7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.4 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
Comedy-drama about a widowed US president and a lobbyist who fall in love. It's all aboveboard, but "politics is perception" and sparks fly anyway.
Starring: Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Anna Deavere SmithRomance | 100% |
Comedy | 44% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Before Aaron Sorkin turned the White House into a weekly television drama with The West Wing, he first made it the setting for an unlikely romantic comedy in The American President. Reteaming with director Rob Reiner, whose helming of Sorkin's first screenplay, A Few Good Men (1992), resulted in a box office hit, Sorkin used the trappings of office and the perils of politics to erect the obstacles without which no movie romance can flourish. Along the way, Sorkin let his fictitious chief executive, a former history professor catapulted onto the national stage almost against his will, deliver a few well-phrased civics lessons pitched at the idealist level of the film classic that the heroine invokes when she first visits the White House: Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The reference was Sorkin's wink to the audience. He knew he was writing a fairy tale. Still, Sorkin and Reiner like dressing up their stories in the disguise of realism. Although the president played by Michael Douglas in no way resembles former President Clinton, The American President bears the unmistakable stamp of the first Clinton administration in the issues that roil the White House staff and echo through the election year during which the story takes place. All one has to do is compare the film to the election year when the Blu-ray is being released to see how much has changed. The domestic economy that is such a matter of current concern is barely touched upon in the film, because seventeen years ago the nation enjoyed widespread prosperity. The Middle East was a concern, as it had been for decades, but the threat of terrorism is never discussed, nor is the country engaged in any military actions abroad. Old media still dominates the news cycle, and the internet and blogosphere have yet to become the powerful forces for shaping opinion that will make them transformative in just a few years. All these elements give The American President a dated quality that should help sustain its fantasy element, but it may not yet be dated enough. The two political footballs tossed back and forth in the plot—and they're both McGuffins—are global warming and gun control, two issues still guaranteed to fray tempers and trigger heated debate, even though they're not currently at (or even near) the top of the national agenda. For any viewer with passionate feelings about either or both issues, their treatment in The American President is likely to be a distraction. For anyone who can look past the talking points, the film is an entertaining, well-constructed and often amusing variation on the rituals of adult courtship.
Warner's 2004 DVD release of The American President was not enhanced for 16:9 widescreen; I don't have definitive information about the 2008 re-release on DVD, but the film's fans have been looking forward to Blu-ray treatment so that Oscar winner John Seale's (The English Patient) widescreen Panavision cinematography can be seen in all its glory and production designer Lilly Kilvert's recreation of the White House can be seen in its full detail. The image on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is generally good, with some concerns that place it a notch or two below the level of quality we've come to expect from Warner catalog releases. The image is clean and well-detailed, with deep blacks and a saturated palette of rich colors befitting the majesty of the nation's capital and the executive branch. There is no indication of detail filtering, and the film's grain structure is fine but still visible. Although Warner has used a BD-25, the lack of extras and the limited audio options allow the film to reside on the available digital real estate without compression issues. The fly in the ointment is a small amount of artificial sharpening, visible in an occasional but slight edge halo. The haloing itself is sufficiently fleeting that most viewers probably won't notice it, but the presence of such sharpening lessens the film-like appearance of the transfer generally. Digital "enhancement" of this nature is a leftover from the DVD era, and its return in any transfer for Blu-ray is unwelcome. Possibly some colorist felt the need to "stabilize" this image from an era before the advent of digital intermediates, but if so more sharpening was applied than was needed to compensate for an issue in the raw scan. Maybe all those complaints on the internet about pre-DI films being "soft" or not sharp enough have done some damage after all.
The American President was released with a 5.1 soundtrack, which is here reproduced in DTS-HD MA, but it is not a showy or elaborate mix. We get surround noises appropriate to various environments (e.g., the state dinner at which the President and Sydney have their first "date") and an occasional panning effect such as the President's helicopter flying in, but otherwise the surrounds are limited to supporting the front array. Dialogue is very clear, and the sprightly score by the versatile Marc Shaiman provides the right touch of storybook magic to the "happily ever after" proceedings.
Other than the film's theatrical trailer (SD; 1.85:1, non-enhanced; 2:58), the disc contains no extras.
Authors often choose names with meaningful overtones for their lead characters, and more than one viewer has probably noticed that Sorkin named his fictitious president after someone who herds a flock of sheep to protect them from harm. Someone of a different persuasion listening to President Shepherd's climactic press conference might conclude that this is how Sorkin sees America: as a nation of sheep in need of saving. It strikes me, though, that the name "Shepherd" is ironic, because what the film actually shows is how an occupant of the Oval Office spends much of his life being "shepherded" from place to place, meeting to meeting, crisis to crisis, responsibility to responsibility. He may be the most powerful man in the world, but he can't even make a purchase on his own, because all of his credit cards are locked in a vault in Virginia. The story (and the comedy) result when the human being inside that bubble manages to crack it open a bit and let in something—and someone—from the real world outside. And yes, the result is messy. Isn't it always? Recommended, with minor reservations about the video quality.
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