2008 Woodie Awards
Death of a President' promises intrigue, delivers gimmicks
Todd Toner
Issue date: 11/2/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Death of a President held such promise. Not the promise of seeing a fictional depiction of George W. Bush being assassinated or the promise of an action packed frenzy of intrigue. No, for me it held the promise of a film exploring the farthest reaches of the American socio-political debate on our international condition. My hope as I sat down in the theater and watched the thirty minutes of previews before the film was that Death of a President would approach the reasons why such an event might take place and the ramifications of it. I hoped the producers could discuss the rationale behind such attitudes and incorporate this discussion into the film. Unfortunately, in this slick and well formed film, they decided that a gimmicky approach to the topic would make for better storytelling.
Instead of making the issues clear and concise, they opted to drag the film on in an excruciatingly slow and methodical way. Playing with the notion that the viewer would either not realize where the film was going or would already have an opinion about the current state of American politics that agreed with the film's creators. It seems in the first part of the film leading up to the assassination, that the film will take a deep and thoughtful examination of the event, but after the assassination the film falls into its own trap of being almost one-sided and attacking rather than understanding and demonstrative. Death of a President could easily have taken the subject matter and torn holes in the current administration's foreign policy, instead the slow plodding through the imaginary situation almost bolsters the positions of the administration and makes them seem valid and warranted.
All these things considered however, the film itself does hold a certain fine quality in its production efforts. The stock footage, the fictional interviews with the film's characters and the mocked up police investigations are seamlessly connected with a cunning deftness that most mockumentaries simply cannot achieve. It felt as though the film could easily be a television reporting of an actual incident. If only for this reason, the film is worth seeing. Rated R by the MPAA and lasting an hour and thirty-three minutes, Death of a President can be viewed at the Varsity Theater in Seattle, call (206) 781-5755 for show times.
Instead of making the issues clear and concise, they opted to drag the film on in an excruciatingly slow and methodical way. Playing with the notion that the viewer would either not realize where the film was going or would already have an opinion about the current state of American politics that agreed with the film's creators. It seems in the first part of the film leading up to the assassination, that the film will take a deep and thoughtful examination of the event, but after the assassination the film falls into its own trap of being almost one-sided and attacking rather than understanding and demonstrative. Death of a President could easily have taken the subject matter and torn holes in the current administration's foreign policy, instead the slow plodding through the imaginary situation almost bolsters the positions of the administration and makes them seem valid and warranted.
All these things considered however, the film itself does hold a certain fine quality in its production efforts. The stock footage, the fictional interviews with the film's characters and the mocked up police investigations are seamlessly connected with a cunning deftness that most mockumentaries simply cannot achieve. It felt as though the film could easily be a television reporting of an actual incident. If only for this reason, the film is worth seeing. Rated R by the MPAA and lasting an hour and thirty-three minutes, Death of a President can be viewed at the Varsity Theater in Seattle, call (206) 781-5755 for show times.
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