Death of a President premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday September 10.
Death of a President is a fictional docudrama set years after the assassination of President George W. Bush, that investigates the still unsolved mystery.
I realize that the following two articles will anger some readers. Please read both articles in their entirety (the second specifically explains more about the film) before you comment.
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Bush Assassination Film Applauded at Festival [SOURCE]
By WENN Monday, September 11, 2006
HOLLYWOOD – A controversial British drama about the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush has been applauded following its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada.
Death of a President, which shows Bush shot dead in Chicago in 2007, was recently slammed as “irresponsible” and “horrible” by American politicians.
However, director Gabriel Range claims critics are judging the film unfairly as they have yet to see it.
He says, “I think the film makes it clear it would really be a horrific event. I really don’t think that anyone would get the idea of assassinating Bush from this film.” He adds, “It is using the lens of the future to look at the present. It is about issues that have affected us all in the last five years. It is a film about America today.”
“The central conceit of the film was that it is a drama, but told in the style of what we hope is a fairly authentic, classic, retrospective documentary. Clearly, if we had told a retrospective documentary with a fictional president, it would have undermined and undercut that central idea.”
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Bush Assassination Film Set for U.S. Release [SOURCE]
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
TORONTO – After you kill off President George W. Bush in a fictional film, what do you do? How about make a deal.
Gabriel Range, the British producer/director/creator of Death of a President, the fictional documentary that sight unseen became one of the most talked-about movies of the Toronto Film Festival, has sold U.S. distribution rights to Newmarket Films, which handled Mel Gibson’s equally provocative movie The Passion of the Christ.
Newmarket, which reportedly paid $1 million for the film, is expected to give President a wide release within the next few months. It will air on Britain’s Channel 4 next month.
Range’s film opened on Sunday night to a sell-out festival crowd, which sat respectfully through it and applauded briefly at the end. Those who remained after the screening peppered the filmmaker with questions on how he achieved his special effects.
The film is shot as if it were a conventional television documentary, even though the events are fictional.
Range, who also co-wrote the film, uses footage taken of Bush during three visits to Chicago to create the scenes that lead up to the president being shot.
He also uses special digital effects to superimpose the head of the president on that of an actor pretending to be shot, and he creates a flowery eulogy delivered by President Dick Cheney at the funeral of his predecessor.
The movie opens with demonstrations against Bush as he visits Chicago in 2007. As he leaves a hotel after delivering a speech, he is shot by a sniper in a nearby building.
A police hunt leads to the arrest of a Palestinian man on flimsy evidence. Later the man is convicted of the assassination and kept in prison even as evidence points to another person as having committed the crime.
“The reaction of the general public was very good,” Range said in an interview with Reuters about the opening night response.
“People didn’t know what to expect. Our film has a very striking premise but it is not sensational or gratuitous. I hope people will see it as a balanced film and compelling drama. It is an oblique look at the ways the United States has changed since 9/11. We use the lens of the future to explain the past.”
The 93-minute film’s subject matter has led to protests in the United States, especially from conservatives. Range said he has received five or six death threats.
But he said that was because there was a rush to judgment about his film, without people knowing what was in it.
“We portrayed the horror of assassination. … I don’t think anyone would get the idea of assassinating Bush from this film,” Range said.
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Death of a President seems provocative and intriguing so I will most likely scope it out.
But what do you think? Would you ever consider going to see a film about the fictional assassination of the current president? Does it bother you that a film like this can even be released in the United States? Feel free to discuss. Doesn’t matter what your opinion is.
By the way, Death of a President has already agitated Kevin Costner. He makes some valid points about the movie. Be sure to read what he has said.
@Cinefille 
I don’t really know how I feel about this film. I don’t think I would want to watch a film where Bush dies, but the filmmaker has the right to make a film about it if he wants to. What’s most frightening about it is that a movement or group of Americans against some policies in America could generate so much hatred as to kill for it. If the nation were ever that divided to the point of murder today, America would probably not last much longer. I also don’t think it is very comparable to The Passion of the Christ because The Passion was about an actual event, so people weren’t as upset about it; whereas a futuristic look at killing the current president makes people wary. It certainly makes me feel uncomfortable.
Well said, austingop. I’m sure that a film of this nature could plant ideas in someone who is a bit mentally unstable (a John Hinkley type comes to mind). I agree that they have every right to make it just as I have every right not to view it.
Excellent post….
What I want to know is how much reaction it’s going to get from the government. There has already been some complaints, but as the release date gets closer there is obviously going to be even more uproar from the gov’t. It’ll be more interesting to see that, than the actual movie.