The headline is designed to catch your attention. When I googled “presidential infallibility” most hits refer to the Pope, whose infallibility is a doctrine we’ve heard about for a long time. The idea of infallibility associated with the POTUS is another matter entirely.

I call it VICE rather than Vice (the way you see it in IMDB for instance) because that’s how it appears in the film’s credits, or the trailer.

Perhaps that’s wrong, but I like the look of it, a screaming four letter word.

Never have I felt that a historical film was so apt for explaining the current mess in USA as VICE (2018). Primary credit for this incisiveness surely belongs to Adam McKay, who directed and wrote the screenplay.

Yes its cast is also remarkable, Christian Bale transformed into Dick Cheney. This is an official photo of Cheney, to show you how close Bale’s portrayal comes to the original.

Amy Adams was his wife Lynne, Steve Carell was Donald Rumsfeld, Sam Rockwell was George W Bush.

But there are brilliant touches we don’t see in Hollywood films.

There’s a wonderful scene in a restaurant featuring Alfred Molina in an uncredited appearance as a waiter, offering Rumsfeld, Cheney and others in the inner circle (that didn’t include George W Bush btw) a series of options. Are they there for food? The guest are rather blood-thirsty in the way the huge slabs of meat are cut up on the plates. They’re hearing ways to violate international law. It’s creepy.

Another example comes in a scene between Cheney (Bale) and his wife (Adams), that segues from the constructed reality we’ve had into a more theatrical exchange. The narrator tells us that there’s no way to know what they were really discussing, and suddenly we’re listening to a Shakespearean discussion between the wife encouraging her husband’s pursuit of power, not unlike the Scottish play. It’s a breathtaking bit of film precisely because it’s so unreal, so unlikely, and yes, a reminder that Shakespeare or cinema are fictional creations.

McKay has in this segment taken us back to earlier moments of his film. We see the moment earlier in the Cheney’s marriage when Lynne confronted Dick about his drinking, urging him to do better, or she’d dump him.

She wasn’t disappointed.

It’s not all politics though. Dick Cheney is a loyal husband and father, standing by his gay daughter. He’s at times a mystery, but often sympathetic.

McKay shows Cheney making connections. Rumsfeld explains a lot to his loyal pupil Cheney, observing how Nixon comes to Kissinger’s office, where the conversations won’t be recorded, to discuss bombing Cambodia without consulting or even telling Congress (as required by law). During a war especially, the POTUS has the powers of a king, above the law and virtually infallible.

McKay is explaining how we got to where we are in 2023. A recent president is following the same template as Nixon (Cambodia is not the only example) or George W Bush (lying about weapons of mass destruction before USA and its coalition invaded Iraq, supposedly in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept 11 2001). While the Insurrection may be illegal for the participants (thinking of the ones who are in jail already), but what about for the President, who is arguably infallible? It’s a bit of a legal conundrum, a logical puzzle at the very least. But these stepping stones make the present day predicament far easier to understand.

Let me point you to a couple of things I found when I googled.

The doctrine of infallibility version 1, pertaining to George W Bush in a piece from 2002.
A Doctrine of Presidential Infallibility – The Washington Post

The doctrine of infallibility version 2: a more recent essay pertaining to Donald Trump
Trump’s Defenders Have Adopted a Doctrine of Infallibility | National Review

Underlying this idea of infallibility is something we heard in the film, namely the Unitary executive theory. The wikipedia article gives a summary, including mention of VICE, a film that explores the implications, as Bush (with the help of Dick Cheney, Bush rubber-stamping Cheney’s actions) can do anything during a war. Unitary executive theory – Wikipedia

Finally, there’s a comical afterthought, in a “focus group” scene that comes up in the moments of the film after the credits. As I type this CNN has a town hall underway, which hopefully will be more authentic than the CNN townhall with Trump. I just heard Chris Christie say “complete baloney”, thinking that hmm a town hall where you only admit supporters of the person on the stage isn’t a town hall. It’s a rally. Hopefully this time there will be people in the audience asking tough questions, not lobbing softballs into the guest’s strike-zone. Canada isn’t much better.

Democracy has seen better days.