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Smedley butler bonus army12/6/2023 "You don't get here without things starting a long time ago," Bale's Dr. Russell could find that mimicked the January 6 insurrection. It was just the closest thing in American history that David O. Amsterdam wasn't an interesting murder mystery with a rewarding payoff. It's the kind of lukewarm, on-the-nose take that elicited audible groans throughout the theater. Russell is another creative who saw Trump become the President, lost his mind, and then gathered as many celebrities as he could to defend one of the most agreeable stances in the history of the world: that hate is bad and kindness is good. Surprise! The ending of the film is nothing more than that video of A-list celebrities singing “Imagine” to us over Zoom.Ĭlearly, David O. Instead, he gives a rousing speech about the need to uphold truth, democracy, and freedom. They want to pay the General a large sum of money to give a big speech at Doctor Burt's annual veteran's event in support of their fascist cause, but ol' De Niro just can't do it. You see, a bunch of old-timey business tycoons allegedly planned to take over the government and replace then-ill President Franklin D. It may have taken forever to get here after galavanting in an Amsterdam war hospital and a wealthy businessman's estate, but this is when the film finally gets to why David O. ![]() It's the first time in Amsterdam that I was certain we got to something that actually took place in American history. He's a decorated veteran based on real-life figure Major General Smedley Butler, who spoke about late payments from the Great Depression during what is known as the 1932 Bonus Army march on Washington. ![]() Eventually, all roads lead to retired General Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro). (Cue: Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Remi Malek, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, and Timothy Olyphant). A long, impossible-to-solve-yourself plot occurs over the course of the film, wherein every new character you meet is an instantly recognizable celebrity. After another murder takes place, the gang becomes suspects in a larger political scandal. Yes, the mega-pop star is here for two scenes-one of which will surely be memed out of existence. The Senator's daughter, Elizabeth (Taylor Swift), contacts Burt to perform a secret autopsy. War buddy Harold Woodman (John David Washington) calls and informs him that their former army general, Senator Bill Meekins (a corpse-like Ed Begley Jr.) has been murdered. Like a reluctant noir detective, he's constantly jostled around and thrown to the ground, occasionally having to paw around for his lost eye like Velma's glasses in Scooby-Doo. He's fully committed to his character, as opposed to some of his castmates, and his slapstick comedic timing is one of Amsterdam's only saving graces. For all the nonsense that ensues in Amsterdam, Bale is the film's one shining beacon of hope. He's clearly a guy who never could have existed in real life-or if he did, he couldn't have had anything to do with this story. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), a half-Jewish, half-Christian Manhattanite who treats veterans and has a wonky glass eye from his own tour of service in World War I. You mostly just get tricked into learning what this crime caper has covertly been leading toward this entire time. You don’t get the answer to one of America’s best-kept political secrets at Amsterdam's end. Russell's first film in over seven years, begins with a title card that explains what people have come to be familiar with in true-story films, telling us, "a lot of this really happened." What the audience learns after, however, is that not only did most of what you just saw arguably never occur, but the big scandal itself may have never even taken place at all. Of course, these are just a few examples of movies depicting some of America's largest accomplishments, scandals, and political what-ifs, but they also-for the most part-actually happened.Īmsterdam, David O. All the President's Men followed the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal, Argodetailed a CIA operative who rescued diplomats from Tehran, and Hidden Figuresexplored the women who helped make the Moon Landing possible. America may have run out of exciting based-on-a-true-story films about the nation's most unsung heroes.
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