2006 British film
Death of a President
|
---|
|
Directed by
| Gabriel Range
|
---|
Written by
| Gabriel Range
Simon Finch
|
---|
Produced by
| Gabriel Range
Simon Finch
Ed Guiney
Robin Gutch
|
---|
Starring
| Hend Ayoub
Brian Boland
Becky Ann Baker
|
---|
Cinematography
| Graham Smith
|
---|
Edited by
| Brand Thumim
|
---|
Music by
| Richard Harvey
|
---|
Production
companies
| |
---|
Distributed by
| Optimum Releasing
|
---|
Release dates
|
- 10 September 2006
(
2006-09-10
)
(
Toronto Film Festival
)
- 9 October 2006
(
2006-10-09
)
(United Kingdom)
|
---|
Running time
| 93 minutes
|
---|
Country
| United Kingdom
|
---|
Languages
| English,
Arabic
|
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Budget
| $2 million
[1]
|
---|
Box office
| $869,352
[2]
|
---|
Death of a President
is a 2006 British
mockumentary
political thriller
film about the fictional
assassination
of
George W. Bush
, the 43rd and at the time, incumbent
U.S. President
, on 19 October 2007 in
Chicago, Illinois
. The film is presented as a
future history
docudrama
and uses actors, archival video footage as well as computer-generated special effects to present the hypothetical aftermath the event had on
civil liberties
,
racial profiling
, journalistic
sensationalism
and
foreign policy
.
Plot
[
edit
]
Broadcast in the year 2008, the film is presented in a TV documentary style format, combining
talking head
interviews, news coverage clips and
video surveillance
footage surrounding the assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush in
Chicago
around a year earlier on 19 October 2007. The president is fatally shot by a
sniper
after he addresses an economic forum at the Chicago
Sheraton Hotel
, before which an
anti-war
rally had taken place. News outlets immediately begin reporting on the incident along with its political ramifications. After authorities earlier arrest and interrogate war-protesting detainees, Jamal Abu Zikri (Malik Bader), an
IT
professional of
Syrian
origin, becomes the prime suspect.
Vice President
Dick Cheney
, now president, uses the possible
al-Qaeda
relationship in connection with the suspected assassin, Zikri, to push his own domestic political security agenda. He calls for the legislation of
PATRIOT Act
III, trying to increase the investigative powers of the
FBI
, the
police
, and other government agencies over American citizens and foreign residents as he contemplates attacking
Syria
.
As his wife Zahra (Hend Ayoub) listens to the verdict with family attorney Dawn Norton (Patricia Buckley) in a packed courtroom, Zikri is convicted of killing the U.S. President and sentenced to death based upon dubious
forensic
evidence. Meanwhile, a new report which surfaces, substantiated by interviews with Marianne Claybon (Chavez Ravine), indicates that the perpetrator is most likely her husband Al Claybon (Tony Dale), a veteran of the
1991 Persian Gulf War
, who lived in
Rock Island, Illinois
, and who also was the father of David Claybon, a U.S. soldier recently killed in the
Iraq War
. The assassin, who blames President Bush for the death of his son, killed himself after Bush's assassination. Claybon's suicide note, addressed to a second son, Casey Claybon (Neko Parham), an Iraq War veteran living in Chicago who was previously considered as a suspect, reads:
Everything I stood for and raised you to stand for has turned bad. There's no honor in dying for an immoral cause. For lies. I love my country, but I love God, and the sons He gave me even more. I must do the right thing by you and by David. George Bush killed our David, and I cannot forgive him for that.
Ten months after President Bush's assassination, Zikri remains on
death row
at the
Stateville Correctional Center
, because government officials are deliberately delaying his legal appeal. Moreover, in his dead father's Rock Island house, Casey Claybon finds evidence of his father's planning of the shooting. The most incriminating piece of evidence is a copy of a
top secret
presidential itinerary outlining, to the minute, President Bush's Chicago whereabouts on 19 October 2007. The news report ends while the U.S. Government continues investigating how presidential assassin Al Claybon obtained that top secret document.
