Death be not Proud: Often in Cinema the Mean Justify Their End

CINEMA OFFERS PERSPECTIVES ON EXIT STRATEGIES

‘You know what your problem is; it’s that you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s problems are answered in the movies.’ — Davis (Steve Martin) in Grand Canyon

I think Joni Ernst expressed it best: “Well, we are all going to die.”

Remarkable candor and refreshing realpolitick from the Iowa senator in response to critics concerned that Medicaid cuts might result in needless deaths. “For heaven’s sake,” she added.

Certainly, it gives new meaning to “The Importance of Being Ernst.”

Still, it is, after all, a conversation we have to have with our children and, increasingly, with our parents and spouses, what with Medicaid cuts and private equity’s death grip on assisted living.

Yes, death is the uninvited dinner guest with whom we all must contend, the one we hope confuses the address or, at least, brings a good bottle of wine. In that spirit, we consider this week The Case of God’s Chosen and how God might choose to close his case, so to speak, at least in earthly terms.

Don’t get us wrong, we are not — as the 1964 Dusty Springfield classic advises — “Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying. Planning and dreaming each night” for anyone’s untimely demise. But, as Ms. Ernst points out, it is an eventuality, and we are, for heaven’s sake, not the only ones curious as to how The Leader of America and the Entire World might come to meet his maker.

Luckily over a century of cinema offers some possibilities. Here are several. (Click on titles. Please forgive the ads. Even death takes its cut.)

Goldfinger (1964)

Reportedly a 2012 model, the Boeing 747 jetliner Qatar graciously proffered America without inducement from our president has a few nautical miles under its wings. Secret Service and the U.S. military would be well advised to retrofit the jet with thicker panes to ward off any possible pass-through entities.

Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1954)

Three marriages and multiple affairs, women scorned, assaulted, defamed — a monstrous animus takes shape.

Live and Let Die (1973)

Florida. Sink holes. Hurricanes. Collapsing condos. Burmese pythons. Crocodiles. What can go wrong? And what might happen when a man in a tie and tan sports coat walks by a Florida water feature, especially if that man outweighs 007 by more than 107?

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

89 seconds to midnight. A question posed to Google AI presumably by a human: “Should I be worried about the Doomsday Clock?” The AI’s response: While it's a powerful metaphor, it's not something to be blindly feared. (Note the emphasis.) Megalomanic leaders possessed of limited intelligence and large nuclear arsenals clawing for supremacy. “Mr. President, we must not allow a mind shaft gap!”

The Meaning of Life (1983)

“I get two slices of cake and everybody else only one,” he says with pride. Well, two slices of cake too many and a few well-done steaks and the waistline begins to expand. Before you know it, your body’s done gone to hell.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Bereft of friends, ignored by the world, abandoned by his wives, Charles Foster Kane, isolated in his Florida castle, utters a final dying word. With our Beloved World Leader will it be a tweet? Perhaps: “SO UNFAIR!”