Casino Jack (2010), George Hickenlooper's final film, with Oliver Stone-like glee details the shenanigans of numerous real people including Jack Abramoff, money-grubbing greedmeisters who, up until the very near past, operated like clones of Spiro Agnew in the corridors of American power. Some will recall that Agnew, Richard Nixon's Vice President, took cash bribes for years while castigating his enemies as "pusillanimous pussyfooters" and "nattering nabobs of negativism" -- until he was finally caught and brought low and later finally departed this world for good. As for Casino Jack Abramoff, he is played like a partly sympathetic villain by Kevin Spacey, much as Oliver Stone projected some humanity onto Nixon (in Nixon) and George Bush (in W.). The system, however, reeked in Nixon's day and reeked again among Abramoff and his numerous cronies and allies, people like Tom "Dancing with the Stars" Delay, Grover "No New Taxes" Norquist and John "Panama Jack" McCain.
Though convicted in 2006 for fraud and various other public misdeeds, the real Casino Jack is already on the loose again in 2011, supposedly wanting to "clean up" the system now that he can directly suck its blood no longer. Not to say he won't be cruising for payola in other ways. It may only be a matter of time before he, too, Dances with the Stars. The only thing that astonishes me about Abramoff is that he is still only 53 years old.
Today's Rune: Protection.
2 comments:
Kevin Spacey is a truly talented actor.
Erik, anything with Oliver Stone/Kevin Spacey inflences just has to be good!cop
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