As the presidential race is drawing to a close, I thought I’d write something positive among all the bile that is being spewed on the subject. My angle will of course be film and fortunately, Hollywood has a rich and extensive tradition of making POTUS-themed features. In fact, there have been so many films that feature an American president, that it clearly justifies the introduction of a new genre acronym. Pres? USP? Or just POTUS?
Films about or involving a commander-in-chief roughly divide into three specific categories – yes, I love to compartmentalize things, so sue me. There is a clear distinction to be made between films – oftentimes directed by Oliver Stone – about actual US presidents, films that revolve around a fictional POTUS, and films that feature an actual or fictional POTUS as a character that is crucial to the plot.
The first category is obvious, it features films like JFK (1991), Nixon (1995) and W. (2008). The second subgenre is how I would classify, for instance, Rob Reiner’s wonderful The American President (1995) and TV’s The West Wing, both scripted by Aaron Sorkin. And the third and most expansive section holds features like Thirteen Days (2000) and The Butler (2013), but also Deep Impact (1998) and Independence Day (1996), films with real or made-up presidents who are only part of the story.
My absolute favorite entry in this freshly-minted genre is Ivan Reitman’s sublime RomCom Dave (1993), a title that would neatly fit into the second subsection. The concept is just brilliant. A kindhearted regular Joe who has a side job as an impersonator of the president, is put into office when the actual (and terrible) commander-in-chief slips into a coma – and actually does a much better job.
The role is played to pitch-perfect perfection by the tragically underrated Kevin Kline, one of the few actors to ever win an Oscar for a comedic performance. In one scene that is probably painfully prescient, Kline’s POTUS-double Dave Kovic reasons a group of bungling secretaries of state into deep embarrassment as he forces them to admit in front of the press that the money they are throwing away could also be used to help homeless children. Again, I am afraid this fictional situation is actually closer to the truth than we think.
The supporting cast of Dave features big names like Sigourney Weaver, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley and Frank Langella. Additionally, the film holds one of the most satisfying cameo appearances I have ever seen. In an expertly crafted montage, we see Kovic settle into his new role as the president’s double. He meets foreign dignitaries, visits factories and kisses babies. In one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene though, he is seen educating some children on nutrition and is assisted by… Arnold Schwarzenegger. The sequence only lasts a couple of seconds, but it is really him. Film buffs know of course that director Reitman made several films with Schwarzenegger, and the actor probably did the scene as a favor to his friend. Just lovely.
The Austrian Oak, as we all know, is himself no stranger to politics. Schwarzenegger being elected governor several years after Dave, and his lifelong aspiration to be president of The United States, is like art crossing over into life.
Although largely dominated by Oliver Stone, there have been other big-name directors who have made films that fit the first category – POTUS biopics. Not too long ago, Steven Spielberg (arguably the most famous of them all) directed a multiple-Oscar winning actor in a long overdue portrait of the ultimate Head of State – Abraham Lincoln. Ron Howard made Frost/Nixon (2008), a film that – admittedly – hovers between biopic and an example of an actual US president being part of a larger narrative. And Rob Reiner, who earlier in his career made the aforementioned The American President, recently gave Lyndon Baines Johnson the biographical treatment with the excellent LBJ (2016).
The most fun can be had in the broader third category of the POTUS genre. This is where we find films like The Rock (1996) and Armageddon (1998), in which director Michael Bay opted for the same performer to play the president. Bay’s decision to have actor Stanley Anderson repeat his part in The Rock for Armageddon two years later, ignited in me the idea that these two films could very well be part of the same cinematic universe. This was of course years before Marvel and Disney – incidentally the studio that released both The Rock and Armageddon – made connected films en vogue. I am still holding out for a third film in which Bruce Willis and Nicolas Cage team up to protect the earth from whatever threat screenwriters can think of. Mission Control would obviously be Alcatraz Island.
I am writing against the clock here, because tomorrow US citizens will decide who gets to run their country for the next four years. If I had more time, I would write about how proud I was with my behind-the-screens involvement in Big Game (2014), the awesome High Concept Action-Thriller in which Samuel L. Jackson is a badass POTUS. I could write an entire blog about the fantastic Die Hard homage Olympus Has Fallen (2013) – also a production I had the great pleasure of being part of.
Speaking of films that simultaneously pay tribute to John McClane and the leader of the free world – the ultimate example must be Air Force One (1997), in which president Harrison Ford fights terrorist Gary Oldman on the presidential plane… Does it get any better than that? Oh, I could go on and on…
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