film: death of a president

UK's TV Channel 4 is set to spark a furore this month when it unveils a documentary-style film in which George Bush is assassinated reports The Guardian.

"Death of a President" co-written and directed by Gabriel Range ("The Day Britain Stopped"), is a 90-minute drama set in October 2007. Using a mix of archive footage, computer generated imagery and documentary techniques, it's a fictional dramatization of Bush's assassination and the resulting fallout that act would have on the American people.

Gabriel Range, director of the film, said: "Inevitably there will be people offended by the premise. But anyone who does see the film will recognise that it's not a personal attack on Bush but an oblique way of exploring the direction his foreign policies have taken us."

Range was previously responsible for the BBC film The Day Britain Stopped", a similar exercise in which documentary-style techniques were used to recreate the aftermath of a collision between two aeroplanes in the skies above London.

The Toronto International Film Festival said Thursday that it will give the film a world premiere September 10th. A White House spokeswoman said yesterday: "We are not going to comment, because it does not dignify a response."

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Death of a President is a British film by Gabriel Range, a fictional documentary about the assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush.[1] The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2006, and was aired on the More4 channel in the UK on October 9, 2006. The film uses archive footage, actors and computer effects to portray the president's assassination.

Newmarket Films, which distributed Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, has reportedly purchased the U.S. distribution rights to the film for $1 million.[2]

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Synopsis

In October 2007, President George W. Bush is assassinated by a hidden shooter on his way out of a Chicago hotel, in front of which an anti-war rally is being held. A man of Syrian origins, Jamal Abu Zikri, becomes the prime suspect. Three years later, a documentary filmmaker presents a movie about what the United States has become since the assassination.

Dick Cheney, after being elevated to the position of President, uses the possible al-Qaeda connection of the suspect to push his own agenda. He calls for a Patriot Act 3, suspends most civil liberties and calls for military action against Syria. An already tense world situation grows worse.

Eventually, the movie reveals that the perpetrator is an American, the father of a soldier who had died on duty in Iraq. The assassin blames Bush for the death of his son and commits suicide after murdering Bush. His suicide note reads: "There's no honor in standing for an immoral cause. George Bush killed our David and I can't forgive him." The assassination ends up being entirely personal.

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Reaction

The film has been heavily criticised by US politicians. The Republican Party of Texas has described the subject matter as "shocking" and "disgusting".[3] Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has said, "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."[4]

The White House has declined to comment on the film.

Regal Entertainment Group, which operates 6,273 screens in 584 locations in 40 U.S. states and Cinemark USA, which operates about 2,500 screens theatres in 34 U.S. states, have said they will not screen the film.[5]

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That Bush was assassinated in this film isn't really the issue. The real issue in this film is the sequence of events that the assassination set in motion. It's about how the current state of national fear and paranoia could produce the results that the film depicts in the AFTERMATH of the fictional assassination. It's about how contradictory evidence is suppressed or ignored, stereotypes are reinforced, rights are willingly surrendered by a frightened public, and hatred is stoked. It's about how a mere tidbit of dubious information (the questionable smudged fingerprint) can be hyped by politicians with an agenda into international confrontation. The film was an excellent and insightful commentary on the current state of political affairs in the United States, and I recommend it highly.

Author: kjdd97 from United States

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