"Death of a President"
Director Gabriel Range
Newmarket Films
(Out of 5)
Will it happen during the midday motorcade? Is it going to take
place inside the reception at the Economic Club of Chicago? Or
maybe it will occur en route to the hotel?
Most audiences will spend the first twenty minutes or so of the
film “Death of a President” wondering this. After all,
if a film promises the assassination of the current leader of the
free world, one can’t help but watch and wait in wonder.
“Death of a President” is filmmaker Gabriel
Range’s vision of the future. A cold Friday in downtown
Chicago, a nation in turmoil over a country-dividing war, dismal
foreign relations, and economic downturns; October 19, 2007 to be
exact.
Shots ring out.
President George W. Bush is hit twice during an outdoor
meet-and-greet at approximately 8:10 p.m. and as his death is
announced at approximately 1:30 a.m. on news channels around the
globe, the world falls apart.
It seems implausible and slightly crazed to really consider, but
the documentary has a truly authentic feel and allows the audience
to truly escape in this dark future.
The first half of the film, supposedly a 2008 documentary
looking back on this tragic event, follows the events of Oct. 19
and the death of the 43rd president.
Anti-war protesters rejoice in the streets as others weep in
agony, but rather than show the reactions and subsequent changes in
American society, the second half follows the goose chase for
President Bush’s assassin and the man beneath the mask is
revealed.
The filmmakers’ true political colors begin to show
themselves and the audience is brought back to present day 2006 far
before the credits roll.
Commentaries by fictional journalists, White House employees and
investigators, as well as the multiple appearances of a walking and
talking President Bush, are extremely believable.
However, the film is also choppy and slightly confusing. A
Syrian woman’s commentary on the murder appears throughout
the film yet her significance is left unexplained until the film is
almost over.
“Death of a President” is almost a must-see, if only
because of its truly original and refreshing premise, but the
film’s true intentions are never fully revealed or, it seems,
fully realized.