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Chicago - Sun-Times.com
September 12, 2006
BY DAVID GERMAIN
TORONTO -- A sellout crowd at the Toronto International Film Festival gave a warm reception to the British TV movie ''Death of a President,'' which centers on a fictionalized assassination of George W. Bush.
The audience applauded at the end and several more times during a question-and-answer session with the filmmakers.
''I really liked it. It seemed very real. It was hard to believe the people were acting. I found myself mesmerized,'' said Linda Walsh, a real-estate broker from Mill Valley, Calif., who said she is not a Bush supporter.
''I'm always hoping when anything like this comes out that it will cause people that perhaps haven't thought about things to think about them,'' Walsh said. ''About the war, about the Patriot Act, about our judicial system.''
Director Gabriel Range told the crowd afterward that he doesn't believe ''Death of a President'' would incite anyone to attempt an assassination.
No real fear
''I think the film makes it clear it would really be a horrific event. There have been plenty of fictional films about assassinations, so this is not the first in that sense,'' said Range, noting that Michael Douglas' recent Secret Service thriller ''The Sentinel'' opens with footage of the attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life.
''I really don't think that anyone would get the idea of assassinating Bush from this film.''
The movie chronicles the sniper shooting of Bush on Oct. 19, 2007, during a trip to Chicago for a speech on the economy. It includes interviews with actors playing Secret Service and FBI officials, White House aides, journalists and anti-war activists, along with suspects.
The film plays out like a whodunit, tracing the twists of the investigation against the backdrop of the continuing Iraq war, an expansion of the Patriot Act to give federal authorities greater powers of surveillance, and other fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks.
'About America today'
''It is using the lens of the future to look at the present,'' Range said. ''It is about issues that have affected us all in the last five years. It is a film about America today.''
The filmmakers said they chose to use Bush rather than substitute a fictitious president to heighten the authenticity. ''The central conceit of the film was that it is a drama, but told in the style of what we hope is a fairly authentic, classic, retrospective documentary,'' said producer Simon Finch.
AP
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09-13-2006 10:45 PM
