{"id":5825,"date":"2013-08-01T18:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T22:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5825"},"modified":"2022-10-25T09:11:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T13:11:29","slug":"when-happens-when-you-tell-the-bush-administration-what-they-dont-want-to-hear-fair-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/when-happens-when-you-tell-the-bush-administration-what-they-dont-want-to-hear-fair-game\/","title":{"rendered":"When happens when you tell the Bush Administration what they don’t want to hear: Fair Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Doug Liman’s Fair Game<\/em> is an important movie. The legacy of the Bush Administration’s war on terror comprises many grand injustices: civilian casualties, torture, increased resentment worldwide, eroded civil liberties, et al. In other words, lots of raw material for screenplays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most treatments of the war on terror in movies so far have been fictional explorations of its cost upon American soldiers and their families (including The Messenger<\/em> and In the Valley of Elah<\/a><\/em>). Fair Game<\/em> belongs to a different genre: the dramatization of actual figures in the midst of specific events. Fair Game<\/em> is structured as a more conventional biopic than more rigorous recreations like The Road to Guantanamo<\/em>, United 93<\/em>, and Zero Dark Thirty<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair Game<\/em> dramatizes the public scapegoating of CIA officer Valerie Plame and former Ambassador to Africa Joe Wilson simply because their jobs tasked them with giving answers to difficult questions, questions that they didn’t realize had already been given scripted answers by the Bush Administration. Plame and Wilson’s intelligence conflicted with the preconceived fictional narrative that Iraq was pursing a nuclear weapons program. Plame and Wilson were both firmly ensconced within the system, and chewed up by it when they tried to resist their exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Naomi
Naomi Watts as Valerie Plame in Fair Game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One possible flaw with Fair Game<\/em> is that it strives to position Plame and Wilson as the protagonists of a traditional two-hour biopic<\/a> narrative. They are burdened with traditional character motivations, such as to clear their names, save their marriage, and expose villainy. The facts of history don’t really make for a conventionally satisfying climax to a thriller plot. When Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, it was through no direct action of the fictionalized Plame and Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair Game<\/em> rightly highlights Plame and Wilson’s heroism in exposing the administration’s lies, but the demands of a conventional biopic to present its protagonists as having vindicated themselves doesn’t really fit in this particular case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doug Liman’s Fair Game is an important movie. The legacy of the Bush Administration’s war on terror comprises many grand injustices: civilian casualties, torture, increased resentment worldwide, eroded civil liberties, et al. In other words, lots of raw material for screenplays. Most treatments of the war on terror in movies so far have been fictional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2],"tags":[1983,245,1980,1984,243,1986,541,547,1985],"class_list":["post-5825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-stars","category-movies","tag-1983","tag-biopic","tag-dick-cheney","tag-doug-liman","tag-george-w-bush","tag-joe-wilson","tag-naomi-watts","tag-sean-penn","tag-valerie-plame"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/fair-game.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1vX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1248,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/w\/","url_meta":{"origin":5825,"position":0},"title":"Oliver Stone skips over the defining moments of George W. 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As virtually every feature film biography attempts to do the job of a book, they inevitably fall into the same trap: they become highlights reels that merely illustrate key moments in a real-life figure's life,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/oliver-stone-w-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/oliver-stone-w-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/oliver-stone-w-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/oliver-stone-w-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/oliver-stone-w-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":981,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/harold-kumar-escape-from-guantanamo-bay\/","url_meta":{"origin":5825,"position":1},"title":"H&K drop LSD with NPH in Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"August 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"On the way to a hoped-for idyll in their spiritual home Amsterdam, our two beloved stoners Harold and Kumar take unintended detours through Cuba (as collateral damage in the War on Terror), Florida (where they drop trou' for a \"bottomless\" party), Alabama (rudely interrupting a Klu Klux Klan klatsch), and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1 Star"","block_context":{"text":"1 Star","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/1-star\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/harold-kumar-escape-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/harold-kumar-escape-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/harold-kumar-escape-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/harold-kumar-escape-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/harold-kumar-escape-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1253,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/recount-dvd-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":5825,"position":2},"title":"The plural of chad is chad in HBO’s Recount","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"October 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2008 HBO television movie Recount dramatizes the traumatic few weeks at the close of the 2000 Presidential election. That hectic time brings back three distinct feelings for this blogger: bewilderment at the founding fathers' purpose for the Electoral College (as everyone no doubt remembers, it was never in doubt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/recount-feature.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8233,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-isnt-likely-to-change-many-minds-about-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":5825,"position":3},"title":"All Quiet on the Western Front isn’t likely to change many minds about war","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"March 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Edward Berger's lavish, gruesome All Quiet on the Western Front is very clear that war is bad, but could do more to condemn today's warmongers.","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"All Quiet on the Western Front","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-2022.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-2022.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-2022.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-2022.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-2022.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2635,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/visualizing-the-invisible-bright-star\/","url_meta":{"origin":5825,"position":4},"title":"Jane Campion Visualizes the Invisible, in Bright Star","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"December 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As an English Major in another life, I'm not uninterested in poetry, or Keats in particular. But movies about poetry are another matter. It's difficult to imagine a less natural source material for the eminently visual medium of cinema than poetry. You can mute the sound, drain the color, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "3 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"3 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/3-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bright Star","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/bright-star.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/bright-star.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/bright-star.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/bright-star.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/bright-star.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5677,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/terminator-dark-fate-is-a-trashcan-of-exposition\/","url_meta":{"origin":5825,"position":5},"title":"Terminator: Dark Fate is a trashcan of exposition","author":"Chad Ossman","date":"February 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Criticizing the plots of popcorn action blockbusters is usually a fool's errand. Nobody cares if Hobbs & Shaw makes any sense, but surely it's fair game in the Terminator franchise, where untangling pseudo-scientific time travel logic is 99% of the fun. So the biggest disappointment of Dark Fate (other than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2 Stars"","block_context":{"text":"2 Stars","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/category\/ratings\/2-stars\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Terminator: Dark Fate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/terminator-dark-fate-trio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/terminator-dark-fate-trio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/terminator-dark-fate-trio.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/terminator-dark-fate-trio.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/terminator-dark-fate-trio.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7332,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825\/revisions\/7332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}