't in the White House, because it would have been inconvenient to the powers that be, and so we were treated to a smoke & mirrors show, an elaborate presentation of the old shell-game trick, and if anyone cares to think otherwise, I suggest you check your programming guide and ask your doctor, 'cuz we all got a rather large suppository with THAT little charade, and as a result, I made the personal decision to never vote again. What's the point, after all? If the powers that be don't like the way the election turns out, there's always The Electoral College Card waiting to be yanked out of some spin-doctor's ass, and played like the ultimate trump in a bad game of Old Maid!

But I digress...

To MY perceptions, the entire purpose of the film had become an agenda - the humor turning into nothing more than a sugar-coating which would make us want to willingly swallow the big nasty pill. What seemed so ironic was that the Costner character had just read a letter from someone in Podunk, which essentially said, "My wife and I both work two jobs just to make ends meet, and some weeks we don't make it. I am afraid to think of what would happen if one of my children became ill. So my question is this: if we are the richest nation in the world, how come our own people can't afford to live here?"

Good question! How come most of us can't afford health insurance? Why is gay marriage even an issue, and why do we allow religious manipulation and the propaganda of the Catholic church to influence what would otherwise be a simple and clear-cut case of human rights? Why do we pour so much money into defense when cancer and AIDS still have not been properly addressed? And why should WE feel guilty when most of us are working our asses off just to pay our taxes so these guys who are "supposta" address these issues can go right on taking vacations to Tahiti on taxpayer money?

From a warrior perspective, the film left me with a bad taste in my mouth - largely because it demonstrated the fine art of neurolinguistic programming, and how that can be used to get people to think, say, feel or do just about anything. Feel guilty, we are told. Get out there and vote, we are told. Clean up our acts, we are told. And yet, our leaders have proven to be the most corrupt, inhuman, spiritually-debilitating bunch of nitwits to come down the pipes in centuries!

Does anybody out there believe voting is going to change anything? Maybe you do. And maybe you're right. Last election seems to say otherwise, but no mater. If you're going to do it, do it with awareness, and do it because it is what YOU want to do, and not just the result of some movie that attempts to shame and guilt you into buying into the existing paradigm; because the nasty secret is that while we are busy trying to be informed-about-the-issues, chances are we are doing little more than dancing on the surface of the mirror while the smoke creates an obscuring fog around our heads.

What to do?

Stay awake. I personally have come to believe that this country (and most others) have moved well beyond the point where our individual votes are going to matter one iota. When we couple the level of technology available with the degree of deception & manipulation that is possible, we begin to *see* that we are going through the motions of going through the motions... largely because we don't know what else to do. We want-to-believe it will make a difference, but is that really the reality of it? Seems unlikely, all things considered. Seems to me we would have better results if we each threw a gallon of gas in the bay like our ancestors threw all that tea in the harbor. Problem is - we don't have time for that, because we're too busy trying to keep our heads above water.

I'm a cynic, so if my words here annoy you, throw them over your shoulder and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. Get drunk. Get laid. Or go to a movie. I would even recommend SWING VOTE for the humorous parts - some of which really are quite hysterical. Just be sure to wear your tin foil hat to keep the electronic propaganda from penetrating your skull, and set your bullshit detector on High.

***

copyright 2008, by Della Van Hise
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