Not Ready for Prime Time...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Why else would we enjoy a Shakespeare play, the poetry of Keats, the paintings of the great masters? It’s because we all respond to eternal truths. We can still relate to the twists and turns of a plot written five hundred years ago…

So it was with great interest that I watched the introduction of Baker, the friend of one and suspect to the other. Ah, there is more to this than meets the eye, I ruminated. I could see all kinds of motives deliciously interwoven with little hints of drama. Could this rise to the level of a Shakespearean plot with all its twists and turns? I don’t think so because the cast of characters are so pedestrian…never demonstrating a twinge of emotion.

What have we got? We have a natural conflict: father vs. son. Historically, the Elder, we gather, being not much of a father, impelled the son to pursue his own course which didn’t seem to include the wise counsel of his father. It would have been much better if the son killed the father but Bush is no Agamemnon.
In Act II, things get a little more interesting. We see the introduction of Consigliere, Baker, the Deux Ex Machina to resolve the conflict. Baker is no play-mate of junior; and the conflict starts to build. Will Baker please the father and mollify the son? Hardly! .

Conflict resolution without a lot of complications; but, no, there are hints of complications. The father weeps. Why? Ah, this could be something since the father has never shown a scintilla of compassion for anyone. So why would he cry when he didn’t cry for his crewmate who didn’t get to bail out when he did; nor did he cry when he screwed the Kurds. This might be something.
The skeptical mind wonders whether it’s to assuage his own internal guilt and save the lapsing career of the better, brighter son; or is it just to show Junior that he was sorry for never being there for him. Or maybe because its been so long since Betty gave him a little. Still melodrama.

In Act Three, the cheese becomes more binding sayeth the wise man.. The son who now reports to a higher authority, wants his father to know that he will not accept his “charity.” Higher authority reporting is more Greek than Shakespearean and one begins to wonder whether this analogy is more apt considering Junior is big on symbols and icons. Very Pythagorean signifying that the end may be near.. . Does the son know that the father had a mistress? Does the mother feels guilty that he survived and his younger sibling died? Does the son secretly resent the father? Is God part of the conflict between son and father? All questions without answers….Now, it seems that we are midway between the Skye Clan and the Old Testament.

The son insulted by the messenger of his father who verbalizes the son’s mistaken judgment serves an indictment upon the son before posing a possible solution.
The thin skinned son needs to show that he is his own man; that no man can question his capabilities—especially one so important sent to change what he believes is the only solution especially when the son considers that no one was there for him when he was growing up. This sounds positively Macedonian. The son to take over and exceed the father; yes, definitely; but the lack of doubt rules rules out Hamlet.

The father recognizing that his son is isolated from reality tries to nudge him from the bubble of his own making but is indirectly rebuked. (Glass menagerie perhaps?) At the same time, the father understands that this is all happening while the brighter son, perhaps the real tragedy, is closing out his own career without achieving the goals both parents had set for him. (Perhaps a reincarnation of Jimmy Stewart?)… . Did the father resort to the Baker alternative thinking that he might be able to save the career of his other son?

There are all of these little subtexts woven in this blueprint for change that seem to suggest that maybe in the long term, the son will see the light; but if we are honest with ourselves, we know there is little likelihood of that and that the entire world will be dragged into a pact with the Devil. Ah, Devil pacts are always interesting. Seeing the protagonist as the emissary of the he Devil makes us wonder whether this whole piece of business was some kind of Faustian bargain –a chance to show 41 that he could find a few brain cells that were still working. (See Fortunate Son and learn about silver spoon syndromes) or perhaps the Devil, himself, puts a new spin on the play and introduces an unholy alliance between man and man and suggesting that what is really being played out is the ultimate battle between good and Evil.
Here’s the book of John all over again; not the apostle, the other John, the old John who is sent to an island and is full of revenge. On the other hand, someone could make a good case for Mother Nature getting in her last licks with the ultimate Extinction and vindication for GAIA. Nevertheless, one could imagine the wind blowing and the tides at twenty feet. Here’s the final scene with angels rising into Heaven and the right wing singing the Hallelujah chorus as we sit through Armageddon and watch the premiers of North Korea, Iran and Saddam’s ghost plunging into the fires of hell with all left-leaning democrats.
Of course, rationality seems to have no place in the final chapter as we ultimately lose all rationality and decide to head for a good steak and a beer before the end arrives…

If we can transform this soap opera with a little ultimate Evil I’m sure that we could find backers; otherwise, I suspect it would get a bad review. I don’t think
Sumner Redstone would hire the cast for Paramount unless he got to pay the stars out of profits…

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon