FILM PRESIDENTS THROUGH THE AGES

Zap2it.com ^ | October 2000 | Marla Hart

[doug from upland]

A president gets embroiled in a national scandal when sexual hi-jinx from the past threaten to sabotage his best-laid plans. Only in The Contender, Jeff Bridges’ president is like a Boy Scout and Joan Allen, his choice for V.P., is the politician in trouble.

Bridges makes a handsome commander-in-chief. Maybe too handsome. On celluloid, the leader of the free world is usually the guy who lacks sex appeal and charisma.

Hollywood likes its presidents craggy-faced and tough (Harrison Ford in Air Force One, Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact), with bonus points for a receding hairline (Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks).

High moral standards are optional (Gene Hackman in Absolute Power, Hopkins in Nixon). And bumbling gets high marks (James Garner and Jack Lemmon in My Fellow Americans, Jack Warden in Being There).

British actors are fine as domestic leaders if they disguise the accent (Anthony Hopkins in Nixon, Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove).

Jimmy Stewart only got as far as Congressman in Frank Capra’s 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Same for Robert Redford in 1972’s The Candidate, which had the distinction of casting real-life presidential candidates Hubert H. Humphrey and George McGovern in cameos.

In Wag the Dog, we see DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman as presidential advisors, but blink and you miss the president (Michael Belson), even though the black comedy was about a White House cover-up.

The 1993, Clinton-esque Dave stars Kevin Kline as a mensch enlisted by the White House to impersonate the president who had a stroke during an extra-marital romp.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton told late film critic Gene Siskel, “If I had to cast (who would play me in a movie) today just in an instant, probably Tom Hanks. I mean, we don’t look alike, and we’re not the same size or shape or anything, but I think he has shown . . . a range of capacity that’s quite remarkable, and if someone were trying to play me and actually go through this job, in the kind of roller coaster way that life takes you, I would want a person with a lot of range and a lot of feeling.”

Of actors who actually have played presidents, Clinton voted for Harrison Ford as the president-turned-jet-pilot in Air Force One.

“He flew that plane when it came down to it. He did what he had to do,” Clinton said. “That’s what you want to know, that when it comes down to it, the president will do what has to be done.”

With the elections just a few weeks away, we tallied the actors Hollywood has considered presidential - or as George W. Bush might say, presidential-able.

We’ve matched them to the real-life presidents in office when their movie was released:

 

Bill Clinton (1993 to 2000)

• Jeff Bridges, The Contender (2000)
• William Hurt, The Big Brass Ring (1999)
• John Travolta, Primary Colors (1998)
• Morgan Freeman, Deep Impact (1998)
• Richard Belzer, Species II (1998)
• Harrison Ford, Air Force One (1997)
• Gene Hackman Absolute Power (1997)
• Michael Belson, Wag the Dog (1997)
• Ronny Cox, Murder at 1600 (1997)
• Jack Nicholson, Mars Attacks! (1996)
• Bill Pullman, Independence Day (1996)
• Jack Lemmon and James Garner, My Fellow Americans (1996)
• Anthony Hopkins, Nixon (1995)
• Michael Douglas, The American President (1995)
• Nick Nolte, Jefferson in Paris (1995)
• Donald Moffat, Clear and Present Danger (1994)
• Kevin Kline, Dave (1993)

George Bush (1989 to 1992)

• The president gets no respect in the non-stop action thriller Point Break (1991) starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Surfer/bank robbers wear rubber masks impersonating presidents Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson.
• Clu Gulager as a presidential candidate in Tapeheads (1988)
• Tony Howard as LBJ in JFK (1991)

Ronald Reagan (1981 to 1988)

• Donald Pleasance, Escape from New York (1981)
• Phillip Baker Hall, Secret Honor (1984)
• Ronald Lacey, Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)

Jimmy Carter (1977 to 1980)

• Jack Warden, Being There (1979)

Gerald Ford (1974 to 1976)

• Ford as himself in archival footage, All The Presidents Men (1976)

Richard Nixon (1969 to 1974)

• Ken Howard, William Daniels 1776 (1972)

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963 to 1968)

• Henry Fonda, Fail-Safe (1964)
• Fredric [CQ] March, Seven Days in May (1964)

John F. Kennedy (1960 to 1963)

• Cliff Robertson, PT-109 (1963)
• Peter Sellers, Dr. Strangelove, released in 1964 but penned by Stanley Kubrick penned before Kennedy’s assassination.

[Commander8]

I liked Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln.

[Argus]

Reason there were so many movie Presidents during Clinton's era is that there was a sleazy zero in the White House, and the public needed adequate substitutes.

Most macho movie President: a tommy gun-toting Walter Huston in GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (1933) battling racketeers and corrupt pols.

Best Pre-President: Henry Fonda as YOUNG MR. LINCOLN.

Coolest President in a continuing TV show: US Grant periodically briefing Robert Conrad in THE WILD WILD WEST.

Lamest President in a continuing TV show: Martin Sheen.

Most accurate version of Martin Sheen as a President: MS as the fascist nut job in THE DEAD ZONE.

[mountaineer]

Michael Douglas, The American President (1995)

Just an awful movie, an awful script, everything awful. A paean to a Clintonesque character, although this "president" was fortunate enough to be a widower, unlike Blubba Clinton.

[Larry Lucido]

Don't forget E.G. Marshall as the President in Superman II. There was also an idiotic movie named Twilight's Last Gleaming in 1977 with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, but I'm not sure who played the Prez.

[doug from upland]

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT was entertaining buy it certainly was a load of DNC crapola. Great comment about the Prez, unlike Sinkmaster, being lucky to be a widower.

THE CONTENDER was so propagandist for the DNC that I was yelling in the theatre. My friend with whom I went thought I was going to get us kicked out. It was a Kool-Aide drinker's dream flick.

[doug from upland]

I found this by accident searching for info about the great Morgan Freeman. He had the courage to recently stand up for President Bush by calling him a great president in an interview abroad. In the past, Freeman did not take George Steponyouranus's race baiting on an appearance on ABC. Freeman, an Air Force vet, has probably taken heat for his Bush comments.

[Oztrich Boy]

There was also an idiotic movie named Twilight's Last Gleaming in 1977 with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, but I'm not sure who played the Prez.

Charles Durning as President Daivd Stephens. They always forget him.

The move was idiotic, being a Robert Aldrich "liberalisation" of Walter Wager's quite good thriller.

plot summary: ex US AirForce Officer has broken out of prison, seized a missile silo and is threatening to launch against the USSR unless his demands are met (in the book, a lot of money and a plane out of the country)

movie
President: "What are his demands?"
Aide: "He wants us to announce that the government has been lying about the Vietnam war"
President" "Why would he want us to say such a strange thing as that?"
Aide (gently): "well actually Mr President, we ..."

But there was a happy ending, the too stupid to be loose without a keeper President got killed.

(my intepretation of the Pres. I think Aldrich cast him to be admirable)

[doug from upland]

You notice that they only briefly mention MURDER AT 1600. When I first heard the title, I thought it was about poor Vince.

"Of actors who actually have played presidents, Clinton voted for Harrison Ford as the president-turned-jet-pilot in Air Force One." ------ of course Sinkmaster would like that. The character was everything the lying traitorous bastard is not.

[dsutah]

Don't forget Barry Bostwick in a mini-series about
George Washington in the early to mid eighties. Of
course, that was on t.v. Also, there was a very old
one with Charlton Heston playing Andrew Jackson.
Then Anthony Hopkins played John Q. Adams in "Amistad"
during B. Clinton's second term (I think). And there
have been a few actors who have played A. Lincoln, and
Martin Sheen played a Kennedy-like president in "The
Dead Pool" (can't remember the year). I'm not sure,
but I think Andy Griffith played a president in a
a miniseries called "Washington Behind Closed Doors".
in the late 70's.

[Corin Stormhands]

The character was everything the lying traitorous bastard is not. Donald Moffat, in Clear and Present Danger is the closest to Clinton.

I made the comment when they came out that both Air Force One and Independence Day were scary movies because we couldn't imagine Clinton in either situation.

And, think about this scene from Air Force One:

The President (Harrison Ford): If you give a mouse a cookie...
The Vice President (Glenn Close): He's gonna want a glass of milk.

Or in real life:

The President (Bill Clinton): If you give a mouse a cookie...
The Vice President (Al Gore): I invented cookies...

Entirely different outcome.

[Poohbah]

Morgan Freeman's role as President in Deep Impact was outstandingly done: he came across as a decent, caring man thrust into events too big for any man to cope with, and still kept his faith and his hope.