Andrew Shepherd, One-Term President

Yes, I’ve been around politics a bit in my lifetime, as anyone who knows me personally is aware of. So it’s natural that I’m interested in movies about politics. I’ve always paid attention to the history of the American Presidency and films featuring fictional U.S. Presidents are, of course, of huge interest to me.

One of the most famous is The American President, directed by Rob Reiner from 1995. It’s no secret that Reiner is a liberal person, so the movie reflects those tendencies.

A quick disclaimer: I decided immediately that this blog will not be political at all in nature. I get enough of that in my “real” life and my blog about “reel” life will not focus on it (clever, huh???). So my comments here are not meant to reflect one side or the other, but just to make a rather humorous and I think undeniable observation.

The American President shows the fictional term of Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas). He’s a first-term President who’s a widower and the movie mostly centers on the controversy that comes with him finding his first girlfriend since his wife’s passing. The film is penned by Aaron Sorkin, a brilliant screenwriter who has brought us “The West Wing” and The Social Network, among others.

The film in many ways is a Capra-esque tale. It reflects what its makers believe politics should be and not necessarily what they are. Reiner and Sorkin are clearly reflecting the U.S. President that they would want to see in real life.

So, in the movie’s climax, the character of President Shepherd goes off-script in a news conference, as his team have strongly encouraged. The point of his news conference: his Administration is going to focus on getting all the guns out of homes. The music swells. His team is emotional. The President is back!

He’s also running for reelection and the movie leads us to believe that his inspiring speech has just sealed that reelection. Ahh – only in the movies! Anyone who follows politics, even a little, will tell you that President Shepherd’s stance on this issue would totally and completely assure one of the biggest electoral defeats in the history of American politics.

I do not make this statement as a political one. It’s just simple reality. The American President is a fine picture that I’ve seen several times. But anyone with a political brain in their head knows that the real ending of that movie would be Shepherd’s opponent, Richard Dreyfuss’s character, being inaugurated.