Review of Death of a President (2006) by Satej S — 29 Aug 2007

The last few years have been some of the most fertile years for terrorism. The embers of terror and threat refuse to die down after being fanned almost on a daily basis. The incidents of that fateful day in 2001 took terrorism from the realm of a few hot spots and hit the world at its center. It would seem that from that point on, there was no place safe from the wrath of those who feel they have been wronged. The events that followed have their repercussions to this day, and there's promise of more to come, thanks to the theatrics of Kim Jong-il and Khamenei. Public outrage to the American retaliation has been on a high not seen in the last few decades. The melodrama of news networks notwithstanding, the threat to a peaceful life has never seemed more tangible to such a large percentage of the populace. At a time as volatile as this, what effect would the assassination of the President of the United States have? Death of a President, a remarkable faux-documentary by Gabriel Range, shows us just such an event but restrains himself and refuses to show us a full-blown Orwellian dystopia.

A fictional story pitched as a documentary, this film is not nearly as gimmicky as it could have been. The feel of a documentary is meticulously retained even though the film has a larger charter. The seams of it being a fiction are seen in a few places, but they can be excused for the otherwise great detail with which everything is executed. Through carefully-paced narration, we see the events leading to the assassination and some of its aftermath. The film goes above an average documentary's mere depiction of events, and brings several related points to our notice. The thin line that public demonstrations tread, with nary a tear-gas shell needed for violence to break out is the focus of the pre-assassination part of the film. During the post-assassination hunt, we see the story from the eyes of those usual suspects, the almost voiceless minorities that are regularly the victims of witch-hunts. After the capture of the suspect, we see how even an open-and-shut case is dismissed because it is not as easily acceptable as the solution at hand.

It will be a real shame if this is movie is dismissed for its ostensible topic - the assassination. A bigger shame would be if it is patronized by pubescent (mentally speaking, of course) for the very same reason. This movie isn't meant to take pot-shots at the incumbent president or to fantasize his violent death. This film has a larger role, in providing us with an almost-real feel for a situation that is not improbable. Where it goes from there is for the audience to decide. How right are we in pointing fingers at outsiders? How far would we take our prejudices? What will the face of the planet look like after waves of terrorism and its reprisals? Death of a President will make us ask these questions much louder.