AMC is running True Lies tonight, the night before an election. I wonder if anyone in their scheduling department had an eye for irony when they picked it?
I’ve always loved that movie. It struck the perfect balance between action and farce, never veering too far in one direction at the expense of the other. Yet now, a full decade after it was released, it has never seemed more relevant.
When it originally opened, the notion of Islamic terrorists setting a nuke off in the Florida Keys seemed just so, well, fantastic as to be unbelievable. We were the mighty behemoth, the Ultrapower that had brought our Soviet foes low. Our economy was in ascendancy, the Internet was just taking off and so True Lies offered a welcome respite, a diversion, a flight of fancy and a cautionary tale to a victory-drunk America. It seems as though James Cameron and crew got “it”, perceived the threat of Islamic terrorism enough to warrant an entire blockbuster production. Why did so few of us listen? Why does it seem that, even now, only purveyors of farces (i.e., Park & Stone) are willing to look this issue in the eye and call a spade a spade?
I think that may be the true dividing line in tomorrow’s election: those who thought it farce and those who thought it cautionary tale. In my opinion, Bush represents the latter, Kerry the former. In the aftermath of September 11th and under the spectre of a nuclear-armed Iran, can we afford to elect a man who refuses to admit that we’re seeing our worst fears played out in real life? I don’t think so.
