Death Of A President
I watched Death Of A President last night. It’s a television fake-umentary about the aftermath of the assassination of President George W. “Dubbya “Hitler”" Bush in 2007. He’s taken out by a sniper while leaving the Chicago Sheraton after a speech. Concurrent with this is a massive, unruly protest in the streets, so naturally protest leaders are rounded up. Then they identify a Syrian employee of the building from which the shooter attacked and are pressured to build a case against him. The unfolding of the investigation, the pressure to treat this as a Syrian-sponsored terrorist act, and the political consequences, are all handled in a pretty plausible and interesting way. U.S. domestic politics was left moot, which is probably a wise decision. Can you imagine what Fox News would be like for the next three months afterwards? Can you imagine the Atrios thread? “Comments (62,967)”
The story is primarily told through acted interviews, spliced with newsreel footage of Bush and Cheney speechifying, and acted scenes of protests and secret service agents scrambling. Repurposing scenes of actual events within the fictional context created a seriously eerie effect. particularly President Cheney’s eulogy over “Bush’s” casket, which I guess was a real eulogy he gave for someone else. It’s really Cheney, and he’s really eulogizing. At one point they overdubbed the words “George Bush,” but it was the only time I noticed it. Uncanny.
