Do not rush to judge.
Death of a President follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W Bush in October 2007. Combining real archival footage with a credible but fictional story, Death of a President presents a fascinating and thought-provoking political thriller. The film opens with the ferocious energy of a Tarantino or Oliver Stone movie, as frenetically edited archival footage thrusts us into a raging crowd of protesters, waiting for President Bush's procession. The President is portrayed as a sympathetic and likeable man - beloved by those close to him and charming to his followers. As the President gives a patriotic speech inside a hotel, the demonstrators' fury increases to the breaking point. The tension mounts until the horrible instant where the President is assassinated. After the assassination, the film shifts into the style of a mystery, and follows the FBI's hunt for the assassin. All the suspects are interviewed except one, the Syrian man who is convicted and put on death row. There is much circumstantial evidence against him. But is he guilty of the crime? Or does his being Middle Eastern provide a convenient excuse to label the death of the President as an Act of Terror?
Special Agent Matti
The worst aspect of Death of a President is not that it is a documentary of an attack on a living person but that it is fiction. If there is anyone who desperately needs to be assassinated, it's George W Bush Junior. Having got that off my chest, this film is a rational examination of one set of scenarios that might lead to the murder of the current president of the USA. Once you get over the death of the president it's like CSI if it occurred in the real world: interesting but not very flashy.
The drama movie Death of a President is directed by Gabriel Range and stars Hend Ayoub, Brian Boland, Becky Ann Baker.
M (Moderate themes and violence, infrequent moderate coarse language)
93 minutes (1:33 hours)
Film: 1 March 2007
