The American Spectator

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Mametfest Destiny

By Shawn Macomber on 7.15.08 @ 12:07AM

(Page 4 of 4)

There was great comfort in being part of a group; and it was, he thought, similar to the comfort of being alone. If you took the trappings off, he thought, it felt the same...
-- David Mamet's 1994 novel, The Village

In the final analysis, we would be remiss not to acknowledge there is a component of Mamet's personality and thought process that both presaged and set the stage for his political conversion. This is the man, after all, who almost single-handedly resurrected the con-man thriller, stuffing enough beguiling twists and turns into films like The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, and Heist to make The Sixth Sense look like the celluloid equivalent of a paint-by-number portrait. David Mamet likes to surprise -- and it's fairly certain he succeeded with Village Voice readers in March.

One of the best essays in Bambi vs. Godzilla invokes the phrase "age and express yourself," ostensibly to explain why, at age 60, Mamet now feels comfortable knocking Laurence Olivier's acting chops while copping to a love of Tony Curtis. But it is not difficult to see how this attitude -- "I need not believe the drivel that is spoken around me, I feel lighter already" -- could seep into other areas of thought.

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