>Of course, later in the film MM traces the connections between the Saudis
>and the Bush family. After leading you through the details, he shows us
>Bush Pere, Shrubya, Powell, Baker, etc. glad handing or holding hands with
>the Saudis. The music that intros and backgrounds the footage? REM's
>"Shiny Happy People". Pretty fucking funny. You wouldn't have laughted
>without it.
>
>Probably the best use of music was the introduction to Afghanistan and the
>connections with Unocal, the pipeline deal, Cheney/Halliburton, Lay/Enron,
>and Karzai who was once an advisor to Unocal. MM opens this with a map of
>Afghanistan, only it's like the map at the beginning of Bonanza, with fire
>tearing through it. If the reference to Bonanza with music wasn't funny
>enough, you get a real chuckle when you see they've replaced Hoss, etc
>with the shiny happy faces of Shrub, Cheney, Rummy, etc. Not just stills.
>They used a computer to slap their 3 D mugs underneath the bonanza cowboy
>hats. Great stuff.
>
>Kelley
I generally agree with most of what you've written but I was a little put off by the part with the administration honchos shaking hands with the Saudis. It seems xenophobic in tone. The Saudis are mostly assumed to be Bin Laden family members but not all are. It almost seemed to be saying that the Bush gang was bad because they were hobnobbing with Arabs. Without naming them individually they all seem to meld into a typical American version of a generic Arab. Captions with names would have blunted this. I assume that is not it's intent but I couldn't help but feel that the juxtaposition of western suits with keffiyahs and gellabahs was used poorly. If you were taking a reactionary person to see the film I think they might interpret that scene as saying Bush is bad because he sold out the US to Arabs. Overall I'd say it is perhaps his best effort to date. At times it was literally more than I could take without crying from both sadness and frustration.On the other hand the Bonanza rip off made me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants, literally. Always go light on the cocktails before seeing a movie.
John Thornton