"...And I Wanted To Be Better Than The Last Guy..."
Before the genius of
"The West Wing" - uber-writer Aaron Sorkin gave us the prelude film
"The American President" starring Michael Douglas as a handsome and
popular POTUS - Andrew Shepherd. Opening with a 63% popularity approval rating
after three years of office - Douglas plays a smart and restrained President
who is widowed in his private life and trying to raise a young daughter while
he runs a complex country and staves off war just about everywhere.
Martin Sheen is brilliantly
cast as The President's pal and top advisor - A.J. - Sheen already displaying
the dialogue subtleties that would endear him to the world when he took the big
oval chair four years after the movie in 1999's TV winner "The West
Wing" (a show he dominated for seven years until Season 7 brought it to a
close in 2006).
Throw in quality actors like
White House staffer Ana Deavere Smith (who would go on to be in the West Wing
TV show), newspaper editor John Mahoney (from "Frasier"), Michael J
Fox and David Paymer as the hopeful and driven writers and policy makers for
Shepherd's administration and the outside menace - an effective bad-guy in a
smugger than smug Richard Dreyfuss - a political opponent who spots that the
President's 'new girlfriend' the environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade is an
opportunity to be exploited in a re-election environment by claiming that she’s
privy to too many secrets (beautifully played by a luminous Annette Bening).
Combined you get a rom-com with brains, a modern-day political satire with
heart and all of it washed down with state dinners, situation room pathos
(someone somewhere dies under the guise of a proportional response) and the
sheer sexiness of power in the hands of good guys actually trying to do
something lasting with it. Deftly directed by Rob Reiner - 1995's "The
American President" was slickly written, superbly played and classy to the
hilt.
The BLU RAY has an
immaculate print - the best I've ever seen the movie look (an anamorphic 2.35:1
widescreen transfer). Re-watching it in this clarity has been a joy and makes
me ache for the day someone-somewhere finally gives "The West Wing" a
BLU RAY reissue akin to The Sopranos or The Wire - remastered and re-loaded.
Disappointingly - and given that so much could have been expounded upon - the
BLU RAY has zip in the way of Extras and Subtitles are only in English. At
least there's a 5.1 Surround mix as well as the standard 2.0 Stereo.
So - beautiful to look at
but let down by a lack of Extras that would have so enhanced this brilliant and
underrated bit of movie magic. In the meantime enjoy this political feast - set
back in a time when the words "American President" actually had some
respect attached to them and not the buffoon presently disgracing the office on
a daily basis...