The final closing titles of the film inform the viewer that President Cheney's USA PATRIOT Act III was signed into permanent law in the U.S., stating the following:
"It has granted investigators unprecedented powers of detention and surveillance, and further expanded the powers of the executive branch"
.
Cast
[
edit
]
- Hend Ayoub as Zahra Abu Zikri, the wife of convicted assassin Jamal Abu Zikri. She comes to believe her family has been targeted by authorities due to their Middle-Eastern heritage.
- Brian Boland as Larry Stafford, lead
Secret Service
agent assigned to the president. He ultimately failed in preventing the president from being assassinated, as he discusses the day's events and security precautions leading up to the tragedy.
- Becky Ann Baker
as Eleanor Drake, personal advisor to the president. She dutifully assisted in preparing his speeches and was one of the first few people to learn of his death at the hospital.
- Robert Mangiardi as Greg Turner, First Deputy of the Chicago police department, in charge of coordinating security arrangements for the war protest as well as handling the blocking off of city streets for the presidential motorcade. He expresses his displeasure with the violent tone of the protesting public.
- Jay Patterson
as Sam McCarthy,
White House
correspondent for
The Washington Post
. From time to time, he expresses his disapproval with the government's basis for holding Zikri. He believes they have no definitive evidence linking him to the assassination other than the fact that he might have flirted with the thought of terrorism by visiting an enemy country.
- Jay Whittaker as Frank Molini, a war protester caught and arrested by police in the ensuing chaos after the initial shots were fired at the president. In his possession was a banner depicting a gun being fired at Bush. However, he was later found not to be the assassin.
- Michael Reilly Burke
as Robert H. Maguire, special agent in charge at the
FBI
, involved with reporting directly to new president
Dick Cheney
on his investigation surrounding evidence related to the assassination.
- James Urbaniak
as Dr. James Pearn, an FBI forensic examiner assigned to the case to collect and catalogue evidence against any possible suspects. He obtains a partial
fingerprint
of Jamal Abu Zikri from traces of gunshot residue at the crime scene, but notes that it is only associative evidence and not necessarily enough evidence for a conviction in a court of law.
- Neko Parham as Casey Claybon, son of possible suspected assassin Al Claybon. A war veteran who did not particularly support Bush, but who also claimed to have no knowledge of the assassination. He was initially arrested in the melee following the killing, as he walked through the streets of downtown Chicago looking for employment.
- Seena Jon as Samir Masri, a
Yemeni American
protesting at the war rally outside where the President was speaking. Members of his family were deported back to Yemen after overstaying their travel visas following the
9/11 attacks
. Masri was at the rally to protest Bush's policies and was arrested as a suspect.
- Christian Stolte
as John Rucinski, FBI investigator with the joint terrorism task force, assigned with interviewing detainees including Jamal Abu Zikri. Skeptical, he stresses his suspicions about Zikri's whereabouts on the day of the assassination as well as his military history after analysing his statements.
- Chavez Ravine as Marianne Claybon, wife of suspected possible assassin Al Claybon. She finds it hard to comprehend her patriotic husband could have had any connection with the killing.
- Patricia Buckley as Dawn Norton, Jamal Abu Zikry's defence attorney. She immediately expresses her challenging task of defending her client who the FBI believes has connections with terrorist organisations. She relates her difficulty by conveying that any person
suspected
of involvement with
Al-Qaeda
unfortunately equates to a guilty verdict in American society.
- Malik Bader as Jamal Abu Zikri, the suspected assassin, a Syrian national working at an IT firm in a building neighbouring the Chicago Sheraton. He was convicted of the crime, but appealed the verdict while being held on death row due to minor forensic evidence implicating him in the assassination.
- Tony Dale as Al Claybon, the figure cited as a strong likely suspect of the assassination who ended up committing suicide after he supposedly killed the president. He was a
Gulf War
veteran distraught over a second son's death from the Iraq War, blaming Bush for his misery.
