BEST FICTIONAL AMERICAN PRESIDENTS

With the American Presidential race in it's final stages, here's a countdown of some of the most entertaining fictional US screen Presidents.

12. President Marshall - Air Force One

Having been in about 50 per cent of everything that was awesome in the 1980s, Harrison Ford sadly spent most of the 90s with his lip quivering, telling people to get out or off of various things, usually his house but in this case, his plane.

Despite Ford’s increasing shitness at the time, here he is in a movie penned by Andrew Marlowe (End of Days, Hollow Man, Castle) and starring a villainous Gary Oldman so it’s kind of a movie you can’t fuck up.  And true enough, even though I sit there not wanting to like it, I do.

But it’s just the idea of seeing the guy who inhabited the role of Tom Clancy’s right wing wet dream Jack Ryan now be an action hero President (as Ryan actually became in Clancy’s books) that makes me uneasy.

11. President Beck - Deep Impact

Not much for the character to do here other than make some speeches to calm the doomed masses but Morgan Freeman rocks it hard with this performance.  Most of us would vote for him anyway.
The really important thing about this, of course, is the notion of an African American President.  It seemed like a daring casting choice for Mimi Leder in 1998.  And I went to see this at age 13, thinking that a black President seemed unlikely.  10 years later, I found that the American electorate could very pleasantly surprise me.

10. President Shepherd - The American President

Written in a coked-out haze by Aaron Sorkin, this romantic comedy quickly mutates into a decent political drama.  Michael Douglas is great as the President(otherwise he wouldn’t be on the list) but what’s something of a distraction to post-West Wing audiences is Martin Sheen as his Chief of Staff.  Every time they’re on screen together, I find myself confused as to why Sheen isn’t the President.

If nothing else, this is a great historical treat for West Wing fans.  We see the idea for the TV show coming together in Sorkin’s wonderful drug-addled brain.  Many characters can be picked out right away as prototypes for the show- elegant, funny and very tall woman as press secretary, flawed but trustworthy Irish Chief of Staff and a young idealistic curmudgeon in the mix who keeps reminding the old guys what it means to be a Democrat.  (Special mention for Anna Deavere Smith, who was in this, the West Wing and even Dave- Hat Trick!)

The truly proto-Bartlet scene is Shepherd’s speech in which he calls out his Republican challenger in a stirring war cry.  Awesome.

The challenger is played by Richard Dreyfuss, fairly appropriately, as some years later he would portray Dick Chaney.

9. President Whitmore – Independence Day

Well, it’s a cheesy, stars and stripes-waving explosion fest but a damn entertaining one.  So what better President to have in this alien invasion movie than Bill Pullman’s idealistic ex-fighter pilot who’s bad at lying.

Warrior enough for the gun nuts in the audience but suitably guilty and hesitant enough about his war-like acts to still be sympathetic to the rest of us.  Even liberals almost cheer when he utters the right wing orgasmic catch phrase ‘Nuke the Bastards’.  Almost.

His first lady, Mary McDonnell, would later herself become President in the pretentious but addictive Battlestar Galactica re-imagining.

Rather than post the corny scene from the movie, here's Pullman putting a different spin on the same speech.

8. President Stillson (Possible Timeline) – The Dead Zone

Like a warped version of the West Wing, we get to see Martin Sheen (the first Uncle Ben on our list) play a different kind of President.  Bartlet gone mad?

The minds of David Cronenberg and Stephen King come together here to make a truly haunting horror story with help from a great central performance from Christopher Walken, as a man who sees the future, and Michael Kamen who provides one of his best scores.
When the possible future of Greg Stillson becoming President is revealed, it’s finally realised what a dangerous individual he is.  He’s got to be stopped.

A lovely little coincidence in this is Walken’s character talking about the headless demon in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, whom he would later portray.

7. President Dale – Mars Attacks!

A beautiful contrast to Independence Day, released the same year, Mars Attacks! just took the piss completely.  And a suitable foil to that year’s President Whitmore was President Dale.

Jack Nicholson as the President. Holy Jesus.
However, if you find yourself thinking how someone with a demeanour like Nicholson’s (which is great for LA detectives, Gotham City arch-villains and…well, Lucifer) could get elected President then I would take a look at the last 4 out of 5 Republican Presidents.  Yeah, I’m excluding Gerald Ford coz he was just funny.

