Sydney
Ellen Wade [played
by Annette Bening]: “How'd you finally do it?”
President
Andrew Shepherd [played
by Michael Douglas]: “Do what?”
Sydney: “Manage to give a woman flowers
and be president at the same time?”
Andrew: “Well, it turns out I've got a
rose garden.”— The American President
(1995), screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Rob Reiner
It’s funny
how seeing a movie decades apart can make you look at it in completely
different ways. Case in point: The American President, which I viewed
shortly after it came out in November 1995 and again yesterday afternoon, at a
special Presidents’ Day presentation at the Barrymore Film Center in Fort
Lee, NJ. (It featured an excellent introduction by Fairleigh Dickinson University
Professor Pat Schuber on the evolving nature of the Presidency.)
When I
heard the above exchange three decades ago, for instance, I groaned at lines so
corny that even Frank Capra (such an obvious inspiration for the movie’s
creators that he’s even referenced at one point) wouldn’t have served them up.
Yesterday,
I groaned for a different reason: the Rose Garden that President Shepherd makes
use of no longer exists, in the beloved form that Americans of both major
political parties cherished. And all because of one man.
Years ago,
I had decidedly mixed feelings about Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay, as I did in my
few attempts to watch the TV show for which this film was, in effect, a dry
run: The West Wing. It raised valid concerns about America’s polarized
environment, the microscope under which modern Presidents exist, and the
precious lack of personal privacy they enjoy.
But with
its bad guys—all Republicans without a single redeeming ideological or social
value—it created straw men that his heroes (liberal Democrats) could easily
swat away. At least George Bernard Shaw, also given to long speeches in his
plays, gave his devils their due, which made rebutting them all the more
convincing.
Moreover, Sorkin's heroes possessed few complications, with their real-life inspirations
bleached of their flaws when depicted in fictional form. In this film, as a centrist liberal
facing a sex scandal promoted by the opposition, Shepherd had clear affinities
with the President at the time, Bill Clinton.
Except for
this fact: Clinton not only had to issue a false denial that only the most
gullible believed about a past affair (with trashy entertainer Gennifer
Flowers), but his campaign labored mightily to stamp out entire “bimbo
eruptions,” while Shepherd was a lonely widower enchanted by a single
intelligent, lovely environmental lobbyist.
Despite these shortcomings, time had raised my opinion of The American President from
decidedly mixed to good, if not great. It was even better cast than I had
recalled, with Samantha Mathis, John Mahoney and Wendie Malick in interesting
supporting roles, and several lines and situations rang with unexpected prescience.
In his
climactic speech, for example, Shepherd not only identified the divisive
electoral strategy of his rival (an obvious Newt Gingrich stand-in), but the
same one employed by the current Oval Office occupant for the last decade: “Whatever
your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit
interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only:
making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it.”
And, when
Martin Sheen’s chief of staff A. J. MacInerney tells Michael J. Fox’s
idealistic aide, “The President doesn't answer to you,” Fox could answer for
today’s citizenry outraged by daily lies and civil liberty violations: “Oh, yes
he does.…I'm a citizen, this is my President. And in this country it is not
only permissible to question our leaders, it's our responsibility!”
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