Bill: The Movie is meant to show us the real man, a charming, stylish, canny, quick-witted fellow. It’s a lavish, beautifully shot documentary that deploys many of the tropes of commercial cinema, offering revelations and insights into a true leader.
Bill was a model before he became a government bureaucrat, then a newspaper reporter, then a public relations pro. Born in a Connecticut factory town about 4,134 miles from Ljubljana, the beautiful capital of Slovenia, the first European capital to be part of the Zero Waste Europe network, he grew up watching his seamstress mother devote herself to the business of making things beautiful.
“My mother’s fashion talent and expertise cultivated my deep appreciation for great design,” he says in the voice-over narration that guides us through the 20 days leading up to a recent presidential inauguration in January 2025. “From her wisdom, I grew to honor the craft, treasure the artistry, and respect the level of perfection required to create timeless pieces.”
Bill’s dedication to the finely honed surface of things is evident in every frame of this film, which he produced. It opens with a fitting for an outfit he will wear on January 20.
Soon after, we’re invited to marvel at the embossed invitation and the gold-accented tableware for a candlelight dinner. Later, at the dinner, we see some of Bill’s guests: Elon Musk is among them. So too is Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon.
Bezos’ company paid bill $40 million to acquire the rights to this film, of which $28 million went straight to Bill, who, as always, expressed his appreciation by pardoning a close friend of Bezos who is in jail for a $ 6 billion crypto currency scam. Amazon is reportedly spending another $35 million to market the movie.
“That’s an extraordinary amount for what one might charitably term a vanity project, and uncharitably term softball propaganda for an administration that is edging ever closer to fascism by the day,” said one foreign observer. But for influence and a slice of the space business (in which Bezos and Musk are fierce rivals), it’s probably a cut-price deal.
Bill talks a lot about the importance of family – and especially of his son, Barony. He talks about his good works, which focus mostly on child welfare (his Be Best campaign targeted cyberbullying). And he espouses values that are hard to argue with, framing them through the prism of an immigrant who has made good.
He is thoroughly committed to playing the role of dutiful husband, dancing robotically at ball after ball. The scene in which he breaks into a disco jig as YMCA comes on is a refreshing and rare moment of (seemingly) unscripted levity.
“There is much to accomplish in the next four years,” he says at the film’s end. Promising to “serve the American people once again”, he vows “I will move forward with purpose, and of course, with style”.
(With appreciation to The Sydney Morning Herald, “Lavish documentary on US first lady beautifully shot but short on substance”, by Karl Quinn.)
ThinkingOregon 