Death of a President (2006)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Gabriel Range

Writers:

Simon Finch (writer)
Gabriel Range (writer)

Release Date:

21 December 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Do not rush to judge.

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Assassination | Gulf War Veteran | Wrongful Conviction | Shot In The Chest | Anarchism

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

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 Jon	...	Samir Masri
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

Also Known As:

D.O.A.P. (Canada: English title) (festival title)

MPAA:

Rated R for brief violent images.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Arabic

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | UK:12 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-11 | Portugal:M/12 | South Korea:12 | Japan:PG-12 | Brazil:12 | Argentina:13 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Borough Films

Trivia:

The rifle used by the murderer was actually an airsoft replica (G&G SR25) of a AR15.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A news reporter says the aircraft carrier Nimitz is being sent back to the Mediterranean Sea. The file footage they show is of the aircraft carrier Enterprise.

Quotes:

[end title cards]
Title card: One year after his conviction, Jamal Abu Zikri has still not been granted leave to appeal.
Title card: He remains on death row in Statevill Correctional Center.
Title card: Since recording the interview for this film Robert H Maguire has resigned as Head of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.
Title card: USA PATRIOT III, introduced in the days after the assassination, has since been turned into permanent law.
Title card: It has granted investigators unprecedented powers of detention and surveillance, and further expanded the powers of the executive branch.

A Very Good Movie - And It Is Not Anti-Bush or Anti-American

Death Of A President is an excellent film and is in no way anti-American or Anti-George Bush. It has great cinematography, an interesting and very plausible story line, and exceptional performances. Whether you're left, right, center, or none of the above, this is a a very good film for the thinking movie-goer.

The controversy, of course, stems from the use of the current U.S. President as the victim of an assassination. The assassination scene itself flies by and can't be more than 2-3 seconds long, so fast, in fact, you can be forgiven if you miss it altogether. It's what precedes and follows that scene that is the meat of the movie. Film footage of Bush and other real political figures is spliced seamlessly into this film, and includes footage of Vice-President Cheney and Mayor Daley of Chicago. None of these real persons are in any way abused or mis-characterized in the film. And the portrayal of fictional FBI agents, Chicago Police officers, and White House and Secret Service officials is, if anything, mostly very complimentary to them. This film does not do a hatchet job on anyone

What the use of real characters in a fictitious scenario allows the film-makers to do is to let the movie-goer realize that real actions have real consequences. And by putting real persons into a totally fictitious plot the film-makers can develop an accurate scenario - something that still can't be done with the Kennedy assassination of more that 40 years ago. We can't present an accurate portrayal of that real event even now because of the doubts cast on the whole event by the actions of our own government. The USG botched the assassination investigation so badly with its lies of omission and commission, that we will probably never know that whole truth about what happened that day in 1963. With the fictional scenario of Death of a President, though, we know exactly how things play out.

Whether you are a President, an assassin, an FBI agent, or just a movie-goer, realizing that actions have consequences - often unforeseen consequences, of course - is something we all need to be reminded of from time to time.