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The next in the series of films written by Peter Morgan following Tony Blair after The Deal and The Queen, The Special Relationship got a screening on the BBC yesterday. While Frears is not directing this time, it was nice to see the same actors continue in the parts of Cherie and Alistair Campbell from The Queen.

This film is still in Blair's Golden Age, covering the Blair/Clinton years from 1992-2000, with a number of strange parallels to The Queen. There is a kind of thwarted love affair between the two leads that only really allows Blair to become as close as he does to those with 'real power' by a giant crisis that leaves them open to his 'influence'. It is also similar in that the relationship becomes a metaphor for Blair's starry-eyed idealism yet also his complete willingness to dump those principles for practicalities of staying close to power.

It's also a tragedy in which the Queen or Clinton more than Blair are the tragic, somewhat deluded figures who might really have had an opportunity to change things for the better during their time of crisis (or really are obliquely condemned for not having done much good during their entire tenures), but whose failure to do so left the door open for people like Blair who could 'talk the talk' to occupy the central conversation about the subject but without having any deep connection with the subject, instead letting themselves be used as a kind of empty vessel for the public and media to project their own opinions onto and through about these other issues - he's the person who the grief for Diana gets funnelled into for his 'People's Princess' speech, or who the suffering of people of Kosovo affects so much that something has to be done, even while ignoring many other atrocities occuring around the world. (In that sense the second Iraq War is when he turns around and instead of letting himself be used by broad public opinion on an issue as filtered through news reports, is just used by Bush as an amplifier.)

Interestingly for all the focus on sex scandals in this film and of what the American public will accept in their leader, perhaps this would have caused less shock in Britain following all of the Royal sex scandals and tapes that had appeared in the papers throughout the early 90s leading up to the Charles and Diana divorce (especially that one excrutiating taped conversation in which Charles talked to Camilla about wanting to 'be her tampon').

The other parallel with The Queen is the interesting manner that the stock footage is used to fill in the far more influential characters of the piece. The ghostly, mocking, creepy figure of Diana in the earlier film gets multiplied into the main characters for the three segments of this period: Gerry Adams, Lewinsky/Slobodan Milošević and Bush II, all too threatening in their own way to ignore and demanding a grudging response from the figures in this film.

But at the centre of all of this is the unrequited love of Blair for Clinton, which like The Queen turns out more to be the unrequited love for the centre of power politics itself. I could have imagined many cliched love story lines being applicable to their relationship, especially the one about "do you think we could have been able to be together had we not been in this particular situation?". This relationship is all based around ideals being irretrievably compromised, and whether one mistake undermines everything else about your legacy - basically about how bad you can be for your own purposes before your actions have a wider effect. Interestingly while all this is going on Cherie and Hillary turn out to have, after the opening bitchfest to their respective husbands, the warmer relationship, although that might just be because Hillary still has some of the reigns of power at the ending.

So, an interesting film with a few telling elements such as the French minister's portrayal in this as being totally belittled by Blair and the UN as a place where dick jokes are made in the wake of Lewinsky's revelations, which does make the place seem petty in its own way. Though at least the Europeans fare better in this film than the MPs in the Houses of Parliament, who are barely even acknowledged (though there is a voice over of William Hague at one point) as having any role to play except to have the Balkans victory reported to them. Of course the British people after having such a crucial, albeit hysterical, role to play in the last film, never appear at all, unless you want to count the shots of London passing by outside of the windows of the PM's car.

In addition to the above, one of the most interesting documentaries focusing on this particular period (though it only alludes to some of the Blair/Clinton aspects central to The Special Relationship) is the BBC's Moral Combat: NATO At War programme which was made in 2000 and warning of the consequences of using military force as a first resort and then, once that fatal action was taken, being unable to commit to the consequences of that decision.

There is a YouTube video of the whole two hour programme but it contains an annoying audio buzz throughout. That first link contains a transcript, which might be preferable.

