|
|
|
| DEATH OF A PRESIDENT (2006)
|
|  |
|
SBD Star Rating:
by Lew Irwin
View Credits | See Other Reviews
|
 Writing about Death of a President , critics are compelled to focus their attention on a scene in the film in which an actor, playing the role of the president of the United States, is assassinated in Chicago in 2007. The actor's face has been digitally replaced by George W. Bush's. "As a medium-left liberal with a fierce belief in free speech and artistic expression, I'm proud to live in a country where the government can't prevent the release of a fictional film depicting the assassination of the real-life president," Richard Roeper writes in the Chicago Sun-Times. "That said, I find the idea repugnant and morally objectionable." But his cross-town colleague, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune begins his review with the words, "It is not irresponsible." Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post calls the controversial scene "a crude stunt." Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer expresses ambivalence about it. "Sure, movies are protected speech. But is this exploration or exploitation?" she asks. However, if the actual face of the actor were shown, she concedes, the film might not have "scored the same points." Indeed, Kyle Smith writes in the New York Post, "If this movie were about the murder of a fictional president, it wouldn't even earn a theatrical release." On the other hand, Gene Seymour in Newsday calls the controversial scene "more a crafty technical exercise than an incendiary device." Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun, who describes the film as "excitingly well-made," also defends it as "a responsible piece of political fiction." And Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times writes, "Somewhere within this smoldering heap of controversy is a technically inventive, thoughtful, but otherwise not particularly earth-shattering movie." |
|
|
|
