‘The American President’ is Problematic
But it still manages to work really well.
The American President is the 1995 film directed by Rob Reiner and written by my favorite screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin. It follows President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), a widower who falls in love with an environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening). This is pre-The West Wing and stars some of the show’s future cast, including Martin Sheen, Anna Deavere Smith, and Joshua Malina.
This movie is incredibly entertaining and the dialogue is filled with the Sorkin pacing and idealism that I have come to know and love so well. The writing shows a passion for the act of governing that would easily be lost in another movie about an American President. In this film, we see Sorkin exploring many of the themes that would eventually fill episodes of The West Wing.
I think the reason why this film works so well is because it taps into a part of us as human beings that movies don’t always acknowledge. The American President calls us up to a higher level than the ceiling of much of our politics today. Though the characters in this film are incredibly flawed and make terrible decisions, they hold the Sorkin view of the world: we can make things better if we try hard enough and speak eloquently enough.
