NOTE: In honor of President's Day I thought of reprinting an old article that first appeared November 2006 for the on line news mag, In The Fray. It's a list of the best film and TV presidents up to that point in time. There have since been other screen presidents, such as James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) in White House Down and Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) in The Contender, that may or may not make the list but I will let you decide if any of them should be included.
Critically Speaking: Who’s the best Hollywood President?
BY RICH BURLINGHAM - November 2006, IN THE FRAY
Before all the holiday blockbuster and Oscar© bait
movies get to a theater near you I wanted to do a little politicking myself
with a self induced caucus on the best fictional president in film or
television. I decided to conduct
my own very unscientific poll with a very biased pool of one person,
myself. I limited the possible
candidates to those films or television shows after 1960 and I came up with
certain criteria based on what Mr.& Mrs. Joe Schmo would use to help make
up their minds. I graded each on a
scale of 1-10 with 1 being bad and 10 being excellent on the following
criteria: Character, Intelligence & Ability, Charisma, Family Life, Trust
& Honesty, Experience, Decision Making, Political Skills, and Leadership. I
added up the scores from all the categories with the result being what I call
their Q Rating.
The group consisted of 16 candidates from 11 films and three television shows. They must have all been fictional characters (no biopics) and they had to be either the lead or a very major supporting role. After exhausting study and analysis here are the results of the best Hollywood presidents, according to me.
The group consisted of 16 candidates from 11 films and three television shows. They must have all been fictional characters (no biopics) and they had to be either the lead or a very major supporting role. After exhausting study and analysis here are the results of the best Hollywood presidents, according to me.
The top president is James Marshal from the action blockbuster Air Force One portrayed by Harrison Ford. His Q rating was 77 out of a possible 90. Marshal scored high in all categories by showing his ability to not only thwart a group of terrorists threatening to kill his family but by being a president that we’d all want on our side...and women tell me he’s not bad to look at.
Next is a tie. First in line is Andrew Shepherd, the widowed
head of state played by Michael Douglas, who
becomes smitten with Annette Bening’s lobbyist
from Rob
Riener’s romantic comedy An American
President.
Shepherd was able to gain a 72 Q rating by being tops in most categories
save for political skill. Dating a
lobbyist trying to persuade your administration to change opinion on key
legislation isn’t the smartest of career moves but again, he’s not bad to look
at.
Also gaining a 72 Q rating is
a president from another blockbuster, Tom Whitmore, as portrayed by Bill Pullman, the jet
flying, alien busting president from the action sci-fi film, Independence
Day.
Whitmore’s only bad marks come in the family life category because he’s
too busy saving the world to worry about his wife, though he does give a good
pep talk.
We go back to the 1960’s
and to Henry
Fonda in the film Fail
Safe where he’s simply referred to as The President. Fail Safe is a cold
war thriller directed by Sidney Lumet (who cut his teeth on live TV) and reflects on
all the fears of nuclear annihilation brought upon by the Cuban missile
crises. Fonda’s president is cool,
collected and able to make hard decisions that will affect the entire world. If he wasn’t willing to let his family
die in a nuclear blast just to save the world he may have gotten more than a 69
rating.
The highest TV president
on the list is Jed Bartlett of The West Wing
played with a mix of pathos and sincerity by the politically active Martin
Sheen. Bartlett gets a 68 Q rating by bringing intelligence and a conscious to his presidency
and a heartfelt desire to lead the American people through challenging
times. If he hadn’t lied about his
medical problems he would have scored a lot higher.
Next we have another sci-fi president in Tom Beck, the first
African-American Chief played by the Academy Award winning actor Morgan
Freeman. In the film Deep
Impact, Freeman’s president has to play the tough father
figure to a world that is certainly going to be hit by a giant comet. Beck lacks charisma but if push
comes to shove I wouldn’t mind having him in the oval office whenever a large
celestial object is heading our way.
We go
back to television for our next president, the greenest member on the list and
the first female, Mackenzie Allen, played by another Academy Award winner, Geena
Davis. In Commander In
Chief you have a Vice-President who assumes the presidency
after her boss dies off. She has
to battle public opinion and a ruthless Speaker of the House, played to the
hilt by the venerable Donald
Sutherland. In the Allen
White House you have a husband who assumes a greater role than most first
ladies have before him and three kids all face the hardships of growing up
with a mom who could drop a bomb whenever she pleases. She still has some proving to do,
experience to gain and political moves to master but given time McKenzie Allen
could move up in the polls and raise her 61 rating.
We change networks for our next president, David Palmer as portrayed by Dennis
Haysbert from the first couple seasons of the Fox show 24. After facing not only a threat on his
life and an actual assassination attempt he had to deal with a back-stabbing
evil wife turned ex-wife who would do anything to get her man back. Being able to help keep both America and Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) safe
is a lot for any president to handle.
I’m sure his advice would be to get rid of a crazy wife before running
for president. His Q Rating, 58.
Finally, one of my favorite presidents
isn’t really a president - he just plays one on screen. In Ivan Reitman's Dave Kevin
Kline plays Dave Kovich, an everyman who happens to look like the
president and assumes those duties when the real president falls into a deep
coma after a sexual dalliance with an assistant. Dave’s "President" wins the hearts of the people, balances the
budget and falls for the real first lady.
The only problem is he’s really just an owner of an employment agency
and can’t really be president. If
only it were that easy. Dave only
gets a 58 because...well...he's not really the president - but he deserves more. Perhaps in a sequel where Dave can move from
city council to the Presidency of the United States he'll be able to move up on
the list, legitimately.
Here are the rest of the Presidents and their ratings. No time for explanations but since they’re the worst of the lot, who cares. Matt Douglas (James Garner) and Russell Kramer (Jack Lemon) from My Fellow Americans, 57 and 54 respectively; John Travolta’s Jack Stanton from Primary Colors, a 49 rating; Mars Attacks’ James Dale gets a 47 as played by Jack Nicholson; a 42 is awarded to Peter Sellers' Markin Muffly in Stanley Kubrick’s cold war classic Dr. Strangelove: Or How I learned to Love the Bomb; and the two most vile presidents on the list, each getting a 42 and 34, not respectively, are Gene Hackman’s Alan Richmond in Absolute Power and Dan Aykroyd’s William Haney from My Fellow Americans, each putting themselves way ahead of the American people.
The fortunate thing is that all of these films and television shows are first rate and deserve to be viewed many times over. I’d also like to hear your opinion on the best Hollywood president. I’ll tally up your votes in an upcoming column – no hanging chads, please.
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