There’s a new movie out called “Vice” – and while it’s definitely a captivating look at the rise of Dick Cheney, it’s also a great example of how we, as people, yearn for well-told stories. But is there a deeper lesson to be learned by that natural yearning we have, a yearning which can used to manipulate us?
Read on and let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments below.
I just watched Adam McKay’s newest creation, Vice. It was entertaining, to say the least, as is any movie that can make sexy a topic (politics) about which we normally feel either bored (CSPAN) or manipulated (CNN and FOX News).
McKay’s other recent film, The Big Short, was perhaps an even better example of this, incorporating humor, succinct explanations of complex topics, and an alluring cameo by Margot Robbie, all to tell the story of the housing market bubble. In it we were introduced to the players involved, the choices they made, the forces at work, and how it all lead to the horrendous crash of the global economy in 2008.
But other movies have done this, too, even if they didn’t break the fourth wall in their explanations. In fact, many of my favorite movies and shows of have done fantastic jobs of making sexy some true(ish?) historical narratives.
For example: The Social Network, Zero Dark Thirty, Spotlight, Braveheart, Schindler’s List, The Crown, The King’s Speech, First Man, and many more (here’s a great list). Each of theses uses state-of-the-art filmography and time-honored storytelling to, well, make the learning of history sexy.
And just what do I mean by, “to make sexy?”
Well, in my mind, it means transforming what might be a dull collection of facts into a story that grips us viewers. It means telling a tale in a way that we can’t help but to keep watching while we invest ourselves and our emotions in the characters and the outcome.
And just how does a story do this?
Well, a story follows a story arc, painting us a picture of characters with whom we identify, showing us their motives, and giving us a setting and context such that we a) connect with the actors and b) understand what’s at stake.
Be honest – do you find CSPAN sexy? Likely not. And that’s due to the fact that CSPAN seems to be the epitome of information in its raw form. I’m sure even CSPAN has its biases in presentation, but they’re harder to spot (and less effective) when you’re yawning over poorly-lit footage of some congressman debating, monotonously, a trivial footnote of proposed legislation about which you have literally zero understanding.
That’s why you watch it at 3 in the morning: to fall back asleep.
Conversely, news programs like CNN, FOX News, and so many others, are so blatantly biased and one-sided that they’re hard to even stomach, let alone believe.
We believe CSPAN, though we don’t want to watch it. We rarely believe the news, even if it does a superb job of holding our interest in the moment.
But stories like Vice, The Big Short, and so many others are something different. They draw us in. They make us WANT to learn about history. They’re not just raw facts. They provide back story, insight, palatable characters, and plot arcs that include climaxes and outcomes.
But frankly, those things are hard to come by in the real world.
And therein lies the rub.
Because see, we humans THIRST for stories. We THIRST for simplification. We THIRST for characters that make sense and for plots that come to fruition.
Why are there websites dedicated to pointing out the plot holes of the most popular movies? And why do those plot holes piss us off so much? Because well-told stories don’t have holes, at least we’d rather they not.
And that’s because our brains simply HATE the unknown. And a well-told story gives you something that the world doesn’t: a conclusion.
No, the world doesn’t give us obvious conclusions. Time keeps marching on. More facts emerge. What seemed like a negative occurrence ten years ago was actually the catalyst for real positive change (and vice versa).
But writers give us conclusions, and sometimes not just for the sake of the story.
What’s that old line? “History is written by the victor?”
Why would the victor care about writing history? Why might storytellers have more invested in their “conclusions” than just the sake of the art form itself?
Because storytelling is power. It provides mental security when life fails to provide it. And, perhaps unfortunately, storytelling is a conscious act – the stories we write are, as much as we might want to deny it, influenced by our own agendas.
Don’t get me wrong, I love stories.
But when I came out of the movie theater (I went to see it with my mother and step-father) my mother’s conclusion was, “It was really well told, but I wonder how many people will simply believe it to be true because it was a professionally-done movie?”
And that solidified, in my mind, something I’ve been grappling with for a long time.
See, we consume stories every day. Whether they are the movies we watch, or the news stories we read, or the parables we’re taught at our church, or the stories our parents tell us about the world, or the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves… we consume stories.
And those stories have characters and players and motives and beginnings and endings.
But any TRUE story about you, my gentle reader, would take a lifetime to tell. Or perhaps a thousand lifetimes. I’d have to explain who you were in every moment, and why you came to be that way. Your genetics, your upbringing, your culture. And I’d have to explain how you affected the world around you, the children you bore, and the lives you changed.
Again, don’t get me wrong: I love stories.
But take a minute to acknowledge that any time you consume information, and place it into context, and come to a conclusion about it, you’ve simplified the world.
Was Dick Cheney as complex as the character that Christian Bale played? Was he as flawed as he was made out to be? To both answers, no. He was more so. But then again, so are you. So am I. I can’t say I have an interest in meeting George W’s Vice President, nor am I an apologist for the Iraq War.
But I will say this: we’re all hungry for simplicity. And a well-told story is both an art form and a drug.
So, as it goes with any drug: ingest wisely.
~ Cecil
Would love to hear your thoughts about the movie Vice, or about the importance and power of stories on our perception of the world. Please comment below!
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