The Green Card as a Spoof on Greening

I enjoyed the movie immensely – The Green card. Aussie director Peter Weir lampooned the U.S. at many levels – a land of opportunity, environmental consciousness, food and coffee.

Mate Weir was politically smart. He let the Americans have the last laugh when it came to the sticky immigration issue.

Remember the film ? Horticulturist and birdseed eating American Bronte (aka Andy McDowell) gets married to George (Gerard Depardieu) so that she can rent a prime flat bang in the middle of New York City, all complete with a private roof garden.

Her groom, with whom she does not share the flat, is un vrais Francais and a wannabe American who is using Bronte as an instrument for a green card, and tries to hoodwink immigration inquisitioners by talking about how lucky he feels to be in America- the land of opportunity….how lucky he is to have a beautiful wife.

However tongue-in-cheek it all might have been, Peter Weir made a point.

For a long time in America, environmental issues were purely the province of activists.

It has now spread beyond. Bush may be recalcitrant when it comes to practice, but he is, even if unwillingly, making the right sounds.

Or let me put it this way, he is at least starting to clear his throat.

Perhaps he is feeling the pressure or perhaps he just watched “The Green Card.”