TTOTB is a worthy satire, the type of which could never be found on American television.
Those that see Tony Blair to already be a tragic figure will probably find this film to be both darkly humorous and somewhat sad. It is not beyond the pale to believe that someday a variety of figures related to the Iraq war fiasco could someday wind up at the Hague facing a war tribunal.
The films treats both the Labour and Tory Party with equally contemptible amusement. Understandably, Tony receives the brunt of the beating. At one point a protester is seen holding a placard reading "Tony Blair = 800,000 Iraqi dead". That figure is easily reachable given the current scale of the carnage and the fact that this film takes place in 2010.
It is equally conceivable that as the killing fields of Iraq continue to gestate for a few more years, that whatever benefit of the doubt Bush and Blair are currently given for the rose-colored fantasy of bringing democracy to the Middle east, will have long since wilted. In that they took a regime that was contained, and had US air power flying over it continually for ten years enforcing a no-fly zone, only to topple a sovereign nation against the wishes of the United Nations, a logical case could certainly be made before a war tribunal.
Having unleashed the Furies resulting in hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, not to mention turning multiple millions more into refugees...well, characters have stood before the Hague previously for a lot less.
The satire of the film derives mainly from the same faith-based morality that drove Blair to act so questionably to begin with. Here, with the walls closing in, abandoned by his former allies and facing a trial, he never can quite get a grasp on the situation he is in. Like Mr. Bush, whose faith-faith certitude never allows him to consider the folly of his ways, likewise, Mr. Blair is intellectually incapable of seeing how anyone could ignore the benevolence of his own heart, as he sent his country to war, squandering its blood, treasure and national reputation.
By the time in the film when new PM Gordon Brown comes to see him, and Blair feels sandbagged in believing that Brown too has abandoned him, Tony criticizes his belief that Brown is merely acting on orders of the White House (and current President Hillary), to which Brown responds, "I wonder who I learned that from."
A very black satirical comedy. Not any less timely than "Dr. Strangelove" which came out at a time when everyone felt the dire threat of nuclear annihilation from either the Soviets or the U.S.. Yet it is also a film that could possibly turn out to be much less satire that prescient drama depending on how events play out over the next half dozen years, the precise levels of the human carnage unleashed by Blair and Bush's geo-political experiment, as well as the international mood and tolerance come the next decade.
Those that see Tony Blair to already be a tragic figure will probably find this film to be both darkly humorous and somewhat sad. It is not beyond the pale to believe that someday a variety of figures related to the Iraq war fiasco could someday wind up at the Hague facing a war tribunal.
The films treats both the Labour and Tory Party with equally contemptible amusement. Understandably, Tony receives the brunt of the beating. At one point a protester is seen holding a placard reading "Tony Blair = 800,000 Iraqi dead". That figure is easily reachable given the current scale of the carnage and the fact that this film takes place in 2010.
It is equally conceivable that as the killing fields of Iraq continue to gestate for a few more years, that whatever benefit of the doubt Bush and Blair are currently given for the rose-colored fantasy of bringing democracy to the Middle east, will have long since wilted. In that they took a regime that was contained, and had US air power flying over it continually for ten years enforcing a no-fly zone, only to topple a sovereign nation against the wishes of the United Nations, a logical case could certainly be made before a war tribunal.
Having unleashed the Furies resulting in hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, not to mention turning multiple millions more into refugees...well, characters have stood before the Hague previously for a lot less.
The satire of the film derives mainly from the same faith-based morality that drove Blair to act so questionably to begin with. Here, with the walls closing in, abandoned by his former allies and facing a trial, he never can quite get a grasp on the situation he is in. Like Mr. Bush, whose faith-faith certitude never allows him to consider the folly of his ways, likewise, Mr. Blair is intellectually incapable of seeing how anyone could ignore the benevolence of his own heart, as he sent his country to war, squandering its blood, treasure and national reputation.
By the time in the film when new PM Gordon Brown comes to see him, and Blair feels sandbagged in believing that Brown too has abandoned him, Tony criticizes his belief that Brown is merely acting on orders of the White House (and current President Hillary), to which Brown responds, "I wonder who I learned that from."
A very black satirical comedy. Not any less timely than "Dr. Strangelove" which came out at a time when everyone felt the dire threat of nuclear annihilation from either the Soviets or the U.S.. Yet it is also a film that could possibly turn out to be much less satire that prescient drama depending on how events play out over the next half dozen years, the precise levels of the human carnage unleashed by Blair and Bush's geo-political experiment, as well as the international mood and tolerance come the next decade.