The film, "Death of a President," uses the morally dubious tactic of mixing real news footage with staged events, in order to create an imagined assassination of President George W. Bush.
An unknown gunman assassinates George W. Bush. A couple of years later, an investigative documentary is made. It features all the people involved that fateful day: the protestors outside a Chicago hotel; the suspects in the shooting and their families; the Secret Service men; and an array of experts. We learn, agonizingly, what happened to America after the death of a president.
The first half of the movie leading up to the assassination, where amazingly realistic street demonstrations get out of hand, represents the dramatic high point of the film. Unfortunately, in the second half, the film bogs down with dry lessons in forensic evidence and legal strategies. It becomes a murder mystery without a detective hero. The film is made to look like a TV documentary filmed many months after the fact. It strongly implies the government got the wrong man.
Before too long, Arab scapegoats are sized up, and the USA Patriot Act gains a couple of significant clauses. However, far too much time is wasted in the procedural, like minutiae about ballistic reports and fiber samples. It offers only a few tantalizing hints of the larger picture.
The film starts strongly, but ends up as a standard murder mystery without too many thrills. Ultimately, it never quite makes the imaginative leap that it promised. |
