Dear Editor,
The 15th March which is famously/notoriously called the Ides of March as it commemorates the day Julius Caesar was assassinated is fast approaching and while there is no Caesar or Brutus in the equation to stage a re-enactment of the day, we have an actor who could play Brutus as no other one could think of. We also have one who could/should be the victim on that momentous day, making the melodrama as real as that fated day in 44 BC.
When Caesar memorably, quotably, uttered, “Et tu Brute” as he lay dying, it was an expression of shock and disappointment at Brutus’ involvement in his murder as analysts have concluded over the years that he was chiding him (Brutus) whom he considered a son, and, therefore, not one he expected would so betray him.
And so enter Steven Seagal as the curtain rises in this re-enactment. In recent years, we have heard of Seagal’s “Russianization”, of him acquiring Russian citizenship via his close bosom-buddy relationship with Putin – which makes him the ideal choice of protagonist for this role.
Seagal is famous for his screen role as the nemesis of all villains, taking them out via his Aikido skills, breaking their fingers and other bones as if he were in the kitchen breaking crack, crack, crack, bodi to cook. For a martial artiste of such high black/red belt standing, to only act out his ability for the camera it must be frustrating, and one imagines how it must be tempting at times for him to do it for real, to twist a neck from front to back and make it swivel like a toy.
His cinema career having plummeted in recent years, one wonders if in playing Brutus (for real) he might not find it the role of a lifetime, of eternity, and that ridding the world of a monster with whom he could safely get close up to would give him not just the Oscar but the blessings of all man and gods? Just asking.
Over to you, Mr. Seagal, what say you to the idea of you being the Saviour (if only for a crick, crack moment) that so many have waited on for eons to come to pass?
L. Siddhartha Orie
