Death of a President (2006)

Years after the assassination of President George W. Bush in Chicago, an investigative documentary examines that as-yet-unsolved crime.

Director:

Gabriel Range

Writers:

Gabriel Range, Simon Finch

Stars:

Hend Ayoub, Becky Ann Baker, George W. Bush

6 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hend Ayoub	...	Zahra Abi Zikri
Becky Ann Baker	...	Eleanor Drake
Brian Boland	...	Larry Stafford
Michael Reilly Burke	...	Robert H. Maguire
Patricia Buckley	...	Dawn Newton
Seena Ghaznavi	...	Samir Masri (as Seena Jon)
Robert Mangiardi	...	Greg Turner
Neko Parham	...	Casey Claybon (as M. Neko Parham)
Jay Patterson	...	Sam McCarthy
Chavez Ravine	...	Marianne Claybon
Christian Stolte	...	John Rucinski
James Urbaniak	...	Dr. James Pearn
Jay Whittaker	...	Frank Molini
Patrick Clear	...	Adam Brock
David Girolmo	...	Spokesman

Storyline

Years after the assassination of President George W. Bush in Chicago, an investigative documentary examines that as-yet-unsolved crime.

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Plot Keywords:

white house washington d.c. | prologue | terrorist training camp | muslim | george w. bush | 

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Taglines:

Do not rush to judge.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brief violent images

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English Arabic

Release Date:

21 December 2006 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

A Morte de George W. Bush

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$281,778, 29 October 2006, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$519,086

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$657,256, 18 March 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Borough Films,Borough Picture Company,Channel 4 Television Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The footage used from Dick Cheney's eulogy for Bush was actually edited footage from his eulogy at the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan in 2004.

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Goofs

The zip code listed on the MI Drivers License is not to Dearborn. 48332 is for a P.O. Box in Farmington Hills.

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Quotes

Robert H. Maguire: Finding the source of the leak is the focus of a massive investigation.

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Connections

Featured in An Interview with the Makers of Death of a President (2006)

User Reviews

what a surprise

I was very skeptical before seeing this movie. Title and premise of "Death of a President" led me, and probably others, to expect either a shallow Bush-bashing hack-job or some sort of bizarre, "24"-like "we against the evildoers" hero-epic in a cheap documentary costume.

I'm happy to report: I was wrong. "Death of a President" is a very well written, performed and directed drama in the style of a modern (and hardly opinionated) documentary. And most surprisingly, it isn't really a movie about George W Bush.

It was a very smart move to make it a "mock" documentary, since it keeps the viewer on a skeptical distance to all the protagonists, so the movie doesn't push the audience into immediately placing the characters into the "good" and "bad" categories like it would be the case with a drama done in a conventional narrative. That gives room to examine the characters different motives and actions without having to rely on pressing the emotion-buttons too much. Of course this approach relies on convincing performances from all actors involved (mabybe even more so than with a conventional drama) to keep the illusion alive of actually watching a documentary.... over-acting could have been a disaster for this movie, and i'm very glad cast and director avoided that pitfall. Fine performances all around.

Now, to the obvious elephant in the room (and the reason why this movie is so controversial): Why did the makers of the movie not just have a fictional president killed? Shock value? Some kind of perverse joy in getting rid of the real President? I don't think so.

First of all, having the real President Bush in the movie obviously makes this theoretical exercise just more authentic and convincing. And more importantly, the viewer is forced to place himself somewhere among the characters, to place his sympathy and antipathy bets just based on preconceived notions, so to speak. I doubt there are many people who don't have a clear opinion about George W Bush and his administration (I certainly have mine. And in the interest of full disclosure, I'm no fan, to say the least). But that opinion (whatever it is) is important for the movie to get it's point across: it's the setup to play effectively with the viewers prejudices.

"Death of a President" manages to make you look beyond the stereotypes and makes a solid point about the misleading force of preconceived notions (for the viewer as well as the characters in the movie). The tag line "Do not rush to judge" is well chosen. The movie in particular makes a valid point about the worrying tendency in the US (and the world in general, I cant think of any society that's not to some degree affected by this "disease") of more and more dumbing everything down to "us versus them".

Be it the inflation of the word "Terrorist" as a magic opinion maker, (and drifting away from the movie for a second) be it Republicans versus Democrats, be it the insane shouting matches that pass as talk shows these days or be it the bizarre notion of an inevitable "clash of the civilizations".

The movie isn't perfect though. For example, the character of Bushs speech writer was a bit over the top in her praise for the man, while the protesting crowds remained rather stereotypical. Also, some doctored shots didn't quite live up to the otherwise impressive technical level of this production.

Yet "Death of a Presindent" offers a bit of much needed perspective on the Terrorism-issue; it sure does it by rather drastic means but it doesn't fail to deliver. Of course for me, as a distant observer of the USA, the fact that the actual President gets "assasinated" in this movie doesn't have quite the emotional punch as it must have for Americans. So I can understand the very mixed reactions it gets from reviewers.

But if you feel up to it, go see it yourself and then make up your mind, instead of rushing to judgment based on title and plot outline.