Death of a President (2006)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 100
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 63
In this unconvincing fictional documentary, the tense 30 minutes that lead into the title event is outweighed by the boring, melodramatic hour preceding it.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 36
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 26
In this unconvincing fictional documentary, the tense 30 minutes that lead into the title event is outweighed by the boring, melodramatic hour preceding it.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 12,169
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Movie Info
The assassination of the most powerful leader in the free world is examined in this controversial mockumentary from British filmmaker Gabriel Range. On October 19, 2007, president George W. Bush is visiting Chicago when he impulsively stops to shake hands with supporters en route to a meeting, while a throng of protesters demonstrate nearby. Shots ring out, and Bush is fatally wounded. As America and its allies deal with the tragic loss of their leader, vice president Dick Cheney is sworn in as
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Cast
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Hend Ayoub
Zahra Abi Zikri -
Brian Boland
Larry Stafford -
Becky Ann Baker
Eleanor Drake -
Robert Mangiardi
Greg Turner -
Jay Patterson
Sam McCarthy -
Jay Whittaker
Frank Molini -
Michael Reilly Burke
Robert H. Maguire -
James Urbaniak
Dr. James Pearn -
M. Neko Parham
Casey Claybon -
Seena Jon
Samir Masri -
Christian Stolte
John Rucinski -
Chavez Ravine
Marianne Claybon -
Dawn Newton
Patricia Buckley -
Patrick Clear
Adam Brock -
Malik Bader
Jamal Abu Zikri -
Tony Dale
Al Claybon
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All Critics (104) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (64) | DVD (12)
What's missing is shapeliness, suspense, narrative cunning, visual flair -- in short, art. Are we really to believe that a network of the future would broadcast such a barbiturate?
Top CriticJust as the ducks get lined up in a row and we're ready for the movie to reveal its true purpose -- Political satire? Paranoid dystopian fantasy? Apologia for the Bush administration? -- we suddenly realize it has none.
Every thinking person should see Death of a President.
Death of a President is thought-provoking, but as much for 'how'd they do that?' as for its ideas.
Even people who think George W. Bush is the worst American-made disaster since President James Buchanan will have no trouble recognizing Death of a President for the lousy thing it is.
The fact of the Bush years far outdoes Range's dull fiction. The only thing that shook me was the idea of Cheney as president. Now that is the stuff of nightmares.
Easily the year's most useless picture
Despite the audacious title and premise, Range doesn't aim to shock, but to unnerve
Beyond the feigned controversy stirred up by neocon zealots, "Death of a President" is nothing more than a high concept political hypothesis film that signals the futility of presidential assassination.
It is at least slick with technique -- or with a synthesis of techniques.
Without directly confronting the behaviors and attitudes associated with its theory, the movie leaves us with uncertainty, vacillation, and worst of all, emptiness.
Bush weepie takes all sides and none.
The talking head interviews and other elements make for an intelligent analysis of our reactions and prejudices about such a situation. A must see.
...even the extras are unconvincing...
This ethically-debatable masterpiece is an intelligent political potboiler which makes some very powerful statements about the Patriot Act, the erosion of our Constitutional rights, and the abuse of power.
OK, so, it's got balls and technical skills, but is it anything more than a stunt? Yes, yes it is.
There is little of the fall of the Twin Towers trauma, but much of All the President's Men here. That this film's buzz has launched such vitriol and condemnation is not surprising. Range's film exposes wider audiences to some basic truths of our times.
Bush weepie takes all sides and none.
It's hard to imagine anyone without a political agenda who can walk away from this serious, sober and impeccably respectful film and get agitated about it on its merits.
As a piece of filmmaking, Death of a President is edgy and fresh, superbly realised and satisfying in its ambition to pass as a powerful documentary about an event that shook the world.
It's not art, it's not a serious discussion, it's not a film based in irony or metaphor -- Death of a President is merely a marketing ploy that's big on shock value and short on ideas.
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