Essay on Kurt's Journey: How Cheney Emerged as Most Powerful Vice President

Introduction

Kurt is a factious veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars who narrates "Vice" (Adam McKay, 2018). The film features the journey of Cheney from a desperate drunkard in Wyoming to a powerful politician in the United States. The movie consists of multiple flashbacks and flash-forwards showing that it took Cheney time to flourish slowly and eventually, he became most influential Vice President and dictatorial man in the history of the United States. The narration utilizes several temporal approaches to demonstrate the different stages of life the main character passes over fifty years that the story time covers. The film also shows the life of other characters such as Kurt and Lynne through temporal strategies to demonstrate how they impacted the life of Cheney. The order of plot is also utilized in the narration through flashbacks how Cheney was inspired by his husband to clean up his life and become somebody important in the society.

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Thesis Statement

McKay successfully gives the viewer the experiences of characters within the "Vice" through strategic manipulation of temporal elements like frequency, order, and duration.

Evidence and Analysis

The narration demonstrates Cheney and Lynne successful life in the present through subjective and recounting flashbacks. Moreover, the director uses enacted recounting flashbacks to show how the characters are grateful for their success in life. It also shows how it was not easy for them to achieve it because they had to commit many vices. The narration also employs durational approaches to represent how the lives of characters have changed. However, the narration uses freeze-frames to slow down the rhythm of the movie. Long and short duration shots are also utilized to draw the attention of the audience so that they realize that the characters are concentrated on their past and the thin they passed through to achieve their goal. Flashbacks remind the audience the important shots in the film, for instance, the moment when Lynne is upset with Cheney alcoholism life that she threatens to leave him if he does not change. Therefore, the temporal techniques of duration and order by narration show how difficult it is for a middle-class person without family political background to rise into power.

The use of enacted and recounted flashbacks in the "Vice" demonstrate that Cheney past experience made him rise into his current situation. The film begins with a glimpse in Casper, Wyoming in 1963 where Cheney is in a simple club. He is completely drunk and screams all over while betting with other men. The scene tells that a lot had happened prior because as he is driving while drank the audience notices that his face damaged from a bar brawl. The film flashes forward where Cheney and other White House representatives are responding to the 9/11 attack in 2001. The temporal structure that the life of Cheney has changed tremendously from what the audience first saw at the beginning of the movie. The change of lifestyles from drank hopeless man to a White House official depict the change of time. The film narration shows that the life of Cheney has changed because he is no longer a desperate young man who had issues with alcohol. The duration of the film indicates that it took time for him to become the vice president of the United States. In some cases the duration that represents time shown on the screen because the viewers could not tell the time the movie began. The temporal gap shows that Cheney is not an ordinary man like the man who was in the car. He has all attention from staff and focused on solving the issue that was a national attack. The temporal gap shows that it has taken long because Cheney is now old. He is in his sixties and when the cop arrested him, he was in his early twenties. The audience realizes that there were a lot of missing events that led to his current situation. He was doing odd jobs indicating that it was in 1963 he was not anywhere close to the White House. However, it became clear to the audience that time had shifted when the characters are responding to the 9/11 attack because it happened in 2001. Therefore, the flash-forward indicates that it took Cheney years to rise into power.

The film frequency clarifies to the audience that the scene is happening in the presidential emergency operations center. As the narration of events continues, there is a flashback in 1963 where Cheney is working as a lineman. The high frequency shows a pattern of negative effects that happened within the lives of the characters. Some events had negative impacts in his life, for instance, he dropped from University due to alcoholism. This was one of the reasons he ended up as a failure in life. Recounted flashback demonstrates Lynne role in the future success of Cheney. His wife becomes very furious having bailed him twice for driving while intoxicated. She compiles him to clean up his life or he would lose her completely. There are several recounted flashbacks as Lynne refers back to the moment her mother was brutally treated by her alcoholic father. She also remembers how his mother lived a desperate life and had to endure physical harassment from his father. The recounted flashback symbolizes that Lynne is tired of her husband behavior and she is worried that if he continues drinking alcohol he may end up like her father. It also illustrates that she does not want to live in depression-like her mother and this is the reason she clearly tells Cheney to change. He warns him that if he does not clean up his life she would divorce him.

Temporal gaps are done by omitting unnecessary details that can be assumed by the audience. The movie then shows a different situation where the characters are in another event. Temporal gaps allow for the audience to make their abstract demonstration of the situation at hand. The audience notices the gap when the characters are in a different situation or environment that is completely different from the one they were watching. In the "Vice" the temporary gaps closed quickly by the introduction of flashback where the audiences learn how the missing events happened. The editor does this to avoid misinterpretation of the movie or a situation where the audience may fail to understand important events in the movie hence miss out of the mission.

Although the Vice film presents all the information needed by the audience to understand the movie, sometimes the movie was suppressed to fit in a short time. For instance, some events are shown within flashes of seconds. The "Vice" is comprised of many flashbacks because scenes are introduced by a flashback to a different scene, then back to the scene, the audience was watching. The director tells many events in flashbacks and the style is not consistent because some events are flash-forwards telling what happened before time. Frequency is the number of times an event is repeated in the movie to create a dipper understanding of the audiences. Successful narration occurs when the narrator explains all the necessary details in image motions. The audiences are able to understand what is happening in every event.

Rhythm reduces and expands the duration of events in the film to create a certain intended emotion to the audience. When Cheney joins the White House as an intern, he seems like a stranger but he tries to act comfortable. The scene is slow and involves less drama to illustrate the change of environment from the bar when he was shouting like a mad man. It does not cut rapidly, and the duration of the scene has equivalence to the duration within the story. The cuts occur when the association between shots controls the pace of the film. In the "Vice" there is the equal length of scenes that forms a metrical beat. The shots are shots and this helps the viewers to understand the duration of events from one situation to another. The viewers also understand that the events displayed in the film took longer than the given time but the editor makes them follow each other in a sequence. For instance, the audiences understand that it took time when Cheney was in the university to the time he works in a linen company. Likewise, there are short shots portraying 1968 when Cheney works in the White House as an intern. This was also a flashback showing how he was ready to transform into a valuable person after his wife advice.

Conclusion

The vice film utilize time manipulation to provide quality of Cheney phases in life through the use of enacted and recounted flashbacks. The movie consists of multiple flashbacks and flash-forwards demonstrating the time taken by Cheney to become most influential Vice President and dictatorial man in the history of the United States. There are several instances where the movie uses the temporal gaps allowing for the audience to make their abstract demonstration of the situation. Time manipulation in films is done to offer a dream-like quality movie where the story of the main character is told through different scenes. Moreover, time manipulation also makes the film interesting and creates suspense to the audience.