MovieSet Dailies

With today being Inauguration Day and the first day on the job for President Obama, Mike and I thought it would be fun to run down who would be our best choices for Hollywood’s top dog inside the Oval Office. There’s been many actors who have played the Commander in Chief but only a few have given memorable performances while others have benefited from playing the Prez in an interesting light. Take for instance Jack Nicholson’s President in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks; really, was there one moment or thing he said that stands out from the rest? Not really. The world knows that Nicholson’s a great actor capable of delivering terrific performances and creating characters that we’ll never forget but his President James Dale is one of those Presidents that’s, well, forgettable. But there have been some presidential performances that have stood the test of time…and here they are.

10. President Thomas J. Whitmore (played by Bill Pullman in Independence Day – 1996)

ID4, as the cool kids liked to call the movie back when it was 1996, was a monster hit and brought unto the world a new movie action hero called Will Smith. True, it doesn’t have a decent story but that’s alright since you’re there to watch the spectacle of the world getting blown up by aliens, and fighting the ETs is Pullman’s Gulf War veteran fighter pilot-turned-leader of the free world. While Whitmore’s rallying speech just before the the final fight is silly and trite (“Today the rest of the world will celebrate our Independence Day!”), I give points to the filmmakers for giving us a Top Gun President.

9. Unnamed President (played by Gregory Peck in Amazing Grace and Chuck – 1987)

In the decade where movies about the terrible specter of nuclear war scared the crap out of you, my hat’s off to director Mike Newell for making a nuke movie that gives one hope for a better tomorrow. If you’ve got a Netflix account then slap this title on your queue when you want that glowy Field of Dreams vibe: the story is about a little leaguer (Chuck) who decides to not play baseball anymore because he thinks it’s crazy that the world could be blown up tomorrow. His story gets picked up by the news and before long all professional sports players start joining the kid’s bandwagon. Peck’s President comes in when the movement starts threatening big business, and what happens next would blow several spoilers, but there’s a scene where his President has to make a very late night phone call to a very bad man that seals his position at the #9 spot.

8. President Baxter Harris (played by Leslie Nielsen in Scary Movie 3 and 4 – 2003 & 2006)

How can we do a list about cinema’s best fake Presidents and not include Leslie Nielsen? Say what you want about the Scary Movie franchise but when you add Nielsen to a comedy it gets a good laugh boost. Since his career 180 in Airplane! Nielsen has made a second career as the funnyman through three Naked Gun flicks and these two Scary Movies (sorry Mel Brooks, Dracula: Dead and Loving It doesn’t count as funny.)

7. President James Marshall (played by Harrison Ford in Air Force One – 1997)

Back when Harrison Ford’s soul wasn’t tainted by the mistake called Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull he was belting out hit after hit. This one owes its origin to Die Hard and Gary Oldman’s villain gets the Alan Rickman Crazy Bad Guy of the Year award for 1997 but it is kinda fun to imagine the President kicking terrorist ass by himself (“Get off of my plane!”)

6. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (played by Terry Crews in Idiocracy – 2006)

What’s not to like about a President that swears to the nation about the countries woes? As depicted in Mike Judge’s wrongly beat-up Idiocracy, former NFL-er Terry Crews delivers as a President dumber than the guy that just vacated office. President Camacho is big, loud and not above using implied physical violence to get what he wants (but in the best interest of the country, so it’s all OK.) Even with all those bad qualities Camacho would be a better guy in office than Dubya.

5. President Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas in The American President – 1995)

Five years before Aaron Sorkin would create The West Wing he gave us his first political drama about a widowed President who decides to woo an alternative energy pundit (played by Annette Bening.) Sharp direction by Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally) helped prevent this movie from becoming too much of a chick flick and at its core it’s got a nice quality like one of the old Jimmy Stewart movies from decades ago. Shepherd seems like he’d make a good President IRL but I’d rather see Catherine Zeta-Jones as the First Lady rather than Mrs. Warren Beatty.

4. President Bill Mitchell / Dave Kovic (played by Kevin Kline in Dave – 1993)

Kevin Kline is just one of those actors that can play everyday guys that you could see yourself being pals with. His Dave Kovic, a regular joe who gets selected in secret to pretend to be the real President of the United States when the real one falls into a coma, is one of those classic Kline guys. His fake President turns out to be better liked than the real deal and it’s easy to understand why when he does heartwarming things like talk to little kids or goof around with robotic arms. Bill Clinton had aspects of this sort of charisma and I bet it’s what helped him stay in the public’s good graces after the Lewinsky scandal broke. Would America be in the same quagmire it’s in right now if Kevin Kline were the President? The answer is heck no.

3. Unnamed President (played by Donald Pleasence in Escape From New York – 1981

Forget that this movie is supposed to take place in the then futurisic sounding year of 1997 and just roll with what comes at you: New York City is a giant walled-off prison and Kurt Russell is the baddest ass available to get the kidnapped President out alive. The fact that the American President has a British accent just adds to the surrealism of the movie, as well as the trapped animal look that Pleasence wears practically all the way through the movie. When the President is safely over the wall and comes back to tell the Duke of New York that he’s A-number-1 for a final time, that’s the moment that seals the deal with me and makes this CoC stand out from the others.

2. President Greg Stillson (played by Martin Sheen in The Dead Zone – 1983)

Yeah, that’s right you youngsters: Charlie Sheen’s dad played another President before he drew a paycheck starring on The West Wing. For the majority of this movie Sheen’s Stillson is just a politician running for a senate seat, but when psychic Johnny Smith (played by a perfectly cast Christopher Walken) has a vision of Stillson as President on Judgment Day, what kind of leader we see leaves a burn mark in your memory. Hallelujah, Stillson tells his staff seconds after pushing the button that launches America’s arsenal of nuclear missiles, and it’s that scary as hell way that he says it that makes me believe this shit could happen with this kind of nutjob in the White House.

1. President Merkin Muffley (played by Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove – 1964

We’ve had action Presidents, frightening Presidents, scared Presidents, fearless Presidents and romantic leading men Presidents but it’s safe to say that Sellers’ Merkin Muffley doesn’t fall into any clearly defined character slot. In Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant satire of the madness of war Sellers delivers three amazing performances including his turn as America’s fearless leader. Listen to this clip from the movie and see how Sellers delivers the lines in what’s supposed to be the most important phone call ever in the history of the world and how he turns it into the same kind of mindless inane banter politicians regularly spew.

And Merkin Muffley? I can only dream of living to see the day when the most powerful man in the world also has the biggest nerd name in the world.

Honorable Mention – Ronald Lacey

That’s right! The guy that played the Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark and whose face melted off when the Ark of the Covenant went all MMA on his ass also played the President in one of the 80s greatest cult movies, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Blink and you’ll miss Lacey’s scenes; just keep an eye out for the President whose in traction because he’s got a bad back.

Author: Patrick