Full Version: D.O.A.P. (Death of a President)
I just knew you were holding out on more useless opinions! Cough 'em up, MIB!
I don't know, I wouldn't mind seeing this movie provoke a copycat incident. Neo-con VP Cheney is no greater threat to our personal rights than Bush 43. Every school age kid in America should be required to view the movie and some group ought to broadcast it to the Middle East countries, too. When can they make movies about Bill OReilly, Rush, Hannity, Coulter, Kristol, Frist, Giuliani, McCain and the others?
Don't be afraid of art. Don't be afraid of strong political statements. Don't be afraid of taking back America from the rightwing corporate cabal. If Iraq proves anything it's that standing your ground against the Man works for the underdogs. Time to start hitting back, I say. Good for the producers of DOAP.
Don't be afraid of art. Don't be afraid of strong political statements. Don't be afraid of taking back America from the rightwing corporate cabal. If Iraq proves anything it's that standing your ground against the Man works for the underdogs. Time to start hitting back, I say. Good for the producers of DOAP.
Here's what the New York Times critic had to say:
QUOTE
Gabriel Range's \"Death of a President\" was criticized for a dramatic collapse after the president is killed.
\"'Death of a President' does not have the requisite brains to take on its conservative targets, much less exploit the potential or implications of its own gimmick,\" wrote New York Times critic Manohla Dargis.
\"Marred by unpersuasive performances and sloppy errors, the film is all setup and no payoff. It also manages to be another presumably political film without any actual politics.\"
\"'Death of a President' does not have the requisite brains to take on its conservative targets, much less exploit the potential or implications of its own gimmick,\" wrote New York Times critic Manohla Dargis.
\"Marred by unpersuasive performances and sloppy errors, the film is all setup and no payoff. It also manages to be another presumably political film without any actual politics.\"
D.O.A.P. was given the FIPRESCI Prize (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique/the International Federation of Film Critics) at the Toronto Film Festival.
The judges were: "The 2006 jury consists of jury president Klaus Eder (Germany), Géza Csákvári (Hungary), Esin Kücüktepepinar (Turkey), Oscar Peyrou (Spain), and Norman Wilner (Canada)."
[ September 17, 2006, 07:43 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]
The judges were: "The 2006 jury consists of jury president Klaus Eder (Germany), Géza Csákvári (Hungary), Esin Kücüktepepinar (Turkey), Oscar Peyrou (Spain), and Norman Wilner (Canada)."
QUOTE
The Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) goes to DEATH OF A PRESIDENT from the United Kingdom directed by Gabriel Range, “for the audacity with which it distorts reality, to reveal a larger truth.”
DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a fictional drama with a unique premise, told in the style of a retrospective documentary, which offers a critique of the contemporary US political landscape.
And yet more reasons to "blame Canada," Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing was the second runner-up for the People's Choice Award. In the movie Natalie Maines is heard calling Bush a "dumb f-ck." DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a fictional drama with a unique premise, told in the style of a retrospective documentary, which offers a critique of the contemporary US political landscape.
[ September 17, 2006, 07:43 AM: Message edited by: canmark ]
Well, as usual, the hubub about Death of a President before anybody had even seen it was much ado about nothing.
The film is not inflammatory. In fact, in trying to be to realistic, it's actually lacking in "movie drama," and becomes less exciting, tense, and shocking than one might like. As one reviewer wrote, it's like an epside of PBS's Frontline, a rational, after-the-fact examination of events.
From the Washington Post review:
Those who would condemn "DOAP" without seeing it should be made aware of one crucial fact: Range does not depict that event with glee or even a smirk. The shooting of Bush is indeed portrayed with solemnity and grief (although some red-meat Dems will no doubt mentally insert screeching "Psycho" violins when someone first refers to "President Cheney"). The ballast of "DOAP," after the horrific event itself unfolds, becomes a true-crime procedural dedicated to the search for the assassin.
Ironically, or perhaps appropriately, one of the trailers shown before the film was that of Bobby, about the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy.
The film is not inflammatory. In fact, in trying to be to realistic, it's actually lacking in "movie drama," and becomes less exciting, tense, and shocking than one might like. As one reviewer wrote, it's like an epside of PBS's Frontline, a rational, after-the-fact examination of events.
From the Washington Post review:
Those who would condemn "DOAP" without seeing it should be made aware of one crucial fact: Range does not depict that event with glee or even a smirk. The shooting of Bush is indeed portrayed with solemnity and grief (although some red-meat Dems will no doubt mentally insert screeching "Psycho" violins when someone first refers to "President Cheney"). The ballast of "DOAP," after the horrific event itself unfolds, becomes a true-crime procedural dedicated to the search for the assassin.
Ironically, or perhaps appropriately, one of the trailers shown before the film was that of Bobby, about the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy.
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