Posted on 09/29/2005 3:31:41 PM PDT by hipaatwo
The DeLay prosecutor has let a film crew follow him through the whole case.
For the last two years, as he pursued the investigation that led to Wednesday's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Travis County, Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle has given a film crew "extraordinary access" to make a motion picture about his work on the case.
The resulting film is called The Big Buy, made by Texas filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck. "Raymond Chandler meets Willie Nelson on the corner of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in The Big Buy, a Texas noir political detective story that chronicles what some are calling a 'bloodless coup with corporate cash,'" reads a description of the picture on Birnbaum's website, markbirnbaum.com. The film, according to the description, "follows maverick Austin DA Ronnie Earle's investigation into what really happened when corporate money joined forces with relentless political ambitions to help swing the pivotal 2002 Texas elections, cementing Republican control from Austin to Washington DC."
"We approached him [Earle], and he offered us extraordinary access to him and, to an extent, to his staff," Birnbaum told National Review Online Thursday. "We've been shooting for about two years."
Birnbaum and Schermbeck showed a work-in-progress version of The Big Buy last month at the Dallas Video Festival. At the moment, they do not have a deal for the film to be shown anywhere else. Their last film, Larry v. Lockney, was shown on PBS, and they hope that perhaps a similar arrangement might be made for the new picture. Whoever ends up showing it, the film has so far been funded entirely by its makers. "We tried really hard to get it funded," Birnbaum says, "but we didn't get any takers."
Schermbeck told National Review Online that the film was an irresistible Texas story. "I've been pretty interested in watching Tom DeLay work," Schermbeck says. "I thought he was a fascinating guy, certainly the most powerful Texan to emerge on the national scene in some time, a kind of Republican Sam Rayburn type, with that kind of mastery of the machinery and the will to do it."
But DeLay did not cooperate with the filmmakers, and neither did a number of DeLay allies. Earle, on the other hand, did. "I had known about Ronnie Earle for a very long time," Schermbeck says. "I thought that would be an angle to approach the whole story, telling something about Tom DeLay, even though Tom DeLay wouldn't grant us an interview."
Earle "allowed us behind the scenes when the indictments came down last year, the first wave of indictments," Schermbeck says. "We got to follow him back to his home a couple of times, which I understand he doesn't allow anybody to do." Schermbeck says the film includes interviews with some critics of Earle, as well as lawyers who are representing some of the targets of the investigation.
So far, The Big Buy has received almost no attention in the press. With DeLay's indictment, and increased attention to Earle as well, that situation seems likely to change. (The filmmakers say they will be back at work next week, filming a new ending to the picture.) "We're pretty low on everybody's radar," Schermbeck says. "We kind of took a gamble three years ago. We didn't know what was going to happen. We feel like, as documentary filmmakers, we gambled and it paid off."
The more I read about Earle, the more I think he is literally unbalanced. This is intolerable behavior.
Your links are transposed (first link is the address, second link is the form), but thanks for the info. I have put them in my file for posting on other threads.
LOL!
Chris Wallace is a big lefty like his dad......I hate watching Fox on Sunday.
I know what you mean...
I usually watch the repeat in the afternoon...mostly for the roundtable...
I heard the producer of this movie this morning on KLBJAM radio. He said, among other things, that Earle truly believes that he is out to save democracy.
The movie is expected out in 3 weeks. (Is this why Earle lept into the spotlight right now?)
The movie's name "The Big Buy", is a reference to a crime. When asked repeatedly what they would do if DeLay was acquitted and therefore a crime had not been committed, he just said that the movie ended at the indictment.
He did say that he was surprised that Earle had pushed for the indictment; it was his understanding (from Earle) that Delay would not be indicted, and in fact, they were going to have to refilm the ending, since it did end in an indictment. Presumably, the ending up to that point just left the viewer with the impression that a crime of some sort had been committed by Delay and the movie would end with that impression.
They have been filming this movie for 2 years.
Two can play his game. Where is a conservative prosecutor that will go after Earle and film him going to jail? I'm willing to bet he has a lot more to hide than Tom Delay does. Pelosi and a few others should start worrying as well, remember the scrambling to correct their records when this first started. Correcting isn't good enough anymore, if Delay has to pay so should they all.
Since the movie ALREADY had an indictment for the ending, it seems like Ronnie Earle is a Co_CONSPIRATOR!
No, I might not have made that clear in my effort to remember everything from this morning - they are now re-doing the ending to include the indictment.
I think the movie making is not an effort to make a successful, money-making film. It is a way to keep the heat on Ronnie Earle so he doesn't let up, even though his case is flimsy. After all, they have him thinking he's the star of a movie, but he knows it won't ever be shown unless he takes this thing as far as he can.
The people financing this film behind the scenes don't care if it makes money. That's not the main objective. If it makes money, or even reduces their costs a little, that's just gravy.
Just my opinion.
The obvious purpose of the movie is to convict Delay. That's what movies are for, to influence social behavior and rewrite history. Sheesh
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