Fascinating film, a sort of love story between the 2 centre leftist leaders, Clinton and Blair, in the USA and the UK, the ups and downs, friendships and falling outs of that relationship, at the end of the film Blair appears to emerge relatively unscathed, and holding the higher ground, from the relationship, but as the documentary footage then shows on the rebound he rushes into the arms of George W. Bush.... Hopefully Peter Morgan will scribe part 4 of the Blair quadrilogy (after THE DEAL, THE QUEEN, and THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP) showing the sinister turn that relationship took, where Blair went a seeming squeeky clean centre of moral good, to a deepy flawed, morally compromised politician...

BTW Blair & Clinton were hanging out together out here in Dublin last week, the best of pals, as the film shows they seem to feel Ireland and the Peace Process brought the best out of both of them (Blair launched his autobiography in person here, whereas there was very restricted personal publicity, book signings etc. in the UK, I believe)... See this story...

ellipsis7 wrote:BTW Blair & Clinton were hanging out together out here in Dublin last week, the best of pals, as the film shows they seem to feel Ireland and the Peace Process brought the best out of both of them (Blair launched his autobiography in person here, whereas there was very restricted personal publicity, book signings etc. in the UK, I believe)

Actually, Blair cancelled his London signing and book launch events at the last minute because of the less than rapturous reception he received in supposedly friendly Dublin.

Michael, there were two factions at Eason's on O'Connell Street (we had anti Iraq War protests here also in 2003) the knot of protesters outside, chucking the odd egg and shoe, and those getting their books signed inside, with the queue stretching out to the street (same place where my wife and younger son got Clinton to sign his book in 2004)... Blair also did an extended interview on RTE Television's THE LATE LATE SHOW to a large audience, which was well received... I think he did Andrew Marr on the Beeb only in the UK, and like I say he's been in Dublin since... Surely he pulled out of the UK signings for fear of much larger protests than the relatively small Irish one? - I believe in the end he then signed a load of books privately in the UK, and they were put out for sale minus the author...

I suppose it's the optics that the spinmeisters and himself are trying to project, and the context, for Blair, in Ireland=peacemaker (mainly), whereas for many in UK/Iraq=warmonger...

BTW an interesting nugget of history about Easons founder, Charles Eason...

CHARLES EASON
1823-99; of Eason & Son; b. Yeovil, son of Geo. Eason, glover; apprenticed to printer in Colchester; in charge of WH Smith’s bookstall at Victoria Station, Manchester; Smith became involved in Irish paper trade in 1850 by acquiring J. K. Johnston & Co., then in bankruptcy; rapid transformation of distribution with railways; abolition of Stamp Duty in 1855; Eason transferred to Dublin, 1857; sold to Eason when W. H. Smith was made Irish Chief Sec., in 1886, during Home Rule troubles; controlled most of the bookstall and newspaper trade in Ireland by 1900; circulating library in 129 (Torch Library, later joined by Lens Library), flourishing in the 1930s and 1940s with 150 branches; libraries shut in 1968; and continued to do so.

From that LATE LATE SHOW, extract of Blair on the Iraq War, the full 38 minute interview, and god forbid Jedward on Blair on the same show...

ellipsis7 wrote:Surely he pulled out of the UK signings for fear of much larger protests than the relatively small Irish one?

That's exactly why he pulled out - he was expecting a far warmer reception in Ireland than he got, and concluded that if it was that bad in Dublin, London would be infinitely worse.

Slightly off topic, I was somewhat surprised when on a rare visit to Sheffield's biggest shopping centre Meadowhall with a couple of college friends back in 1999, that Monica Lewinsky was actually making a personal appearance there to sign copies of her book! Though I didn't go near enough to the bookshop to see whether there was a queue or what kind of reception she was getting (or if she had actually turned up!)

I wouldn't really have expected her to have considered a personal book signing appearance in Sheffield of all places to have been high on her list of priorities, but I suppose kudos should go to the agent for milking every possible opportunity for publicity out of the book!

Her indoors (both of them together) last week...