Not bad, but it was hard to keep from being distracted.
Bush’s Brain, which is based on the book by James Moore and Wayne Slater, is a focus on Karl Rove, the political advisor who is largely credited with securing the Presidency for George W. Bush, and serves as his senior advisor. The movie details some of the unrelenting and even unethical tactics Rove has resorted to since his college days to get ahead in politics, particularly in winning elections for his clients. The interviewees in the film argue that Bush would not have won the Presidency, even with his family name, were it not for Rove.
The movie is straightforward in its presentation of its facts, though a bit more dry than films like The Corporation or the films of Michael Moore, which use pop culture clips to punctuate its metaphors in a more accessible, humorous way, and it was hard to follow some if the material in its first half. After the first 30 or 40 minutes, however, the movie got interesting when it explored Rove’s use of bugs, how he helped Bush defeat Texas governor Ann Richards, how he engineered the scandalously dishonest smear campaign against Vietnam vet and triple amputee Max Cleland in the 2000 South Carolina primaries, and the Bush campaign’s attacks on Arizona senator John McCain, who competed against Bush for the Republican nomination.
The movie portrays Rove as an extremely dangerous political figure, even to fellow Republicans, and makes it clear that anyone who shows up on his radar should be afraid, because he takes names.
I’m not sure, however, about the relevance of that U.S. soldier killed in Iraq to the subject of Rove.
It isn’t a good thing that I looked at my cell phone clock at the one hour, nine minute mark, but luckily, the movie was only about one hour and sixteen minutes anyway. Despite the fact that some of it was a bit hard to understand, I think much of the film contains very important information about the man it calls our “co-President,” and in light of the current flap over the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth anti-Kerry ads, everyone should see it.
Imagine a movie called Trump's Brain.
Not much would be there to see.