Production
[
edit
]
Filming
[
edit
]
The funeral scenes in the film include footage taken from archival coverage of
Ronald Reagan's funeral
, and President Cheney's eulogy for President Bush is a news clip of Cheney's eulogy for Reagan.
[3]
CGI
special effects and existing footage of President Bush helped to re-create the filming of his assassination. The
rifle
used by the perpetrator in the film was actually an airsoft replica of an
AR-15
. Image editing software was used to add the actors' images to photographs with President Bush.
Although all imagery related to Bush's assassination was created using digital special effects, an apparent actual death, captured on tape, is included in the film during a piece of war footage in which an
Iraqi
insurgent prepares to launch a rocket, but is shot in the head first.
[4]
Except for specific scenes, most of the actors portrayed in the film were not told of the premise surrounding the story.
During a post emergency surgery news conference, the chief physician's comment that he had "never seen such a strong heart in a man of the president's age", is a reference to President
Ronald Reagan
's
own attempted assassination
. In addition, the interview of a middle-aged
African American
outside the hospital recalls an interview of a witness on the streets of
Washington, D.C.
in 1981 following that assassination attempt. Filming was done entirely on location in Chicago, Illinois.
[
citation needed
]
Music
[
edit
]
The
film score
was composed and conducted by
Richard Harvey
. Sound effects and music elements were mixed by Alex Riordan.
Director's notes
[
edit
]
The film's director, Gabriel Range, noted that the film is not "a leftist jeremiad"
[5]
and further said:
The purpose of the film was not to imagine how the world stage would reset with the assassination of George Bush. The intent of the film is really to use the assassination of President Bush as a
dramatic device
—using the future as an
allegory
to comment on the past. [....] If people go to the cinema expecting to have some great moment of
catharsis
watching the president being shot, I suspect they're in for a pretty big surprise. I think that anyone who's expecting this to be a liberal wet dream is in for quite a shock ... It was very important that the film was not a political rant. It was not just a condemnation or
polemic
because I think that polemics are easy to dismiss.
[5]
Release
[
edit
]
The official premiere was at the
2006 Toronto International Film Festival
on 10 September 2006.
Television
[
edit
]
In Europe, it was broadcast in the UK on 9 October (
More4
), 19 October 2006 (
Channel 4
), in Finland on 18 October 2007, in Switzerland on 21 August 2011 (
SF 1
) and in France on 28 January 2014 (
Polar
)
Box office
[
edit
]
Newmarket
paid one million dollars for the U.S. distribution rights.
[6]
The total production budget for the film is estimated to have been two million dollars.
[1]
Two of the largest U.S. cinema chains,
Regal Entertainment Group
and
Cinemark
, refused to screen the film; a Cinemark spokesman told UK newspaper
The Guardian
: "The assassination of a sitting president is problematic subject matter".
[7]
In addition, major U.S. broadcasters
CNN
and
National Public Radio
refused to broadcast advertisements for the film.
[8]
The film was screened in the U.S. for 14 days, showing at 143 theatres at its widest release.
[1]
[2]
Worldwide, it grossed $869,352.
[2]
The Japanese motion picture ethics committee, the
Eirin
, prevented
Death of a President
from being shown in most cinemas in 2007, saying that the film's Japanese title ("Bush Ansatsu", translated as "Bush Assassinated") is inappropriate.
[9]
The film was scheduled to begin showing in Japanese cinemas on 6 October 2007.
Home media
[
edit
]
The
Region 2 Code
widescreen
edition of the film was released on
DVD
in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2006, followed by the Region 1 Code version in the United States on 3 April 2007. Special features include interviews and commentary with screenwriter Simon Finch, editor Brand Thumim, line producer Donall McCusker and director
Gabriel Range
. A theatrical trailer is also included with the extras.
Reception
[
edit
]
Politicians
[
edit
]
The
central conceit
of
Death of a President
was much criticised by those who believed it
exploited
the subject of presidential assassination, and that by doing so, was in bad taste. Gretchen Esell of the
Texas Republican Party
described the subject matter saying, "I find this shocking, I find it disturbing. I don't know if there are many people in America who would want to watch something like that."
