Early buzz on Adam McKay’s “Vice” was that the Christian Bale-starring film was going to easily be in the Best Picture conversation almost immediately. And while the film has its fair share of awards season love, “Vice” has also become a lightning rod for debate among film fans and critics. However, no matter what you think about the Dick Cheney biopic, you can’t deny that McKay really swung for the fences with his film. And if you had any question before, then wait until you see the upcoming Blu-ray special features.
In a new interview on the Playback with Kris Tapley podcast, McKay was asked about scenes that he wishes he was able to keep in the final cut of “Vice.” And in answering the question, the filmmaker reveals two special features that might be worth the cost of the eventual Blu-ray alone.
The first scene is a flashback sequence that featured the teenage Dick and Lynne Cheney falling in love. “The story of them as teenagers, Dick and Lynne Cheney. And how they met and fell in love. Greg Fraser, our DP, just shot that so beautifully. It looked like ‘Splendor in the Grass.’ It was just like luscious film. And then Nick Britell, our composer, put this beautiful music over it. But the audience was just not into it. They just did not care…” explained McKay.
He would go on to say that instead of releasing it as simple a “deleted scene” extra, he recut the whole thing, made it black and white, and will release it as a short film titled “Best of All, He Loved Me Back,” which will be included on the home release of the film.
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The other scene that was cut that will find its way on the Blu-ray is the now-famous musical number that actor Steve Carell had previously mentioned. McKay elaborated, “It was kind of when Rumsfeld was teaching Cheney about Washington, DC and how to get ahead…The speech is basically, ‘Who cares about anything? You just gotta get ahead of people.’”
Right now, we’re picturing some sort of twisted version of a School House Rock song, and that couldn’t be any more perfect, given the tone of “Vice.” McKay says that the production hired the choreographer from the Broadway smash hit “Hamilton” to work on it, along with Brittany Howard of the band Alabama Shakes.
“It was breath-taking. It was incredible. But it just didn’t work,” lamented the filmmaker.
Obviously, with the film still playing in theaters, it’s unlikely we’ll see these two scenes come to the Blu-ray until later this spring. However, even if you hated the film, you’re probably going to want to check these scenes out.