Wick's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

The American President succeeds grandly as a romantic comedy and ironically as a revealing peek into cushy Democratic pieties, of which Aaron Sorkin and Rob Reiner’s 1990s movie is a cinematic catechism.

It focuses on a likeable man in the third year of his Presidency who is animated primarily by social justice and environmental issues. Hmm, who’s that sound like (in 2012)? Indeed the similarities between the movie’s Left Wing worldview and that of President Barack Obama are many and pregnant with insight.

Global Warming Über Alles is the most prominent. The bedrock issue of upper-class liberalism from 1995 remains so nearly two decades later. The Democratic elite then as now are anti-fossil fuel, convinced that carbon-driven environmental Armageddon is imminent. Economic suicide be damned. [More in Reality]

The economy was doing just fine then however. No war either, thanks to the vacation from history bequeathed to the Presidents of the 90s by Ronald Reagan. Thus with a still unsullied Bill Clinton in the White House, a widowed movie President needn’t focus on prosperity or security. He’s free to date!

Date he does, and what a charming affair it is, especially with major moviestars Michael Douglas and Annette Bening displaying great chemistry together. That sugar makes the political medicine go down.

Notably, The American President served as a warmup for The West Wing, albeit done with proven moviestars and with Left Wing values turned up to eleven. Spinal Tap meets limousine liberals, IOW.

Acting - Great 4.0

Michael Douglas was in his leading-man prime when he played the American President in The American President. No surprise that he handles it with ease.

Annette Bening employs her distinctive blend of smarts, moxie and sexiness as an environmental lobbyist who gets romanced by the President. Together they are a pleasure to watch.

The supporting players are uniformly strong.

• Martin Sheen nails the Chief of Staff role. He would famously receive a promotion in Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing.
• Michael J. Fox is likewise ideal as an idealistic and hyperactive political aide, a role that would go to Rob Lowe in The West Wing.
• Anna Deavere Smith as the Press Secretary. She would go on to play the National Security Adviser in The West Wing.
• Shawna Waldron as the President’s teen daughter.
• David Paymer as his wonkish pollster.
• Anne Haney as his wizened secretary, a foreshadowing of the West Wing’s Mrs. Landingham (played by Kathryn Joosten).
• Richard Dreyfuss as the fulminating Republican Senator teeing up a challenge to the Democratic President.
• Wendie Malick as a craven environmental lobbyist. Malick excels at unsympathetic women.
• Joshua Malina as a political aide. Malina would go on to a bigger role in the West Wing.
• Clement von Franckenstein as the President of France.
• John Mahoney as the calculating head of a big environmental lobby. Mahoney was a big TV star at the time as Frasier’s Dad.

Side Note: Given The American President’s perfect liberal pedigree of Reiner, Sorkin, Bening, Sheen and Dreyfuss, Streisand probably threw a hissyfit ‘cause they couldn’t find a part for her.

Film - Very Good 3.5

Aaron Sorkin is the master of fetishizing the trappings of governmental power, which director Rob Reiner burnishes to a high sheen in his depictions of the White House and its environs. Sorkin’s also the master of fast moving walking-talking set pieces, a dynamic he perfected in The West Wing and took to its apotheosis in The Social Network.

Edge - Tame 1.4

Reality - Glib 1.2

“Ten years from now any car with an internal-combustion engine is gonna be a collector’s item,” says someone in this 1995 movie. Nearly twenty years on, the post-carbon energy revolution is yet to arrive, the oceans have yet to rise and the social engineering prescribed by this movie has yet to prove viable. To wit, progressive policies in general are at a low ebb given President Obama’s failures with Solyndra, stimulus and centrally controlled health care. His stonewalling of the Keystone Pipeline encapsulates how cushy environmentalism spurns economic growth.

Lefties don’t see these failures because it all looks politically correct to them. Oh they don’t use the PC term anymore, but they are most comfortable – warm and fuzzy even – with political correctness. Thus they have a false consciousness about what constitutes an objective worldview, theirs being heavily weighted by social justice grievances and biased towards centralized control.

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