One issue conspicuously absent in all recent elections is culture. Here, I mean the kind of "culture" that refers to theater, the arts, music and, of course, movies. Arts and culture are the last things on any administration's mind during campaign season. But here's the thing: Movies in particular are a medium whose main purpose is to catch our attention -- sometimes about politics, be they local, national or global. "Life's a movie," or so they say? Well, if our lives are indeed like a movie I would strongly encourage you to watch "Vantage Point," a 2007 Sony Pictures release.It happened on one of my bus rides between İstanbul and Ankara. I had planned to read and write during the short journey when my attention was diverted to the small screen above me. There was a movie about to begin featuring flag-waving people lining the streets of a supposedly Latin American town. Election time, maybe? Then a politician drove past in his motorcade, and it did not require much imagination to picture the American president in one of the limos. First I thought, "Great, another cheap flick." Then we were told that the city depicted was actually in Spain! I don't know why exactly I couldn't take my eyes off the screen shortly after passing through Bolu, but the combination of Spain-American president-political thriller probably did the trick. The American president was about to be killed; that was certain.
"Vantage Point" is presented in a number of incredibly shot flashbacks -- all starting at 11:59 a.m. -- of the key players and their final moments before the assassination and their involvement in it. In a nutshell, a terror cell infiltrated the Spanish authorities, planting one of their own close to an American agent. The terrorists masqueraded as fake police, hotel and ambulance staff, knowing that the US president would have a double and plotting to ultimately kidnap the real president. They knew how American secret agents are trained and what they watch out for. The movie then turned more "Oscar-like" -- without ever winning any -- by inserting a sensational car chase which, frankly speaking, was indeed more about exercising Hollywood clichés than providing a tutorial on how to navigate Spanish side streets at high speeds. But never mind that; I got hooked long before the inevitable happy end.
Now picture this: a country where a policeman's wages are low (many countries spring to mind, including those in northern Europe). The state machinery controls everything. Symbols matter. Did anyone in that movie question a person wearing a uniform or flashing a badge? Authority matters; symbols manifest it. No questions, please! Then add the suicide bomber who in our movie blows up the hotel entrance by blowing himself up.
The movie leads us to re-evaluate our approach to combating terror. Thinking the unthinkable is no longer enough; we must actually prepare ourselves for it.
"Vantage Point" lets the mind go one step further. What if the people misusing symbols of democracy (think again: fake police, fake ambulances, fake security guards and fake hotel staff) are actually sponsored by the very people they "officially" try to destroy? How else would they have ever gained access to classified information in the first place? Any Joe could single-handedly blow up his local hamburger joint, but attempting to kill the US president needs something else: insider information.
Rewind from Spain to Paris: In 1982 a French film was introduced to a very receptive public, winning the national film award, the César. The film: "La Balance." A police force makes criminals into informants who tip off the authorities on the plans of their fellow outlaws in a deal to have their charges dropped. It presented a different, less picture-postcard type of Paris (Belleville, as case in point); facades matter, but appearances are not what they seem as local cops more or less experience the same dilemmas as their criminal counterparts. It was perhaps the first "real" movie about Paris. Parisians loved it, too. It put relativity into the relationship between authorities and "us," making policemen likeable, i.e., more human, but by doing so destroyed most clichés we ever had about them.
Now, pause: If it is possible that a police force is allowed to bend laws if not exactly violating them (in "La Balance"), where do we draw the line when it comes to supporting the overthrow of a government ("Vantage Point")? This argument, of course, only holds up if you agree with me that for "Vantage Point" to have made any sense, the Spanish terrorists must have had some support on the inside. In the end -- naturally -- the US president was rescued and whisked away in a readied US helicopter; happy ending indeed -- or, was it really a US helicopter? Only life is stranger than fiction, come election time or not.