With Glenn Close as a Nancy/Hillary hybrid, the stage is set for a pretty fucked up White House.  And that’s before the planet Mars decides to attack.

This is a fantastic sci-fi comedy. My kind of movie.

(Clip contains spoilers)



6. President Muffley - Dr. Strangelove

The man who sums up the tone of Dr. Strangelove, Muffley is a sycophant on an international level trying to stop the insanity which he presides over as president from bursting forth globally.

Whilst, it can be argued which of Peter Sellers’ three performances is the best here, President Merkin Muffley set something of a benchmark for political leaders in satire.

5. Unnamed Presidents - Escape From New York/LA

John Carpenter doesn’t seem to hold a lot of hope for the future. If I had once been married to Adrienne Barbeau and lost her then neither would I.

My favourite director’s take on the US Presidents of the future is pretty bleak.  The wonderful Donald Pleasence plays the first one, combining the very electorate-friendly geniality of Loomis from Halloween with the megalomaniacal menace of Blofeld from You Only Live Twice.  And as unlikable a character as he is, there’s a slight satisfaction in seeing him gun down Isaac Hayes’ The Duke.  In the first clip here, we see the President being tortured by the Duke.

The second President that Carpenter gives us is an unstable Bible-bashing nutcase, an eerie prediction of George W. played by Cliff Robertson – the second of two Ben Parkers on our list.  Terrifying, hilarious and incredibly entertaining.

Both of these actors are sadly not with us anymore.

4. President Dave(Fake President Mitchell) – Dave

It’s such a ridiculous concept, you just have to go with it.  This 1993 play on Dumas’ The Man In The Iron Mask, shows us what could be when a corrupt, uncaring Republican President falls into a coma and his conscientious Capraesque doppelganger takes the reigns.

With some disturbing scenes which effectively show us a coup d’état, it’s important to consume that grain of salt in order to get the message that writer Gary Ross is constructing something of a fairytale.

3. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho - Idiocracy

A film that’s finally getting the respect it deserves, Idiocracy is a broad comedy that actually has a disturbingly important point to make- mankind’s getting dumber.

And in the idiot-populated world of tomorrow, an ex-porn star has become President.

            Terry Crews can often be seen dispensing baddies of various non-American backgrounds in Sylvester Stallone movies but is equally well known for his comedy roles.  He’s brilliant and utterly hilarious here as the larger than life, slightly terrifying President of the crumbling land of buffoons.

And, as this list is based on entertainment value, he makes the number 3 spot.

There's very few clips out there that haven't been ironically re-cut by some gobshite, so here's the trailer.

Honourable mention to President NotSure.

2. President Benson – Hot Shots! Part Deux

Having served as Admiral in the first Hot Shots!, Lloyd Bridges had worked his way up to the top by the time of the sequel.  A wonderful example of the cartoon-like rules that the Abrahams/Zucker team brought to their psychotic worlds, Benson is a President whose war-battered body is mostly made up of random textiles and the body parts of his fallen enemies in the field.

A testament to Bridges’ sheer lovability, every other word that comes out of his mouth in both Hot Shots! movies is gut-bustingly funny.

Same story with clips, I'm afraid.

1. President Bartlet – The West Wing

There was only ever going to be one winner.  Had this list been based on performance as President, rather than entertainment value- Bartlet would still be number one.

A hybrid of the values Aaron Sorkin wanted from a President and Martin Sheen’s own liberal Catholic(almost a contradiction in terms) personality, Jed Barlet’s an erudite New Hampshire native of privileged background but with an enormous sense of devotion to people of all classes.
In the same way Boston Legal’s Alan Shore is the superhero of lawyers, Bartlet is an equally impossible figure that represents all the right virtues and even flaws that make a man perfect for the Oval Office.

Sorkin’s shows can be criticised for the long-winded speeches and convenient competence of the characters but he’s trying to teach the American people something with them. The lesson is that this is how administrations should act.

It’s idealised for a reason.  Let’s see the White House be all it can be.  A ridiculous fantasy, yes.  But most of the best stories are.

Our clip sees the Democratic President at his best, addressing a room after a member of his staff has asked him how he intends to beat a Republican challenger.