Gordon Brown, projectionist
And then, just as a sneaking sympathy for Gordon Brown begins to creep up on you, you see him telling us which movie changed his life…
I choose “Chariots of Fire” because it’s all about the potential of young people being realised.
Like, what? Who writes, thinks or talks like that? It doesn’t exactly reek of sincerity and authenticity, does it? Are we really to believe, as the elderly Aubrey Montague and Andrew Lindsay dodder from Harold Abrahams’ memorial service, the Prime Minister sat back in his chair, sighed heavily with emotion and satisfaction and thought to himself, ‘yes, the potential of those young people was realised’?
Did watching Ben Cross and Nigel Havers doing the College Dash really help fuel Brown’s alleged passion for social justice? Watching Eric Liddell refusing to run on the Sabbath inspired compulsory voluntary service and over-stuffing the country’s universities, did it?
Which media handler thought this sounded human, let alone plausible? Who said, ‘perfect, send that’ upon reading it? Do these people have a single thought that doesn’t automatically factor in Gordon Brown’s febrile fantasy that he’s somehow making this country a better place? Couldn’t they, just once, have said: ‘Bollocks to it, tell them he thinks Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is bloody ace’? (Or whatever film not heavy with disingenuous symbolism he does actually think changed his life.)
Christ, you could make the same ‘potential realised’ argument about Scarface. Young man from dirt-poor background makes a shitload of cash and pulls Michelle Pfeiffer. Or the Star Wars prequels. ‘Prime Minister, which film changed your life?’ ‘I choose “Revenge of the Sith” because as Anakin Skywalker slaughters the younglings in the Jedi temple and completes his journey to the Dark Side, I saw that it’s all about the potential of young people being realised.’
Posted on May 11th, 2009 at 7:50pm under Brown
The Prime Minister couldn’t possibly cite Scarface: it features an immigrant.
I’m not sure your reading of the film is close enough. Scarface features several immigrants, one of whom (Tony Montana’s mother) works hard, plays by the rules and is rewarded by having her children shot and the reputation of her ethnic group dragged through the dirt. Nothing for a nice, hard-working family man to object to there.
Gordon’s soul-film is probably the 1976 King Kong. Nobody wanted it much, its reputation is dire, it attempted to duplicate the undeserved success of a shallow, ill-thought-out and rather loony predecessor, and it was followed by an interminable, amped-up clone of that same predecessor.
But the big ape ends by climbing the World Trade Center and coming under attack from aircraft – not a good association all told. Although one can imagine him with Mr Brown’s face – displaying a mixture of puzzlement and rage – and Harriet Harman as Fay Wray.
It wasn’t the bullets. It was beauty that killed the beast.
I suspect he picked Chariots of Fire, or at least his handlers did, because Joe Biden sounded so articulate and cultured when he cited it as his favourite film on the US campaign trail back in October.
And yes, would it kill one of these fuckers just to fess up and say that their favourite film is Shawshank or The Blue Brothers.
Triumph of the Will.
Best political film ever.
I’ve been thinking of casting Mr Brown in a remake of the Edward G Robinson classic – Little Caesar. Every time I see him I can hear the PM saying: ‘Is this the end of Rico?’
Little Caesar? A real cynic would go for the ending of White Heat: ‘Made it, Ma – top of the world!’
It might have been leaked that David Cameron bought the Chariot’s of Fire DVD and claimed it on expenses; so this scuppers that or whatever!
Godfather Part III. Everyone waited in breathless anticipation for over a decade, and then it turned out to be a bit shit.
I hate to think what Guido’s readers will make of this choice.
Am I the only one thinking that if a movie changed your life, you might not have thought it through properly in the first place? I mean, sure, there’s a lot of really good films out there, and some of them are even thought-provoking, profound, insightful, whatever… But life-changing? Nah.
Maybe it’s just me.