WATCH: Vice delves deeper into one of the most secretive minds in modern political history
JOBURG – Vice takes the audience through Dick Cheney’s complex journey into institutional power.
In cinemas today, 1 February, Vice follows the cagey, bizarre and true story of one of the most mysterious and secretive minds in modern American political history, Dick Cheney.
Written and directed by Adam McKay, Vice stars Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carrell, Sam Rockwell, and Tyler Perry. The film spans half a century and takes the audience through Cheney’s complex journey from rural Wyoming electrical worker to vice president of the United States in a darkly comic and often unsettling inside look at the use and misuse of institutional power – leaving the audience questioning structures of power as they discover the real shot callers.
Bale definitely delivers an astounding transformational and immersive performance as Cheney but Adams holds her own and steals the show as the formidable and unfailingly loyal wife, Lynne who reminds us that behind every great man there is an even greater woman, a matriarch who changed the American political landscape as much as the men in oval office.
“She had the brains and ambition but realised that being a woman, certain doors were closed to her. While she might not be able to pull the levers of power herself, she knew how to get someone to pull those levers for her,” McKay said.
Visiting themes of wartime, the war on terror – and even gay rights, Vice shows Cheney’s cunning and sly political manoeuvring and how he altered America’s and the world’s political landscape in ways that will continue to echo for decades to come. But at the end, it is clear there is more than one Dick Cheney – a man whose reputation in the public eye contradicts his private life and obvious devotion to his family.
“It expanded well beyond what I ever expected. It was poignant not just in a political way but in a very personal way. It touched on what it is to be a person, to be part of a family, part of a nation,” said Bale.
For anyone looking to get into the nitty-gritty of politics of institutional power and power dynamics that span decades, this is definitely a movie to go watch. It puts some perspective to temporal political events such as the war on terror and how their events linger in current times.
Watch the Vice trailer below:
