World According to Dick Cheney

[fivekatz]

I don't know if Showtime is running this documentary outside of the US or how many members have seen it but it is an amazing character study by documentarian R.J. Cutler.

Cutler spends little time actually pressing Cheney on any of the controversial issues of his life but rather lets Cheney's lack of self-reflection jump out of this piece.

While Cutler could have grilled the former VP on multiple issues he instead skims the surface on many of Cheney's "accomplishments" in life and lets historical fact and Cheney's perspective stand and lets the viewer determine just who Richard Bruce Cheney is.

To me the most stunning thing about the documentary was Cheney is not just a person with little self-reflection but a person in denial and with no remorse.

If not for the enormity of the American Empire this man probably would have faced serious charges as a war criminal, a war profiteer and a traitor for outing a CIA under cover agent and fixing intelligence to send the US into an unjustified war.

But to this day he thinks that he was right and that Bush was wrong for not bombing Iran, Syria and North Korea.

If you have not seen it this documentary is a must see, Cutler went out of his way not to openly drill Cheney yet when his version of history is juxtaposed against historical fact, the result is a captivating show.

[Odelay]

I agree about this documentary being an interesting character study of Cheney. It might end up being the definitive historical take on him because they just point the camera at him and let him talk, interspersed with historical news footage and contemporary opinions of journalists. In fact, the opening sort of sets the stage as he is being micc'ed up and he asks if the camera was going to be focused on the interviewer too, or just him. He seems smugly satisfied when informed that it was going to be all him.

He tosses around a word like "integrity" at the beginning as if it has value to him, but he gives away his true lack of morals in the end when he trashes the idea of honor. And he exemplifies this by throwing many of his colleagues, including W, under the bus. If you're going to trash people's characters, you might want to stay away from a term like integrity to describe yourself. But as fivekatz says, above, this is a man with little self-reflection.