[10]
Hillary Clinton
, then junior
United States senator
from
New York
, told
The Journal News
of Rockland, Westchester, and Putnam counties at the annual New Castle Community Day in Chappaqua that, "I think it's despicable. I think it's absolutely outrageous. That anyone would even attempt to profit on such a horrible scenario makes me sick."
[11]
Simon Finch, the co-screenwriter, replied saying that Clinton had not seen the film when she commented.
[12]
The
Bush administration
did not comment about the film; as White House spokesperson Emily Lawrimore remarked, "We are not commenting because it doesn't dignify a response."
[13]
Critical review
[
edit
]
Critics had varied opinions about
Death of a President
. The
Metacritic
aggregate website rated it at 49, "Mixed or Average", based upon 30 reviews.
[14]
Rotten Tomatoes
rated it at 39%, "Rotten", based upon 101 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "In this unconvincing fictional documentary, the tense 30 minutes that lead into the title event is outweighed by the boring, melodramatic hour preceding it."
[15]
In
Time
magazine
,
Richard Corliss
placed it in the context of other fictional assassinations, such as
The Assassination of the Duke of Guise
(1908),
Suddenly
(1954) and television programmes like
24
(2001?2014); concluding that it was "not an incendiary documentary, but a well-made
political thriller
."
[16]
In the
Village Voice
,
J. Hoberman
said it was "dramatically inert, but a minor techno-miracle" and that it "skews more theoretical than sensationalist ... Bush is presented as a
martyr
."
[3]
James Berardinelli
commented that "If this was a serious examination of the possible long-term ramifications of George Bush's current foreign policy, or if it had anything interesting to say about Bush's legacy, it might be justifiable. But that's not the case. The decision to use Bush rather than a fictional representation of him is for no reason other than self-promotion."
[17]
Of the critics who liked
Death of a President
,
Rex Reed
of
The New York Observer
identified the film as "Clever, thoughtful, and totally believable. This is a film without a political agenda that everyone should see."
[18]
In the
Toronto Star
, Peter Howell said, "The film's deeper intentions ... elevate it into the company of such landmark works of historical argument as
Peter Watkins
's
The War Game
,
Costa-Gavras
's
Z
and, closer to home,
Michel Brault
's
Les Ordres
. Every thinking person should see
Death of a President
."
[19]
In
Film Journal International
,
Frank Lovece
mused that the film's condemnation "by politicians and pundits from
James Pinkerton
to Hillary Clinton is understandable and completely predictable: They can't
not
comment, so when they do, they have to play to their audiences. None of them seriously believes that this work of fiction will really make someone take a potshot at the president, and anyway, the attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life came out of a
crazy guy
's fascination with
Jodie Foster
, so you may as well decry movies starring blonde former child actresses."
[20]
Jim Emerson, editor of
RogerEbert.com
exclaimed, "
Death of a President
is electrifying drama, and compellingly realistic. The actors chosen for interview segments (including the mom from
Freaks & Geeks
as a presidential speechwriter) are unerringly authentic as real people, speaking spontaneously before a documentary lens -- even when it's clear they've rehearsed in their heads what they're going to say, and may even have told these same stories any number of times before."
[21]
The film has been reviewed in 2014.
The Prince George Citizen
columnist Neil Godbout called the film "a powerful statement about racial prejudice, [politicians' exploitation on] events for their own purposes, and [reporters' willingness] to tell stories [told] by government sources without question to get the scoop and break the story first."
[22]
Indiewire
critic Andre Seewood wrote that the film does not "suggest that [George W. Bush] actually be assassinated by British agents."
[23]
Seewood further wrote that it is "not a direct insult to an enemy but hypothetical criticism of [UK's] ally cleverly disguised as a television news journal in countries where freedom of speech is mutually respected."
