deathofapresident

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Death of a President

written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Ever since "Death of a President" was shown at the Toronto Film Festival, some conservatives have strongly expressed their objections to its incendiary premise. Even without seeing the film, only observing it from the perspective of the media's critical detachment, they complain that staging a presidential assassination is tasteless. But aren't we living in a grey area where society is being fed by the certain manipulation of media frenzy?

Case in point, how many of them know that the death toll of innocent civilians lost in Iraq for the last two months are twice as much as the number "we" lost on 9/11? Is it really that much ghoulish curiosity to cross the line with this film? Of course not. We are all aware that we sometimes need to draw the line on extremes. But ironically, we always carefully select our viewing material from insensitive works, yet have no problem watching the right wing of Fox news channel and the irrational bashing of the president on talk shows, or distortions of the facts about the careless counting of butterfly ballots and how the government led us into the war in Iraq in the first place.

The manipulation is the disease that we are infected with through all sorts of media; unfortunately some of it we've noticed but neglected to take in. So all of a sudden, a Brit director drops the bombshell and we just don't have the stomach for it. This film is a neat little experiment and the perfect example of depicting a manipulated society nesting in this country to raise the issue and seek answers. So when this strong marketing bait is cowardly shunned by the major American theaters chain, Cinemark USA and Regal Entertainment, we are just showing the other countries how fragile we really are.

The film opens with a crucial scene outside a Chicago hotel on Oct.19th 2007. With shrieks of outrage from street protesters in the air, the Secret Service and police officers go on high alert. Director Gabriel Range is adept at carefully choreographing what leads up to the main event. As shots make a crackling sound, we see an obscure glimpse of a rapidly jerking hand-held camera as the president is gunned down, is rushed to the hospital and dies. Then, the hunt for the assassin ensues.

Initially, the government mobilizes to apprehend the triggerman, but soon racial profiling goes sour, and it points a finger at a typical Middle Eastern immigrant (a Syrian-born man) while the real assassin goes undetected. Then newly sworn-in President Cheney abuses his power to use the situation as a pretext for invading Syria and broadening the Patriot Act and domestic security measures even further.

All this slowly makes us realize that we are in much deeper trouble. Range has cowritten his screenplay with Simon Finch, casting mostly unknown actors for the administration staff members. Among other techniques, he compulsively repeats archival footage segments interspersed with interviews, without mocking and totally preying upon liberal anger toward the current administration. The film is the endorsement of free expression. After all, this is not a propaganda film!

Directed by Gabriel Range
Written by Mr. Range and Simon Finch
Director of photography: Graham Smith
Edited by Brand Thumim
Music by Richard Harvey
Production designer: Gary Baugh
Produced by Mr. Range, Mr. Finch, Ed Guiney and Robin Gutch
Released by Newmarket Films and Film4.
Running time: 93 minutes.

Cast: Hend Ayoub (Zahra Abi Zikri)
Brian Boland (Larry Stafford)
Becky Ann Baker (Eleanor Drake)
Robert Mangiardi (Greg Turner)
Jay Patterson (Sam McCarthy)
Jay Whittaker (Frank Molini)
Michael Reilly Burke (Robert H. Maguire)
,and James Urbaniak (Dr. James Pearn).