The Legacy of Dick Cheney: A Vice President Like No Other
With the death of Dick Cheney, the United States says goodbye to a vice president who defied the usual Hollywood stereotype of the office. When vice presidents appear in film and television, they are usually portrayed as supporting players, as politically inert, or at most as comic relief. Cheney was something else. Widely regarded as the true power and driving force of the Bush presidency and the architect of the US invasion of Iraq, Cheney became a symbol of American politics and power in the post-9/11 era.
Portrayals of Cheney in Film
Cheney inspired two of the best cinematic depictions of Veep-dom in history. Most famous is Adam McKay’s "Vice" (2018), a darkly comic biopic starring Christian Bale as Cheney that chronicles his rise through the ranks of Washington, from congressman in Wyoming to secretary of defense to the most powerful vice president in U.S. history. In McKay’s portrayal, Cheney is the puppeteer: the quiet voice in the corner of the room whose suggestions become policy.
Christian Bale’s Transformation
It’s another full-fledged performance from Bale, who transformed for the role, gaining more than 40 pounds and acting through layers of prosthetics and makeup. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including a Best Actor nomination for Bale, but won only one for its exceptional hair and makeup work. Cheney claimed to have never seen the film, but said his granddaughter’s judgment was that Bale made him look "like a real badass."
A Machiavellian Figure in Oliver Stone’s "W."
Before “Vice,” Oliver Stone tried his hand at portraying the Cheney-Bush dynamic in his 2008 dramedy “W,” based on the life of the 43rd president. Richard Dreyfuss plays Cheney to Josh Brolin’s clueless "Dub-ya." While Bush is the star, Cheney is the dark force steering the ship of state. He is the shadow lurking in a corner of the Oval Office, a whispering Machiavellian quietly urging the president toward war.
Fictional Vice Presidents
Compared to these two commanding veeps, most of Hollywood’s fictional vice presidents fall short. Dax Shepard as Vice President Frito Pendejo in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy (2006) is a perpetually stoned, incredibly incompetent lawyer who stumbles into the second highest office in the land. Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, the vice president in the HBO political satire "Veep" (2012-2019), is one of television’s great comedic performances — she won six consecutive Emmys for the role — but Meyer, at once ambitious, clueless and shameless, is unlikely to win over swing voters.
Heroic and Villainous Portrayals
Also, Frank Underwood, the ruthless politician played by Kevin Spacey in HBO’s "House of Cards" (2013-2018), who rises from majority in the House of Representatives to the vice presidency to the top job using every means available, from treachery and deception to murder. His scheming wife Claire (the excellent Robin Wright) is hardly doing better. Underwood’s brand of power-hungry maneuvering seems inspired by Cheney’s real-life reputation for stealth maneuvering.
Steady Hands in a Crisis
The less common depiction of the vice president is that of a steady hand in a crisis. It’s the version of office we get from Glenn Close in Wolfgang Peterson’s action classic Air Force One (1997), when Close, as Vice President Kathryn Bennett, must hold the political line after President James Marshall (a heroic Harrison Ford) is taken hostage by Russian terrorists. Morgan Freeman gives a similarly stoic performance in the action film Olympus Has Fallen, playing Allan Trumbull, a supremely competent veep who steps in after terrorists (North Koreans this time) take out the man in charge.
The Legacy of Dick Cheney
On screen, the real and imaginary Veeps still tend toward the absurd and grotesque, either as a villain in the shadows or a clueless guy (or lady) in a suit. But Dick Cheney, who transformed the vice presidency from a ceremonial afterthought into an instrument of power, also helped change Hollywood’s perception of the role of the vice president. Before him, the Veep was an opening act. After him, he (occasionally) became history.
