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 ) ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu