Death of a President (www.the-usher.com)

"The world changed on October 19th 2007"

On October 19th 2007, President George W. Bush was assassinated. Shot twice in the chest after giving a speech on the future of America in Chicago, the President died from his injuries early the next morning. This documentary looks back on that day and reflects on the events that followed, highlighting the search for the assassin and the repercussions that were felt around the world after the death of a president.

Documentaries are a cinematic way of reflection, investigation and opinion on historic or current events or people that have had an effect on the world but what if you used the genre to predict the reaction to a possible future event?

Making a documentary about the assassination of a current world leader was always going to be a controversial subject matter but when that leader is the most powerful man in the world you are bound to make some waves. Fictionally killing President George W. Bush on the streets of Chicago in such a realistic fashion is bound to get a reaction around the world, not just cinematically but as a social issue as well but the movie is not about the assassination of the President it is the reaction of the country and the world that is the true reflection of current political, economic, social and cultural climate of the world today.

Told from an even further point in the future, the movie has the same structure as any other documentary that may cover a subject like this. Casting actors as the FBI, Secret Service and members of President Bush's staff, as well as suspects and witnesses, the film uses them in interviews and through the medium of visual effects, inserts them into the archival and specially film footage used to bring the Chicago tragedy to life. This approach allows the filmmakers to comment and speculate as to how the US would react to such an event and the repercussions that would be felt around the world.

The film is a social commentary on how American is seen around the world and from within their own country. The movie is made by British filmmakers and Film Four who are looking at the country from the outside and revealing how the rest of the world sees the most powerful nation on Earth. It is not a biased approach however because both sides of the political, social and cultural divides are represented, from the pro-Bush/American war on terror, to the demonstrators within their own country, as well as the obvious al-Qaeda connections that are bound to be mentioned with any modern day act of terrorism. The film is all about the reaction and how rush judgements and obvious finger pointing could lead to a break down in relations, both socially and economically and the disintegration of justice as a perpetrator is pursued.

'Death of a President' is a piece of fiction but it is one that will definitely cause debate and controversy. It isn't the assassination itself that is the main issue of the film however, it is the reflection on the world today that should have you evaluating the Western approach to cultural, social and economic differences of other nations and how terrorism cannot only effect the people who it is against but the entire stability of the world. If this movie can get people talking about these issues, then it has accomplished what it set out to do.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the presentation is good.

BONUS FEATURES

An Interview with the makers of Death of a President (18.29 mins)
Director/producer/writer Gabriel Range, writer/producer Simon Finch and editor Brand Thuman talk about bringing the controversial movie to the screen. They discuss the fictional/futurist approach of the idea, revealing that it is a social commentary on modern America in the style of a commentary history documentary. The group also talk in length about how the scenes, interviews and story where constructed and how they went about creating a fictional event from real, archive and visual effects footage. This is an interesting featurette that reveals many of the secrets of the movie.

Director's Commentary
Director/producer/writer Gabriel Range is joined by writer/producer Simon Finch, co-producer Donall McCusker and editor Brand Thuman come together to talk you through the movie and reveal some of the secrets behind the making of the movie. Here they reveal their reasons for making the movie, how its was structured, the use of real and archive footage and the consultants that worked on the film. This is an interesting commentary that fills in many of the gaps missing from the making of� interviews.

Trailer (0.55 mins)
Watch the trailer used to promote the movie.

OVERALL

The DVD package for 'Death of a President' is pretty good. The interviews and commentary track reveal all of the behind the scenes information you need to know about the movies production and it gives the filmmakers the change to respond to some of the controversial publicity that the film generated on the festival circuits and on its release.

DVD

JFK

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2006