Cargill's American Movie: American President

When I think of Americana, patriotism and what it means to be an American, I think of one man: Aaron Sorkin. For years, through various films and television, he's shared his deep love for this country and helped to raise the level of public debate about some of our most divisive issues. Whether it is handguns, freedom of speech, or the notion of the "proportional response," he has tried again and again to get America talking while loudly defending Americans' rights to hold whatever opinion or belief they wish. In his long running television series, The West Wing, Sorkin gave us a weekly peek into the oval office and showed us not the true process of how laws get made, but how we as Americans really wish they were made.

But before there was a West Wing, there was Aaron Sorkin's script for The American President, the film that inspired the TV series. Directed by Rob Reiner, The American President is the story of what happens when a widowed president (played by Michael Douglas) falls in love with a professional lobbyist and a political opponent uses the romance to help his own campaign for the presidency.

What works best for the film, however, is its soul. The film holds to its breast Sorkin's perfect ideal of how the political process should work, with a number of elected officials arguing the merits of the issues at hand while trying to dodge the political trappings of staying elected. When, on the occasion that those issues come to bear, they are presented as the evils of the process, not the point of them (as it often seems in this day and age.)

With fantastic performances by Michael J. Fox, Martin Sheen, and Annette Bening, this is a wonderful mix of humor, romance and raw commentary on the political process that will swell the heart of any proud American, regardless of political affiliation. You may not agree with Sorkin's politics, but you have to look at this film and see just how prophetic it was about the swinging pendulum of morality in this country. Remember, this was years before the Clinton scandal and the congressional scandals of the past few years. This film illustrated quite well the dangers of the politics of both fear and scandal. The American President offers us a universe in which it all works out and we get the representation we think we all deserve. If only it were so simple and candidates were really like this.

C. Robert Cargill - - - Email Me
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Austin-based Cargill, who not only loves but owns The Cutting Edge, writes on movies and DVD five times a week.

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