PART II. THE CONTENDER in a tradition of alternative visions for the
Presidency in Film and TV..
Imaginary Presidents seem to emerge in film when real Presidents
disappoint Hollywood or the public. Here are some examples:
1933 Gabriel Over the White House
This film responded to the challenges of the Depression
with a fascist reaction. The President dismisses the legislature
and creates military tribunals to deal with bootleggers and
businesses which will not work with him. He inducts the
unemployed into Brown-shirt organizations which then instill
discipline into the working classes. Impatient with peace talks,
the Presidents threatens to blow America's (potential) enemies
out of the water.
The film is a fantasy designed to deal quickly with the frustrations of
the America's Depression.
1964 Dr. Strangelove; or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love
The Bomb
Stanley Kubrick created a milquetoast President in this film
to stress his belief that the dangers of nuclear war were beyond
the efforts of well-intentioned people. The use of Peter Sellers
in a variety of roles within the film may have been a statement
about the lack of unity of character in modern society. This
statement cuts to the quick and has more resonance today that
when the film came out--and unusual development since films
tend to lose their steam over time.
1997 Air Force One
The President in this film is a Medal of Honor winner, a man
who loves his family, and someone who never allows his staff
to hang in the wind (unless they have parachutes). His courage,
commitment, and loyalty are in clear contrast to the existing
President--hence the emergence of this fantasy figure.
2000 The Contender
As indicated above, this film falls into a tradition. In this
case, Hollywood lays out its "progressive" agenda because
the candidates for office--to include Al Gore, the Democratic
candidate--are too compromised by their efforts to stay mainstream.
Hollywood here teaches America what it needs to know and
throws in, during the final scenes, at least two allusions to the
McCarthy-Army Hearings most memorably represented in
Emile DeAntonio's documentary entitled POINT OF ORDER (1964).
The villain of the piece, an otherwise principled individual, is associated
with Senator Joseph McCarthy by his own wife and then by the words of
President Jackson Evans. The implication is that there are no principled
people who oppose the agenda advanced by the film.
Gary Oldman is the Executive Director of The Contender and stars as the
villain of the piece. In recent days, he has complained that pressure was
placed on the screenwriter and that post-production editing reshaped the
film to make a pointed statement against republicans--as represented by
the character Oldman plays, Representative Shelly Runyon. More details
will emerge over time, but a close look at the film shows that the final
scenes
could have been reshot to suit the agenda of Dreamworks and that there
may be scenes on the cutting room floor which made the villain a bit more
complicated. Gary Oldman has been invited to our conference in
Los Angeles to have his say on this matter.
So....The Contender is yet another film about the Presidency, but it comes
at a time when Americans are about to cast their votes for a new President;
did Hollywood foresee the timing of this release--just a week or so before
those who choose to vote go to the polls?
After the election, and as the pundits chisel their impressions into stone,
come to our conference in Los Angeles and sort out the perspectives and
insights of our scholars!!
(For more information, to include a filmography of Presidential films,
see www.filmandhistory.org )
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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the
University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu
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