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 | Conspiracy | Speech | Mockumentary | USA Patriot Act

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

Color:

Color

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

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: In U.S Standard kept time, : is used between the numbers, as in 3:30pm. However, on an American broadcast, in the corner of the screen the time is given as 3.30 which is the European standard for time. American News keeps the : on their clock tickers.

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 great piece of work

There hasn't been a movie like this before and many will build their disapproval of the film around this fact. How can it be anything but controversial when it concerns a speculation about a future crime - and the crime concerns the person who is likely to be one of most controversial US presidents this century.

But given the administration and its leader have been quite overt in courting controversy and have often appeared to care little for opinion outside their electoral and other power bases in the USA it can count for little that suddenly some creative team somewhere outside the USA provokes discomfort in the heartland of that political grouping.

This film can be regarded as both as a straight ahead thriller but also as a device to explore your own attitudes and those of others to certain key political issues. Its rather like the BBC1 TV series 'Spooks' which uses some very current-affairs-rich plot lines with potential to alarm some sensitive groupings and manages to craft mass entertainment with the power to stimulate and provoke. If stakeholders in a publicly funded TV channel have the maturity to cope with Spooks, I don't see why this attitude shouldn't be adopted more widely in the free world.