European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                On by Malcolm Johnson Hartford courant a. 1 the Climax of Clear and present Dan Ger the Brave battered and bloodied Cia operative played by Harrison Ford angrily confronts the president of the United states a Hearty Tricky Small minded survivor of the american political system this chief executive one Edward Bennett portrayed by Donald Moffat is one of the lowest specimens thrown into the White House by a movie Industry grown suspicious even contemptuous of the highest elective office in the land. On top of All that Ford s Jack Ryan has been through after inheriting a top Cia Post from a dying beloved Superior he has been nearly killed. And is now threatened with Public disgrace this Oval office Wheeler dealer wants him to indulge in yet another cover up. He club Bily Calls it the Poto Mac  sorry snaps Jack he does t dance. Gone Are the Days of . Griffith s Abraham a non Darryl Zanuck s Wilson and such inspiring tales of the making of presidents As Sunrise at Cam poncho Dore schary s reverent account of Franklin Roosevelt s Battle against polio and it 109, whose filming was prompted it is said by none other than the sitting president John Kennedy. Of late we have seen the chief executive played As a Buffoon hot shots Purl  a cold figure estranged from his Beautiful wife Dave dog Loving dope the Pelican Brief and a glad handing Neo Babbitt in the line of fire. Now Clear Uhd present danger portrays Edward Bennett As a Man careless with Power Bent on avenging the murder of a boyhood buddy even if it Means committing troops to a secret Little War. Questioned by an aide As to Why he is so incensed by a killing of an american civilian this great statesman explodes it s the first time it was a Friend of  president Bennett is a venal amoral dolt. Since the founding of the Republic political cartoonists and pundits have freely ridiculed and skew ered presidents. But the american movie establish ment fearing government intervention pricing top. Paramount Donald Moffat in Clear and present danger. Level contacts and generally imbued with Good old fashioned patriotism Long took the most reverent positions on the men who had risen to the Summit of political Power. Lincoln was always Trie most hallowed figure whether As a rising lawyer debater or a troubled Martyr to be. Besides Griffith s failed Early sound Effort Abraham Lincoln the honest Abe classics in clude John Ford s Young or. Lincoln with the Al ways presidential Henry Fonda and John Cromwell s Abe Lincoln of Illinois with Raymond Massey repeating the role he originated in Robert Sherwood s pulitzer prize winning play. But Zanuck threw everything 20th Century Fox could Muster behind his sprawling Bio Pic of Wood Row Wilson and thought it should have won an Oscar. Senary after his eight years As chief of production at Mem turned to play writing Canon izing for in Sunrise at Campobello which his production company also filmed. In the ?50s, even As that beloved father figure and War hero Dwight Eisenhower radiated peace and Warner Bros Sigourney Weaver a us Tor Kevin Kline who plays president and fake in the 1993 movie a Ive. Goodwill from the White House the tide began to change. The theater business often moves faster than the movie Industry and Ike was barely out of office when then infant terrible Gore Vidal sent his the Best Man to Broadway. In 1964 the Best Man was filmed by Franklin Schaffner with Henry Fonda As the Good Guy and Cliff Robertson As the Witch Hunter. This was a year after Robertson s Jack Kennedy in pt109. Lee Tracy reprised his Broadway role As Ike. On stage off Broadway playwright Barbara Gar son s Mcbird As much As accused Lyndon Baines Johnson of a Macbeth like plot to seize Power from Kennedy. Hollywood never went that far before his. Assassination in fact Kennedy even cooperated in the filming of seven Days in May which focused on a planned military coup d eat after the president played by Fredric match signed a disarmament treaty with the soviet Union. The drama directed by John f Ranken Heimer was released in 1964 after the assassination. Fra Genheimer had previously filmed the manchurian candidate Richard Condon s tale of a brainwashed presidential Assassin As the War escalated the military was taking the heat. Crazed officers named Buck turgid in and Jack d. Ripper captured the paranoid spirit of the Day in Stanley Kubrick or. Strange love or How i Learned to Stop worrying and love the bomb 1964. Peter Sellers had a triple role group capt. Lionel Mandrake the sex nazi strange love and the president the utterly ineffectual Merkin Muffley. Lbs though a Liberal domestically became anathema because of the undeclared War in Southeast Asia. And after Richard Nimori considered out of Contention forever after his defeat in 1960 by Kennedy returned to Power negative attitudes toward the presidency became entrenched. The cinematic culmination came in 1976 with All the president s men which entered on the Washington Post investigation into the watergate break in. With lbs and Nixon Back to Back and More and More allegations seeping about concerning the illicit dalliances of the martyred King of Camelot the image of the presidency became increasingly tarnished. Saturday night live sketched Gerald Ford As a Clumsy Bunkhead and despite his Noble efforts Jimmy Carter emerged As Bumble in the Public Eye. Then came the great communicator. Because he was one of their own Hollywood left Ronald Reagan pretty much alone. But As the decade of greed ended with the a charismatic George Bush in the White House the time was Ripe for the movies to ridicule or attack the commander in chief. The Odd thing is that when it has done so it has attacked faceless figures. The recent presidents seen on film Are rarely recognizable except in the naked gun movies which have used lookalikes for George and Barbara Bush in 2i4 and for Bill Clin ton 33. Ivan Reitman s 1993 Dave the most focused portrait of the presidency it even used real  senators in cameos evolved around a mean spirited humourless Type a totally unsympathetic variation on Bush replaced by his Good everyman twin. Kevin Kline was terrific in both roles with Sigourney Weaver As the first lady estranged from the real president but drawn to the genteel fake. In the rambo esque sequel to hot shots the fool has become president. But Lloyd Bridges As a for Merly loony Admiral is not playing any identifiable president. The movie suggests Only that any idiot the dumber the better can become chief executive. More realistic presidents were on View in last year s in the line of fire and the Pelican Brief. The in the line of fire Man in the White House played by Jim Curley was a Jovial Macho Man who is All Bluff facade shrugging off the assassination plot but groveling and terrified at the moment of truth when it is necessary for Clint Eastwood to step in and take the hit. The president in the Pelican Brief finely satirized by Robert gulp cares about Little except his prize Pooch even though supreme court justices arc being murdered. Los angelic a times Washington Post news service