By James Christopher
These days, Hollywood portrays Presidents as skirt-chasing,
double-dealing sleazebags - a bit like real life. Our correspondent
looks at how the White House lost its lustre
The first film George W. Bush requested to see in the luxury of the
White House cinema was Thirteen Days, a fly-on-the-wall thriller
about the Cuban missile crisis. For someone who's supposed to be a
"moron," Bush's choice was surprisingly astute. Relations between
America and Russia have never been so chilly since the height of the
Cold War.
What could be more enlightening than brushing up on the past? In
October 1962, an apocalyptic nuclear war was brewing between the
United States and the Soviet Union. The heroes of the hour were JFK
and his brother Bobby. According to Hollywood, they defied their own
chiefs of staff and saved the world when all about them were
desperate to kick-start Armageddon. The film is a rousing piece of
heroism, and a gripping political thriller.
In a clear signal to his friends on the Left, Bush invited the
Kennedy family to watch Thirteen Days with him. It seemed the polite
thing to do. Ten days later the "moron" lost his marbles. Bush bombed
the "no-fly zone" in Iraq. A week later he did it again. The unstable
Middle East is now shaping up nicely to be America's next Cuba. Did
anything about Thirteen Days sink in? True, films may never decide
the course of history. But they can be surprisingly revealing about
the consequences (cf Dr Strangelove).
The star of Thirteen Days, Bruce Greenwood, who plays JFK quite
brilliantly, was shocked not by the fact that his film was preferred
by the President, but by the timing of Bush's attacks on Iraq.
Presidents aren't meant to start wars, they're meant to broker peace.
If Greenwood was baffled by Bush's aggression, he was horrified by
Clinton blowing his own foot off. "Clinton did so much good," winces
Greenwood, bitterly. "I was a big, big supporter. I still support
what he did in office, but to depart and leave behind a spoor of
stinking pardons like that . . . it"s really odious."
No one seems to know quite how the White House slewed into an
extension of the entertainment industry. Bruce Greenwood blames
Nixon. Since Watergate, the mystique of playing the most powerful man
in the world is perhaps not what it used to be. "There ís a big club
of actors who have played the President," says Greenwood. "There
aren't five of us, there are 50 of us."
Thirteen Days opens March 16.
This is a shortened version of a longer article that can be found at:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,142-92111,00.html