[23]
Awards
[
edit
]
The film won a total of 6 awards including; the
International Critics Prize (
FIPRESCI
)
from the 2006 Toronto Film Festival,
[24]
the
International Emmy Award
for the TV Movie/Mini-Series category in the (UK), the
RTS Television Award
in the Digital Channel Programme category from the
Royal Television Society
, the
RTBF TV Prize for Best Picture
Award from the Brussels European Film Festival for director Gabriel Range, the
Banff Rockie Award
from the
Banff Television Festival
for the film, and one for director Gabriel Range. The film also received a nomination for
Best Visual Effects
from the
British Academy TV Awards
in 2007.
[25]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Death of a President (2006) - Box office / business"
.
IMDb
. Retrieved
16 November
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Death of a President (2006)"
.
Box Office Mojo
. Retrieved
16 November
2009
.
- ^
a
b
Hoberman, J.
(17 October 2006).
"Assassination Tango"
.
The Village Voice
. Archived from
the original
on 2013-12-24
. Retrieved
2009-09-05
.
- ^
Violence section
Screen It!
- ^
a
b
Moyer, Justin
(December 17, 2014).
"Before Sony and
The Interview
: This award-winning movie imagined George W. Bush's assassination."
The Washington Post
. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- ^
Spiegelman, Arthur.
"Bush assassination film set for U.S. release"
.
Reuters
. Archived from
the original
on October 28, 2006
. Retrieved
2006-10-10
.
- ^
Arendt, Paul (10 October 2006).
"US film giants ban Death of a President"
.
The Guardian
. London
. Retrieved
21 December
2014
.
- ^
Pilkington, Ed (28 October 2006).
"Cinemas shun film of Bush shooting"
.
The Guardian
. London
. Retrieved
21 December
2014
.
- ^
"Censors block Bush assassination movie"
.
Asahi Shimbun
. 2007-05-18. Archived from
the original
on September 29, 2007
. Retrieved
2007-05-23
.
- ^
"Row over Bush TV 'assassination'
"
.
BBC News
. 2006-09-01
. Retrieved
2006-10-10
.
- ^
Worley, Dwight R. (2006-09-16).
"Sen. Hillary Clinton blasts Bush assassination film"
.
The Journal News
. Archived from
the original
on 2006-10-23
. Retrieved
2009-09-03
.
- ^
Interview,
Canada AM
(24 October 2006)
- ^
Sullivan, Kevin (2006-09-02).
"Bush 'Assassination' Film Makes Waves Across the Pond"
.
The Washington Post
. Retrieved
2009-09-05
.
- ^
"Metacritic: "Death of a President"
"
. Archived from
the original
on 2009-06-07
. Retrieved
2006-10-23
.
- ^
RottenTomatoes: "Death of a President"
- ^
Corliss, Richard
(11 September 2006).
"Who Killed George Bush?"
.
Time
. Archived from
the original
on November 6, 2006
. Retrieved
2009-09-05
.
- ^
Berardinelli, James
(2006).
"Review: Death of a President"
. Reel Views
. Retrieved
2009-11-16
.
- ^
Reed, Rex
(17 September 2006).
"The Toasts of Toronto: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett in Babel, Penelope Cruz, Reese, Ricci"
.
The New York Observer
. Archived from
the original
on 13 October 2007
. Retrieved
2009-09-05
.
- ^
Howell, Peter (11 September 2006).
"DOAP terrifies with realism"
.
Toronto Star
. Retrieved
2009-09-05
.
- ^
Lovece, Frank
.
"Death of a President"
.
Film Journal International
. Retrieved
2009-11-16
.
- ^
Emerson, Jim (12 September 2006).
"TIFF: Who shot Bush?"
.
rogerebert.suntimes.com
. Retrieved
2009-11-16
.
- ^
Godbout, Neil (December 20, 2014).
"Wrongful death of a movie."
The Prince George Citizen
. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
- ^
a
b
Seewood, Andre (December 23, 2014).
"Satire or Propaganda:
The Interview
or Don't Yell Fire in a Crowded Political Theater."
- ^
"Death of a President scores TIFF critics' prize"
.
CBC News
. 16 September 2006. Archived from
the original
on February 5, 2009
. Retrieved
2009-09-05
.
- ^
[1]
IMDb Awards Notes
External links
[
edit
]