movie proposal: The Age of Arthur
So right now, we have the Lincoln biopic –Â Daniel Day-Lewis IS Abraham Lincoln. Â And we have a Roosevelt movie — Bill Murray IS FDR. Â Naturally, as I asked previously — when’s the Chester Arthur movie coming out?
Perceived as the puppet of Roscoe Conkling, and always at his right hand side, Chester Arthur was emboiled in scandal during the Rutherford Hayes Administration. Â James Garfield selected him as his running mate to appease the Conkling led “Stalwart” faction of the Republican Party and win, by hook and by crook, the state of New York.
When the lone gunman proclaimed “I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts, and now Arthur is President”, Arthur immediately became perhaps the most despised figure in America, regularly blamed for the assassination of Garfield. Â Former President Hayes recorded in his diary his view of what was to come with a Conkling lead Arthur administration — “The power behind the throne, superior to the throne!” Â During the long agonizing turmoil full of medical blunders with regards to Garfield, Arthur kept himself out of public view and agonized over his fate. Â And here we get something — he began a correspondence with a stranger, a 30 year old invalid named Julie Sand. Â Who advised him and kept up his spirits, and told him what must be done.
And thus he came into power and threw Conkling under the bus.
Now we see plenty of room for drama in this story, and lots of dramatic speeches — President Arthur evolving in stature and eventually confronting his one time benefactor should come with a fine speech. Â For the part of Julie Sands we can cheat — not a public figure. Â To sex the story up we can add romantic relations between Arthur and Sand — why the Hell not?
But now we land at the crucial question: Â Who plays the two antagonists? Â WHO Â is big enough to fill Chester Arthur’s muttonchops?
