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December 27, 2005
Political Sports All Stars for 2005
I have a problem with all sorts of year end lists that come out in early December, like the last month of the year doesn't count, or nothing ever happens that might change ones ideas of what matters and what doesn't. Time does their person(s) of the year, and numerous magazines and critics make their lists of movies, songs, books, photos and anything else they figure will sell. Well, not me. I am waiting until the end of the year to select my MVP and Biggest Fumble. However, I am taking all this week to name members of our 2005 Poltical Sports All Star Team.
Today I want to recognize three people in the movie business, Paul Haggis, the director of Crash, and George Clooney, the director and actor who produced Good Night and Good Luck and served as Executive Producer and actor in Syriana, and Steve Gahgan, the director of Syriana. Through their work, we looked at the world a little differently. Each attempted to present a world that would not fit into simple categories. People are not just good or bad, problems are not easily solved with cliches.
Paul Haggis depicted a world of complicated individuals all inflicted with fear, hate, loathing and love. His characters were racists, often caught in mind-sets that chained them to simplistic reactions to stress and difficulties. During the course of his movie the same characters exhibited wonderful touches of humanity, saving others or working to help those previously attacked. I realize that I am being a little simplistic here myself, but Haggis made me see once again, that people are complicated and hold contradictory tendencies that they live with every day. At one moment they are terrible, hateful, and racist. Yet in other circumstances they are wonderful, giving people, sometimes toward the same individual, who might be black or Muslim, or oriental. I believe Haggis wants us to realize that we have traveled far in our fight to eradicate racism, but still have a long way to go.
George Clooney, former ER doc and hearthrob, wrote and directed Good Night and Good Luck, the story about Ed Murrow and his attempt to stop Senator Joe McCarthy. Clooney paints a complex scenario, with Murrow and Fred Friendly, played by Clooney, confronting corporate, financial reality and political power. Nothing is simple, their jobs and reputations were on the line. We see a world where people lived in fear of their future.Lives were destroyed by the whims of hate and power. A marriage between co-workers is hidden, people won't say what is obviously true. Clooney shows how difficult it was for a small group of honest men and women to do the right thing, to use their power and positions to challenge a Senate despot.
Steve Gaghan and George Clooney made a great movie, Syriana, that shows the complicated world of oil. Corruption, power, murder, business and politics all melt together in one big bowl. Gaghan and Clooney don't provide any easy answers in solving our oil dependence. Our social, cultural, political, and financial interests are all interdependent. They suggest that it is not so easy to blame one piece of the mess without addressing every part of the problem. Once again the depiction of complexity pushes us away from our never ending desire for simple solutions.
Like many other filmmakers, Clooney, Gaghan and Haggis opened our eyes to a complex, political reality. Their work stood out more for me than any others. For that reason we consider them three members of our Political All-Star Team of 2005.
Posted by Chip Spear at December 27, 2005 1:01 PM