Death of a President: Assassination Porn or Political Propaganda?

Death of a President is a pseudo documentary or “mockumentary” that has as its premise that President George W. Bush is assassinated on October 19th, 2007, after making an economic address in Chicago. Naturally a film depicting the murder of an actual living political leader has caused a bit of controversy. Some have suggested that Death of a President represents the latest example of “assassination porn,” in which people with Bush Derangement Syndrome (i.e. people who hate George W. Bush so much that they have lost all capacity for reason) get to vicariously experience an event that they so fervently wish for.

Gabriel Range, the director of the film which premised at the Toronto Film Festival and is due to be broadcasted on Britain’s Channel 4 TV network, has denied this accusation. He points out that the fictional death of President Bush is just the jumping off point for a scenario in which the newly sworn in President Cheney calls for an expansion of the Patriot Act which damages civil liberties in the United States.

Death of a President also uses a staple of political conspiracy films in which, initially, the wrong man is charged and convicted of the assassination. A Syrian born immigrant is fingered with the crime. However, taking in mind the cinematic rule that no Arab can ever be guilty of terrorism, the real killer turns out to be an African American Gulf War veteran who, in a Cindy Sheehan—like rage over the death of his son in the current Iraq Campaign, murders the President.

There are, of course, quite a few problems with this movie. First of all, the film makers pat themselves on the back for being “bold enough” to depict a real President being assassinated. But one wonders why they wimped out and didn’t depict a real person as the assassin. Why not depict Cindy Sheehan as the actual killer? She actually did lose a son in Iraq.