Washington DC stands out in so many American's minds as an icon. A the capitol of the free world it probably the most scrutinized city in America. In each of our subconsious's we know what the city looks like, what it has going for it, and what it has against it; so much so we don't really have to see DC to understand. We all have ideas about what really happens in DC, but what is Washington DC really about?
“Coke and whores.” Iposed the question “what is conjured when you think of Washington DC,” before we sat down to watch Charlie Wilson’s War. We all laughed at the remark and I neglected to write it down on my list. The films starts and about 30 seconds after the credits start to roll my jaw drops, I decide to write down coke and whores as the titular character engages in some leisure activity in the company of… well coke and whores.
Drugs and prostitution have always meant corruption and anytime you have power corruption is nearby, especially in fiction, especially in Washington. A Few Good Men utilizes corruption expertly by making it the status quo. If a military Colonel lies or commits a crime it is seen as their prerogative. The government is run by powerful people and they were put in charge for a reason, who are we to judge? That right there is the foundation of democracy and thus when we freely see corruption of government, and its purification, it is almost symbolic of the patriotic freedoms we are granted as U.S. citizens.
Washington DC has the peculiar position that in being the capital of the U.S. it stands for democracy and all it’s governing forms. Justice is personified in DC by the fact that it contains the capital branches of the Secret Service, the FBI, and the whole of America’s armed forces (well across the river anyway), as well as the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court. So with corruption you always have balance, an idea that the good guy is going to win. In A Few Good Men it’s the upstart lawyer taking on the corrupted U.S. Military. Charlie Wilson’s War has the Senator fighting against communism’s corruption of Afghanistan. The little guy versus the corrupt power, again an iconic image of this country's founding. Tom Hanks sits in a white room at an enormous well-finished oak table with several other well dressed men and several other well-finished oak tables, and it might as well be Tom Cruise asking for the truth because the message is the same, "justice and democracy."
Decorated with statues and memorials, DC has itself become the popular icon for America, so well known that A Few Good Men smartly chooses to show some lesser known DC-centric images. Many films feel compelled to retrace Jimmy Stewart’s footsteps (and Frank Capra’s lens) in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. How often have we seen the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? (They should really consider putting up a “no contemplating” sign to curb loitering.) The images of Washington have become so etched in the public sub-conscience that it begs the question, “can the average student tell the difference between the Parthenon and the Lincoln Memorial?” In Charlie Wilson’s War Tom Hanks (who already visited a good portion of DC's icons in Forrest Gump) merely stands on a balcony gesturing towards the off-screen location of monuments and we get the idea. In fact we get the idea so well, we don't get to see any of the city itself. Washington DC is after all such a recognizable image of America that we already know what it's look like, warts and all.
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