Death of a President

[Zeno]

I just read about this movie in Time magazine. Its brewing up controversy but to me anyway its an intriguing "what if"...

Here is a description...

"DEATH OF A PRESIDENT follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush in October 2007. Combining real archival footage with a credible but fictional story, "Death of a President" presents a fascinating and thought-provoking political thriller.


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NEWMARKET FILMS and FILM4
present
A BOROUGH FILMS PRODUCTION
DEATH OF A PRESIDENT

Winner of the International Critics' Prize at the Toronto Film Festival," "DEATH OF A PRESIDENT" is conceived as a fictional TV documentary broadcast in 2008, reflecting on another monstrously despicable and cataclysmic event: the assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19th, 2007. The "documentary" combines archival footage and carefully composed interviews, presented in a respectful and dignified manner. Exciting and questioning, it refashions the event into a riveting story.

The film opens with the ferocious energy of a Tarantino or Oliver Stone movie, as frenetically edited archival footage thrusts us into a raging crowd of protesters, waiting for President Bush's procession. The President is portrayed as a sympathetic and likable man--beloved by those close to him and charming to his followers. As the President gives a patriotic speech inside a hotel, the demonstrators' fury increases to the breaking point. The tension mounts until the horrible instant where the President is assassinated.

After the assassination, the film shifts into the style of a mystery, and follows the FBI's hunt for the assassin. All the suspects are interviewed except one?the Syrian man who is convicted and put on death row. There is much circumstantial evidence against him. But is he guilty of the crime? Or does his being Middle Eastern provide a convenient excuse to label the death of the President as an Act of Terror?

Director Gabriel Range previously used the device of a "retrospective documentary" in his celebrated 2003 film "The Day Britain Stopped," about a chain of events that led to a breakdown of the country's transport system and nearly a hundred fatalities. Both of these films have been acclaimed for the technical virtuosity with which they combine archival footage and filmed scenes to create disturbingly real visions of catastrophes.

"Death of a President" was honored by The International Critics Prize Jury (FIPRESCI) at Toronto for "the audacity with which it distorts reality, to reveal a larger truth."

You can see the preview at http://www.deathofapresident.com/

 

[Chaplin]

I know someone that has seen this, and he said it was awful. Not because of the subject matter, but because it was just a horribly made movie.

 

[nathan]

I know someone that has seen this, and he said it was awful. Not because of the subject matter, but because it was just a horribly made movie.

I saw it and I thought it was awful. Its biggest problem was the acting. You can't just take anyone off the street and have them give a fake interview. I could have done just as good of a job of writing those interviews.

The other problem with the film was the plot. I don't like this administration, but they are not crazy enough to do some of the things this film had them doing after the "assassination".

 

[Zeno]

I'll still see it out of curiosity. Bad acting can ruin a film though, I can point to a lot of Nicolas Cage movies as proof.