SCREENINGS: Which President will you pick?

Are you still undecided about which of the Presidential candidates you should chose in a couple weeks? Hollywood is intrigued by the power and pageantry of the American Presidency, and has created some memorable characters to occupy movie-set White Houses. I’ve picked seven of the most identifiable of the fictional movie Presidents for you to revisit or perhaps even meet for the first time. Let me know which movie President you would pick to run our country for the next four years.
The Space Alien Fighting President
In Roland Emmerich’s’ “Independence Day” (1996) President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) narrowly escapes death by boarding Air Force One minutes before flying saucers destroy Washington D.C., as well as New York City, Los Angeles and other major cities around the world. Retreating to safety in Nevada’s Top Secret Area 51, President Whitmore mans a fighter jet in an attack against the alien invaders.   
The Indiana Jones President
In Wolfgang Petersen’s superb thriller, “Air Force One” (2007), President James Marshall (Harrison Ford), and his family are hijacked onboard the Presidential plane by Russian terrorists. Since the President is “unable to perform his duties,” his female Vice President (Glenn Close) is challenged by advisors on the ground to immediately assume the role of Commander-in-Chief.
The Kidnapped President
“Vantage Point” (2008), offers eight different perspectives on the assassination attempt and kidnapping of President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) during a political summit in Spain. From different vantage points around the incident, director Pete Travis lets reporters, Secret Service agents, tourists, police officers, and terrorists witness the event over and over again, with the audience learning more with each retelling.
The Philandering President
Clint Eastwood directs and stars as a jewel thief who witnesses a woman killed by Secret Service officers guarding President Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) in “Absolute Power” (1997). The woman was Richmond’s lover and the wife of his billionaire friend. When the witness decides to reveal the truth, he is pursued by the police and a hired hit-man.
The African-American, Comet-Busting President
Morgan Freeman plays President Tom Beck in Mimi Leder’s “Deep Impact” (1998). President Beck has the unwelcome task of informing North America that everyone will surely perish when a comet collides with Earth in a few months. Only 800,000 Americans in excellent health and under 50-years-old who win a lottery will join a preselected group of scientists, artists, soldiers and politicians deep underground in Missouri’s limestone caves. Even there, the chances for survival are slim at best.
The Shark-Eating President
Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) is the second-term Democratic President who chooses to break the “glass ceiling” by selecting a woman Senator (Joan Allen) to fill the vacant Vice President seat in Rod Lurie’s political thriller “The Contender” (2000). Standing by his nominee against an attack on her morals from a Republican Senator (Gary Oldman), Evans coolly asks the White House kitchen to make his favorite grilled shark steak sandwiches, which he offers to the Republicans to make them feel ill at ease.
The First Jewish President
It is significant that Rod Lurie’s film “Deterrence” was made in 1999, because it outlines strikingly similar characters and scenarios to the real-life people and events which occurred in the following few years. In the film, the date is 2008, and Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday, invades Kuwait. Walter Emerson, America’s first Jewish Vice President, threatens to drop a nuclear bomb on Baghdad unless the Iraqis retreat immediately. Uday responds that he has 23 French nuclear missiles aimed at the US, Japan, Great Britain, Australia and Israel. The Iraqi President then announces he won’t negotiate with a Jew, and hangs up.
Not sure which movie President to vote for? You already have. The movies are listed in the order of Box Office dollars—ranging from the whopping $306 million for “Independence Day,” to the paltry $145 thousand for “Deterrrence.”
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