Some actors – even great actors – tend to believe that their professional skills and their celebrity make them intelligent in all things – especially politics. Some do have a broad range of experience and knowledge from which they can draw in engaging in political dialogue and activities. Think Ronald Reagan on the right or Jane Fonda on the left. But most are simply actors, and their political activities are nothing more than performance art. Think Alex Baldwin.
Those without the intellectual ability to engage in the political world still try – and are too often used by campaigns for their celebrity more than their cerebrum – and more often than not they make fools of themselves.
I am not talking about all actors who have and express personal opinions about politics. That is everyone’s right. I am referring to those few who are … to be frank … all mouth and no brains.
Alec Baldwin irrationally rants against conservative Republican policies and candidates on a regular basis – at least when he is not attacking photographers or heaping verbal abuse on his daughter. He just flies off the handle at whatever makes him angry at the moment.
Weeell … welcome Robert De Niro to the irrational unhinged hot-headed celebrity club. His performance outside Trump’s so-called hush money trial was classic.
According to media reports, De Niro – along with two former police officers (one Capitol Hill cop and one Washington district cop) –were sent by the Biden administration to grab some of the media attention that has been focusing on Trump and the trial. Appearing on MSNBC and CNN, Biden’s campaign communications chief, Michael Tyler, admitted that they had to somehow break into the media spotlight.
The White House assured the American people that sending De Niro and others was not an effort to influence the jury. It was merely to take advantage of the reporters’ presence to get out their campaign message – which in this case was the standard “Trump is an existential threat to … everything.”
Team Biden could not have picked a better person to represent the campaign’s insanely hyperbolic message than De Niro – who was insanely hyperbolic. De Niro had already been on the road spewing Biden’s Draconian doomsday narrative.
It was great casting; De Niro has the appearance and demeanor of a Mafia mobster – which he has so well played on the big screen. He had the part down to the sunglasses. He was traveling wearing a mask in public. Does he have a legitimate health issue or was that just left-wing symbolism?
De Niro slipped out of the glasses and the mask for his featured on-camera scene. And he was most impassioned and emphatic. His angry rant reached its dramatic crescendo when De Niro claimed that Trump was not only out to destroy the city (New York, I assume), but wants to destroy America. And then he hit his high note, claiming Trump wants to destroy … THE WORLD. For added measure, De Niro proclaimed that if elected, Trump would never leave office. Wonderful scripting for a Hollywood production. But … who is the real madman in this movie?
The overheated De Niro was not just shooting his mouth off like a street thug in front of cameras, He stayed in character when angrily engaging with Trump supporters on the scene. He was so unhinged that he pulled down his mask so his threatening face could get into their faces. Watching De Niro’s behavior, you can readily see why he gets cast as a mobster in so many movies. They call it typecasting.
Apart from critiquing his performance, there is the question as to the political impact. Did he live up to Team Biden’s hopes and expectations?
Methinks not. Part of my opinion is derived from so many negative comments from the media pundits on both sides. Even Biden sycophants questioned the wisdom of pushing the campaign into the trail. Whether intended or not, it gave the appearance of the campaign meddling in the judicial process – giving a modicum of credence that Biden and Democrats are all playing a role in the unprecedented prosecutions.
For many Democrat pundits, the performance was overacted. De Niro did NOT come across as an intelligent critic of Trump. He came across as a hysterical ranter who could not have been more obvious if he had exchanged his sunglasses for a tin hat. Perhaps someone should … analyze this or that.
Of course, De Niro had an appeal to the very hardcore obsessive Trump haters. They would believe that Trump was behind the kidnapping of the Charles Lindberg baby if De Niro had said so.
Now I must confess that I have long been a big fan of De Niro. He has starred in many of my favorite movies. I still think of him as a great actor. In fact, seeing him unscripted, I am more impressed with his acting ability – although many of his roles required the same irrational over-the-top tough talk he displayed in New York.
If De Niro had any impact on the course of the campaigns, I would say he hurt Biden more than he helped. Most Americans are able to see and deal with such nonsensical extremist language – mostly by rejecting it.
And as an afterthought: Isn’t this the kind of language that Democrats keep saying will provoke violence — trigger some nutcase who believes taking out Trump will save the world? If De Niro was actually speaking as a defendant in a trial, the judge would most certainly have gagged him. Fortunately, we do not do that to private citizens in the United States – although those on the left keep trying.
Sadly, I will not be able to enjoy a future De Niro movie without seeing him as the street thug political activist.
So, there ‘tis.
Robert De Niro joins the Alec Baldwin school of unhinged political expression