Man of the Year (2006) Life is Beautiful with Robin Williams (vol.6)
“When I was 21, I went to a prostitute and I was so bad, she had to give me a refund”
The opening six minutes of Barry Levinson’s 19th feature length film as director and third collaboration with Robin Williams following Good Morning Vietnam in 1987 and Toys five years later, sets up the near two hour film that follows it. Through the opening credits and accompanying sounds of a television show being prepared and readied for air, “Man of the Year” is presented in red, white and blue in the centre of the screen as the film’s opening narration commences:
“This story might fall under the heading of “One Thing Leads to Another”. It started on August 20th”
We cut to the film’s narrator “Jack Menken” (Christopher Walken) in a wheelchair, bathed in the lamplight of a sumptuous and opulent looking sitting room or lounge:
“At 7pm, Tom Dobbs, who had a successful cable show featuring political comedy, was talking to the audience during the warmup routine, prior to the taping of the show”
As Menken’s narration has continued, director Levinson has slowly moved his camera to the right, expanding our view of his opulent location that also includes a somewhat interviewer sitting opposite him as Menken is seemingly not only narrating the beginning to the film but also as part of an ongoing interview. From the lamplight of his lounge, we cut to “Tom Dobbs” (Robin Williams) under the glare of the studio lights:
“Thanks for coming here today. This isn’t the actual show. If you noticed, the cameras are pointing at nothing, and some of the critics have said that too (audience laughter) But I’m just here to kind of talk to you, warm up the audience, a little bit of foreplay (audience laughter) Sorry! I’ll back up now just for harassment reasons (audience laughter) You know, the Government said recently…well, a lot of people said, we’re cutting back spending. We’re cutting back spending, but NASA actually spent $28 Million to develop a fountain pen that would write upside down in space in zero gravity. The Russians solved the same problem with a 5 cent pencil (audience laughter)”
Levinson’s camera continues to pan around a packed audience laughing at Dobbs as he runs through a warmup routine containing acidic jibes at GPS guidance systems in cars, Mercedes cars, household appliances that listen and talk to us and even in-built mobile telephones in the body. The latter two topics highly prescient in today’s world but two decades ago? The scene setting continues with Menken’s ongoing narration, come interview:
“It was during a Question and Answer session that a woman made a statement” (cut to lady in the audience suggesting that Tom Dobbs should run for President to raucous cheers and applause) “The comment was quickly forgotten and minutes later, the show got under way”
We cut to Tom Dobbs interviewing an unnamed US Senator before explaining that politics had become so futile and meaningless that a lady member of his audience had suggested he run for President. Cue wild applause once more:
“Within 3 hours, there were 4 million emails endorsing Dobbs for President. Over the course of the next week, Tom Dobbs mentioned this 4 more times. The internet was on fire. Over 8 million emails. It was a grass roots movement, fuelled by the power of the internet, and the cult of personality. On September 2nd, something very, very unusual happens”
As Menken’s narration has continued we have seen Tom Dobbs preparing backstage for yet another show before we return for his bombshell announcement and “Tomorrow, I will officially announce my candidacy for the President of the United States”. Cue wild applause from his audience as Levinson cuts to a dumbfounded and incredulous Jack Menken standing backstage. His narration continues:
“Maybe it was sheer vanity, maybe it was a political stunt, or maybe it was because Tom believed his audience demanded it. Who knows? As Tom Dobbs’ manager, I was as shocked as everyone around me, and I wasn’t exactly pleased. Shortly thereafter, Tom Dobbs was on the ballot in 13 States. That was part one of the unusual progression of events. On the West Coast, the second domino toppled over…”
We cut to a series of glossy commercials including American citizens “losing voter confidence” in the voting system and the answer, computerized voting systems, as promoted by Delacroy Voting Systems.
Jack Menken’s narration continues:
“Congress decided that Delacroy Systems would have the national franchise for computerized voting in the coming Presidential election. In hindsight, not one of their better decisions…”
“Tom Dobbs” (Robin Williams) Fast talking, gag cracking comedian with a political as well as a human, everyman consciousness full to overflowing with empathy? Suffice to say, Robin was an easy fit for the role here! From talk show comedian to US President Elect in a matter of cinematic minutes, Robin steals his own show with continued gags and jokes (regardless of his position in life, exalted to Leader of the Free World or not) from the cutting “Why would security guards pad down an 85-year-old lady with a walker? If she’s a terrorist… well, then the ball game’s over, folks” to the always prescient (and hilarious) “HMOs will pay for your Viagra, but they won’t pay for your glasses. So you can have a hard-on, but you can’t see where to put it” to the awkwardly funny “Even in the face of tyranny, there is comedy. Remember those two Jewish commandos who were sent to kill Hitler at 12:30? They waited in an alley with guns, bombs and knives… only Hitler didn’t show up. After half an hour came and went, still no Hitler. Finally, one Jew turns to the other and says, “My God, I hope nothing happened to him” through to the very final lines of the film and…
“Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently and for the same reason. Keep that in mind the next time you vote. Good night”.
Whilst Robin is spectacularly good with a role that is a comfortable second skin for him, the film is more than a little limp around the edges despite the reassuring screen presence of the master, Christopher Walken, as Tom Dobbs fretful manager, Laura Linney as the centre of the conspiracy through line and even a blink and you’ll often miss him cameo from Jeff Goldblum intertwined with Linney in the same voting scandal conspiracy narrative the film didn’t overly need. But with its introduction comes the harbinger of real life (whatever that is) of election interference and the oft cried conspiracies in America of 2016 and 2020 and then of course we have the spectre of a comedian rising to the highest office of power in not only the United States but arguably the entire world. As this film of nearly two decades jokes so early in the piece about domestic appliances spying on our supposed private behaviours within our own homes and mobile telephones inside our bodies and not handheld rectangular pieces of plastic, throwaway doom, we also have the intriguing line of the “Cult of Personality” too.
Donald Trump anyone?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy anyone?
I call politics and real life (whatever that is) the “Carnival of the Bizarre” and here it is in cinematic form before a game show host and a comedian began dominating your Orwellian telescreens with tales of the forever war.
I think they spelled the “Cult” of the “Cult of Personality” wrong, but then again, I’ve always hated the carnival.
And it never leaves town anymore, does it?
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon