Dick Cheney, Vice President under George W Bush, seems an odd choice for a black comedy satire and the movie Vice has been getting mixed reviews apart from Christian Bale’s stand out performance in the lead role. But digging deeper it’s obvious why he attracted filmmaker Adam MacKay, previously director of The Big Short. Cheney was the most influential Vice President ever for the eight years from 2001 to 2008. He wasn’t just the power behind the throne, he was the effective president. When he left office after Iraq, waterboarding, Halliburton et al he had an approval rating as low as 13 percent, lower than Richard Nixon when he resigned. Stephen Bannon famously put Dick Cheney in his own hall of heroes, behind only Darth Vader and Satan as a great disruptor.
The NY Times calls it a ‘real live monster-movie’ and says it is ‘the story of an individual who was able, through a unique combination of discipline, guile and luck, to bend reality to his will. The man’s feats are both impressive and appalling.’ And behind him stood his steel-backbone wife Lynne. ‘McKay’s portrait of their marriage subscribes to a Macbeth-like conception of political morality. Behind every bad man, there is a woman who is even worse.’
Christian Bale, 30 January 1974, Wales, oddly has his Sun at exactly the same degree of Aquarius as Cheney, so he’ll understand some of his approach. Bale also has an expansive Jupiter Mercury in Aquarius and all three planets are square a heavyweight Mars in Taurus which gives him heft and endurance. He’s also got an Air Grand Trine of Jupiter Mercury trine Saturn trine Uranus, maybe formed into a Kite by Uranus opposition Moon, which would make sense for an actor who tunes into public taste. That airy, communicative quality marks him out from Cheney who has a much earthier chart.
Cheney, born 30 January 1941 7.30 pm Lincoln, Nebraska, learnt his political ropes with Nixon, Ford, George HW Bush and finally Bush junior. He has an Earth Grand Trine of Uranus trine Neptune trine Venus in Capricorn, suiting him for a commercially-oriented career where money and possessions are paramount. He also has a ferociously fixed and power-hungry T square of Sun opposition Pluto square Jupiter Saturn in Taurus – iron-willed, over-confident, unyielding, not worried about social niceties when it came to getting what he wanted.
He also has a heated Mars in his 4th square a Pisces Moon which in turn opposed Neptune – there was a more sensitive side of him though it never got much of an airing except at home where it would be argumentative as well. Perhaps why he had continual run ins with a serious heart condition.
Cheney’s midheaven and his Uranus are conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol (as indeed Trump’s midheaven is) and his wife’s spine-straightening Saturn in Taurus which is exactly conjunct his midheaven is as well.
She was born 14 August 1941, and is a fiery, confident Sun Leo trine Mars in Aries sextile Jupiter in Gemini; with her Sun square Saturn Moon in Taurus, so good at digging in her heels for the long haul. She’s also fairly earthy with those two Taurus planets and Venus Neptune in Virgo.
Her relationship chart with her husband is astonishingly fixed with an affectionate composite Sun Venus damped down in an opposition to a dutiful Saturn but kept afloat in opposition to Jupiter Uranus all square a determined Mars – not exactly sweetness and light but there for the long haul.
All goes to show there was horror in the White House before the present incarnation.
Pic: Greig Fraser / Annapurna Pictures.