as for the death scene - there really wasn't one - just a crowd scene and then the a couple of bangs and then screaming crowds. you see a car door open and slam shut v quickly and the presdential car speed off.. with the president meant to be inside going to hospital. All over in the blink of an eye. [/b][/i]
I can see what you're saying - and there seems to be a lot of debate over the morality of this on the IMDB boards. But I just found it an interesting take on whats happening in the world just now and I think that would have been lost if it was a fictional president. It's very cleverly - and I'd say pretty respectively given the subject matter - done.
You know, one of the things that promoters of this piece are being very, very careful not to mention are the sly nudge-and-wink references to JFK's assassination. But they are very clearly present, and quite deliberate:
1) A scene of a door slamming and speeding off, with a President inside who will be either DOA at the hospital or very shortly afterward;
2) The staging of a scene that anyone familiar with the Kennedy assassination will immediately recognize as an imitation of Jack Ruby's assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald; and
3) The very title "Death of a President." In the mid-1960s, this was a title of a bestselling book that was considered the definitive account at the time, though it is probably not now.
I can imagine the offended shrieks echoing from London to Istanbul if some American venue had aired this kind of treatment of a very non-fictional tragedy in Europe; but Americans are somehow expected to applaud the cleverness when it's reversed. Despite the very high level of my detest for the current White House Occupant, I find the double standard involved absolutely nauseating, however "clever" and "interesting" it can be argued to be.
