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US presidents on screen

John Travolta in Primary Colors
  • Posted at 4:02pm
  • 12 September 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT
  • 3 comments

As the 56th US Presidential election looms, with its torrent of ticker tape, flags and hype, it seems a shame that for those of us without a US passport, the whole thing will be a mere spectator sport. We may as well just sit back and enjoy the show, which is precisely what it is.

Long before Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee, he was liberal Hollywood's candidate of choice, banking $1.3 million in donations at a Beverly Hills fundraiser attended by Steven Spielberg and Eddie Murphy, with George Clooney and Barbra Streisand sending cheques.

Meanwhile, Republican candidate John McCain held a recent glad-hander that saw James Caan and Robert Duvall walk the red, white and blue carpet.

This week, documentary President Hollywood reviews cinema's take on fictional commanders-in-chief. So who'd get your vote were the poll extended to the movies?

I'm afraid it's not much of a level playing field, with liberals proving far more popular among film-makers.

Consider Primary Colors, in which John Travolta plays a charismatic southern governor with a roving eye, seemingly inspired by Bill Clinton. Or Bill McKay (Robert Redford), running for the Senate in The Candidate – the poster tagline summed up the cynicism in its Oscar-winning script: "Too Handsome. Too Young. Too Liberal. Doesn't have a chance. He's PERFECT!"

The Democratic senator in Bulworth, who turns to rapping as a response to the right-wing climate and is played with glee by Warren Beatty, may get your vote, or widowed Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) from The American President.

For candidates more to the right, you turn to action movies, such as Air Force One, in which Harrison Ford's combat-veteran president vanquishes eastern European terrorists on his own airborne plane. Or alien-invasion tale Independence Day, in which Bill Pullman's fighter-pilot leader rallies the world after taking the fight to the invaders.

Of cinema's rightists, I preferred Tim Robbins in Bob Roberts – he was a power-hungry conservative, but at least he played Dylan-style folk songs.

If you still hanker after the "real" thing, Oliver Stone's biopic of George Bush, titled simply W. and starring Josh Brolin, hits cinemas on 7 November. With Bush still in office, will his cinema image be more or less palatable than the genuine article?

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Comments

  • Posted on 17 September 2008
  • at 1:30pm
  • by Stanley McHale

Dan is correct, he'll be pleased to learn! Although a TV president, Mackenzie Allen in Commander-in-Chief was probably the only republican that would ever get my vote. Geena Davis was great in that.... How the Hell did it get cancelled after one season? I genuinely preferred it to The West Wing. But maybe I'm an idiot.

  • Posted on 15 September 2008
  • at 2:42pm
  • by Dan

Gotta be David Palmer from TV's 24. The only screen president I'd vote for. And he laid the foundations for Barrack Obama, in the same way Geena Davis' Commander-In-Chief kinda helped Hillary Clinton's campaign. If it hadn't got cancelled, who knows what might have happened. Sadly, I do think Americans are swayed by what they see on their TV's to this degree!

  • Posted on 13 September 2008
  • at 7:51pm
  • by SunKing

Plenty of good choices there but there is no on-screen President more awesome than James "GET OFF MY PLANE!" Marshall, played by Harrison Ford in Air Force One. He also has that fantastic declaration against terrorism in the beginning. I also quite liked Morgan "voice of God" Freeman in Deep Impact. Then there's Shepard and Bartlett (West Wing). Not sure Bartlett counts since he's a TV-President not a film-President. Memorable mention to Bill Pullman's president who, despitebeing useless for most of the film, delivers a rousing speech at the end and flys off in a jet fighter to combat the aliens, because that's just what you do when you're the president in the middle of a crisis isn't it? Anyway, I suppose you can't argue a film's logic which depicts a Macintosh computer being compatible with an extra-terrestrial computer system.

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