The REEL Addict 

By Allan Tong of Holy Grails

What better way to celebrate Halloween 2008 than watching films about the terrifying presidency of George W. Bush? With innocent men being tortured at Gitmo, 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians-to-date, New Orleans in ruins three years after Katrina, phones tapped, paranoia rampant and record numbers of Americans foreclosing on mortgages, who needs Saw? The last eight years under the Bush administration have been so horrific that George Romero would gag. So curl up in front of the fire, turn down the lights and pop these DVDs into your player (in no particular order) to truly send shivers down your spine.

Horns and Halos (2002): In 1999, James Hatfield published Fortunate Son, a critical biography of the then-Republican Presidential candidate that revealed how Dubya dodged the Vietnam draft, scored mediocre grades at Yale, snorted too much coke, and was a lousy oil tycoon. Bush’s campaign lawyers threatened young publisher, Sander Hicks, and smeared Hatfield’s name. Bush doesn’t speak on camera in this film, but casts a long, dark shadow across the proceedings. A lively yet disturbing documentary about censorship, politics and the loyalty between Hicks and Hatfield. The double-DVD by Microfilms is bursting with additional interviews and suppressed footage of protests at Bush’s first inauguration.

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004): No George W. Bush list would be complete without Michael Moore. Damned by conservatives when it was released in the 2004 election year, Fahrenheit 9/11 just might be the definitive Dubya film. Moore accused Bush of stealing the 2000 election together with his brother (and Florida governor Jeb); and lying to justify invading Iraq and securing her oil. Sure, Moore takes liberties with some facts and is unapologetically anti-Bush, but you have to respect how he took a lot of heat by releasing this film when most Americans still backed the war. Unfortunately, time has proven Moore right.

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007) & Taxi To The Dark Side (2007): Several excellent films have been made about the torture of innocent prisoners in U.S. military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, but Ghosts of Abu Ghraib by Rory Kennedy cuts the deepest. It opens with footage from the 1961 Milgram experiment which proved that humans will torture if they believe they are following orders. That’s precisely what happened at Afghanistan’s Abu Ghraib prison, which the Americans took over from Saddam Hussein as their place of aggressive interrogation. Alex Gibney’s Taxi To The Dark Side focuses on a single case: an innocent cabbie in Afghanistan whom American soldiers kicked to death in 2002. Though some of the torturers were imprisoned, their bosses in the White House who authorized this systemic treatment get off clean.

Who did they take orders from? The White House.

Borat (2006): America lost its sense of irony when the planes struck on 9/11, and didn’t get it back until Sasha Baron Cohen released this film. Borat’s extremely moronic racism, sexism and homophobia allow redneck Americans to drop their guard on camera and expose their true colours, whether it’s a cowboy at a southern rodeo or a bunch of drunken frat boys. Borat would’ve been funny in any era, but is particularly scathing—and hilarious —during the xenophobic Bush years. “Shave that dang mustache,” a straight-faced rodeo star urges Borat, “so you look like an Eyetalian, not an Iraqi.”

Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo Bay (2007): True, this isn’t as funny as its predecessor, but it is more political. Kumar (Kal Pen) gets busted on a plane for carrying a bomb, er I mean bong. That sends him and his buddy Harold (John Cho) to Gitmo from which they escape a “cock meat” sandwich and eventually toke up with none other than Dubya on his Texas ranch. Silly? Sure. But where else will you find Bush Jr, smokin’ chronic?

Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush (2008): “What the BLEEP were you thinking?!” comedian Lewis Black asks his audience who voted for George W. not once but twice. The folks at Comedy Central have gathered the best of Bush, ranging from South Park’s 9/11 conspiracy episode to a mock jury debating whether Dick Cheney or Paris Hilton is more evil. Trey Parker’s rarely seen TV series, That’s My Bush, is sampled here. Predating 9/11 by a few months, the series is notable for being the last series to mock Bush until Borat came along. Though this collection has a few duds it’s still worth the two-hour stroll through the Dubya years.