Apparently, fictionalizing the assassination of a sitting president is controversial for some reason.
Two of America's biggest cinema chains, Regal and Cinemark, have refused to screen the controversial UK-produced Death of a President when it is released later this month.Terrell Falk, a spokesperson for Cinemark, told the Guardian: “The assassination of a sitting president is problematic subject matter.”
Gabriel Range's film, originally commissioned for television by Channel 4 and screened on More4 last night, uses a faux-documentary style to depict the assassination of George W Bush in October 2007.
The Music Box on Southport is apparently going to show it
(official site which separates reviews into two categories: have seen the film, and have not seen the film)
Hope I can get tickets - only playing one week.
Tags: assassination, /Film
I admit, I have not seen the film. Nevertheless I'm convinced that the assassination of a leader - whether real or as a stylistic device - does not solve our real problems. The theme is old, you could call it the William Tell syndrome, but as we all know, incessant repetition does not make a wrong concept right.
And besides, what do we critizize George W. Bush for? Is it not basically for lack of respect, lack of sane principles and lack of sustainable strategies? (At least most European critics do so.) For me all this pseudo-religious talk of axis of evil etc. just reveals that Mr. President is suffering from the very same disease than his terrorist counterparts: dividing the world in black and white. Only one bit-logic, just a little obsolete!
So we'd better stop and think about intelligent ideas to bring about change on democratic grounds. I'm not an expert in U.S. election arithmetics, but I suppose convincing some 10% of the electorate (swing voters) should be enough. And as far as we can recognize from Old Europe, the key would be to challenge sayings like those who are not for us, are against us. Constructive opposition is what makes real democracy better than dictatorship, so measuring patriotism on agreement with the president is absolutely undemocratic. If the western civilization forgets this, the terrorists have their success, and we are back to the middle ages (that's what they want). So please no teasing with political murder, we've had enough of that. It's simply bad style.
Mark,
as a fictional plot device, killing political leaders is fairly trite, and especially in the modern media climate, is sure to receive tons of publicity. And I'll go on record as saying, even though I despise Bush, and his administration, with a rancor unfettered by logic, I still don't wish for his death. Fledgling Buddhism or something: I don't kill spiders either.
As far as achieving electoral victory with a swing of 5-10% of the electorate, I can't truly hope for that until the Diebold/electronic voter fraud issue is solved. Don't trust the politicians, especially with the power of the computer chip.