As I mention prior, the idea of the body double is not a new one, well within the realm of fiction it isn't. The conversation started as follows:
- Robert Heinlein got there first: "Double Star", 1956 Hugo award winner. An out-of-work actor is hired to double for a politician who’s been kidnapped in a vitally important ceremony on Mars.
The story, which is told in the first person, centers on down-and-out actor Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, a.k.a. "The Great Lorenzo"). A brilliant actor and mimic (or so we are told, by Smith himself), he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for an unspecified public figure. It is only when he is on his way to Mars that he finds out he will have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the solar system (and one with whose views Smith deeply disagrees): John Joseph Bonforte. Bonforte is the leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently out of office but with a good chance of changing that at the next general election. Bonforte has been kidnapped by his political opponents, and his aides want Smith to impersonate Bonforte while they try to find him.
Kagemusha,,,is a 1980 film by Akira Kurosawa. In Japanese, kagemusha is a term used to denote a political decoy. It is set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history and tells the story of a lower-class criminal who is taught to impersonate a dying warlord in order to dissuade opposing lords from attacking the newly vulnerable clan. The warlord whom the kagemusha impersonates is based on daimyo Takeda Shingen, and the film ends with the climactic 1575 Battle of Nagashino.
- The earliest example of a double standing in for a political figure in fiction that I’m aware of is The Prisoner of Zenda, from 1894. Do you know of anything earlier than that?
On the eve of the coronation of King Rudolf of Ruritania, his brother, Prince Michael, has him drugged. In a desperate attempt not to give Michael the excuse to claim the throne, Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, attendants of the King, persuade his distant cousin Rudolf Rassendyll, an English visitor, to impersonate the King at the coronation.
The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the small town of Zenda. There are complications, plots, and counter-plots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress, Antoinette de Mauban, and those of his dashing but villainous henchman Count Rupert of Hentzau.
Rassendyll falls in love with Princess Flavia, the King's betrothed, but cannot tell her the truth. He determines to rescue the king and leads an attempt to enter the castle of Zenda. The King is rescued and is restored to his throne, but the lovers, in duty bound, must part.
- From the Washington Post we have this contribution, the 1993 movie Dave.
Dave Kovic (Kline) runs a temporary employment agency in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and has a side job impersonating President Bill Mitchell (Kline). He is requested by Secret Service agent Duane Stevensen (Rhames) to make an appearance as the President at a hotel. Dave assumes it is a matter of security, but it is really to cover up Mitchell's extramarital affair with a White House staffer (Linney).
Mitchell suffers a severe stroke during the rendezvous, leaving him in a coma. White House Chief of Staff Bob Alexander (Langella) and Communications Director Alan Reed (Dunn) convince Dave to continue impersonating the President. They tell him that Vice President Gary Nance (Kingsley) is mentally unbalanced. Only Bob, Alan, the Secret Service, and the medical staff know of the switch. First Lady Ellen Mitchell (Weaver) leads a separate life, rarely seeing the President.
- Last but not least, for comic relief there was this entry. "Holy shit, Smith Comma John came true."
No comments:
Post a Comment