How Hollywood does the President

Who wouldn't have voted for President Harrison Ford in the 1990s?

The President of The United States is probably the most portrayed character on film in the past couple of decades. He has been the antaganist and the hero. He has been played for laughs and serious drama. He has also been highly criticized in movies.

The President of The United States has already appeared in several films so far this year. In Scarey Movie 4, Leslie Neilsen spoofs President Bush's playing the President as a complete idiot who ends up naked and bent over in front of the entire United Nations. The first time you see Neilsen he is sitting in a classroom listening to a story being read to elementary students, much as Bush was when he first heard of the planes hitting The World Trade Center. The Sentinel has a President who has no idea that his wife is getting boinked by someone who has pledged all kinds of loyalty to him. In American Dreamz, Dennis Quaid plays a clueless President who doesn’t understand anything about the country until he reads liberal newspapers.

This negative film portrayal of the President is hardly new. In 2003's Love Actually, Billy Bob Thornton plays The President as a bully. In 2004 The President of the United States has a clone for spare body parts in The Island. That year he also decided to run for Mayor of a small town because he likes a local woman in Welcome to Mooseport.

In none of these movies does the President ever act respectfully Presidential. He acts immature, dumb, out of touch and outright ineffective. However, during the Hollywood endorsed Bill Clinton years, a few movies were made that showed the President in good light. In 1997, The President was an all out action hero as portrayed by Harrison Ford in Air Force One. In 1995's The American President, Michael Douglas plays him as a love struck romantic. Even though Primary Colors(1998) had John Travolta play a Clintonesque President who had an affair, it really dismisses the affairs as being irrelevant. So although it mentions him as being unfaithful it also served to defend him by showing that he was human and thus more common. His character in the movie never really suffers or gets a comeuppance for the affairs. In 1993 Kevin Kline played a man of the people with simple common sense in Dave. He takes over for the real President and ends up balancing the budget while saving money for an inner city youth program.

Clinton saw a few movies released during his Presidency that portrayed a president who thought of himself as being above the law. Clear and Present Danger(1994) had a corrupt President and Absolute Power(1997) had a President having an affair and covering up a murder.

The biggest similarity in film to cover both Clinton's and Bush's Presidencies is the theme of having a daughter, just as Bill Clinton and George Bush both have daughters in real life. In Air Force One, the President’s daughter is held captive by terrorists. In Chasing Liberty and The First Daughter played by Mandy Moore and Katie Holmes, the girls are trying to find independence from a protective President father.

The beauty of The United States of America is our freedom of speech. That freedom includes portraying our leaders, even fictiously, in good or bad light.