‘Frontline’ examines Bannon’s path
‘Frontline’ enlists talking heads in ‘Bannon’s War’
Donald Trump and Steve Bannon: a marriage made in Hollywood?
That's one of the compelling takeaways of a new “Frontline” — “Bannon's War,” which examines the life of the alt-right power player and chief strategist for our president — that he spent his adult life looking to cast the partner who could bring his vision for America to life.
Bannon might disagree with that. Bannon did not cooperate with “Frontline.” The man who has made it his mission to work behind the scenes did not provide any sit-down confessional. There's precious little video of him here actually speaking.
Still, “Frontline” does a respectable job lining up associates, critics and friends to weigh in on the life and ideals of one of the most powerful — or the most powerful, depending on your point of view — men in Washington today.
It also suggests that just at the moment he should have been celebrating the most, he almost lost it all.
Bannon grew up in Richmond, Va., the son of a telephone company lineman. His family supported John F. Kennedy.
During a stint in the Navy, his worldview was forever changed by the Iran hostage crisis and what he perceived as President Jimmy Carter's failure to get the hostages back. In that he found a cause and a lifelong mission, fighting radical Islamists.
After studying at Harvard Business School and a brief stint at Goldman Sachs, he made a mark in Hollywood, producing his own documentaries.
The clips of his work, here at least, are downright apocalyptic. They seem to demonstrate, as one critic says, “a fetishistic desire to see everything blow up. It's almost as if he's inviting a cleansing fire to just raze the edifice, to raze the institutions.”
Taking over Breitbart News, Bannon swings it further altright and aims a spotlight at Washington.
The site booms. The message boards become a “hate club” to racists, misogynists, homophobes and xenophobes. Does Bannon share those views? “Frontline,” of course, can't say.
Bannon connected with one loyal reader, Trump. In the onetime reality-TV star, he finds at last the political warrior who can change America.
And what do the men have in common? One talking head shares, “They're very much into destroying enemies.”
In one of his rare public appearances, Bannon addressed a besotted crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
It might have been one of his greatest moments — and one of his costliest, “Frontline” argues.
The perception — reinforced by everything from Time to “Saturday Night Live” spoofing him as the embodiment of the Grim Reaper — was that Bannon was the puppet master. Trump's ego could not let that go unchecked.
Bannon lost his seat on the National Security Council, and it seemed as if he was on his way out. For a moment. “Frontline” does an expert job of lining up the dots in a direct line to the Oval Office. In that, Bannon's trajectory is fascinating. One suspects we'll all be ready for a sequel to this hour in a few years. This story isn't over, not by a long shot.