Brit movie riles Bush camp
By JIM SLOTEK,
TORONTO SUN
A British mock-documentary called Death Of A President , which
depicts the imagined assassination of George W. Bush, seems to be this
year's lightning rod for political outrage at the Toronto International
Film Festival.
TIFF has been down this road before, with the "cat killer" movie
Casuistry: The Art Of Killing A Cat and the ostensibly anti-American
9/11 anthology-thinkpiece 11'09''01.
But D.O.A.P. (as it is coyly referred to in festival material) could
be more gasoline on the fire of polarized U.S. politics.
'DISGUSTED AT THOUGHT'
The movie is fashioned as a future look back at the repercussions
that follow Bush's assassination in October 2007.
Right-wing media in the U.S. discovered the movie and its premise
yesterday. The news/gossip weblog The Drudge Report led its home page
with the words "SHOCK: PRESIDENT BUSH ASSASSINATED IN NEW MOVIE."
The Drudge site, which linked to an article about the movie in the
London Evening Standard, also included a doctored photo from the film
of Bush being shot by a sniper in front of a hotel.
"This is outrageous!" wrote Liza Snyder of Richmond, Ind., in one of
several angry comments posted about the article at Drudge. "Someone
should be afraid of life imitating art! I'm disgusted at the thought of
it."
Right wing talk-radio pundit Rush Limbaugh also ran with the story,
expressing his outrage to as many as 12 million listeners on more than
500 radio affiliates.
"Sicko," Limbaugh said in describing the film's director, Gabriel
Range. Limbaugh asked, "isn't it a crime" to talk about killing a
president?
The White House declined to comment, saying it would not dignify the
movie with a response.
In a release, director Range said, "We're thrilled to be screening
the film at Toronto. It's a striking premise which may be seen as
highly controversial. But it's a serious film which I hope will open up
the debate on where current U.S. foreign and domestic policies are
taking us."
Limbaugh claimed the filmmaker's sole intention is to move forward
the anti-Bush agenda, and he questioned the morals and integrity of
anybody who would sanction such work.
"It's clearly a new age," Limbaugh said.
Festival co-director Noah Cowan, in his comments about D.O.A.P. on
the fest's website, downplays the films politics. "Range is ultimately
interested in addressing today's political issues through the lens of
the future," Cowan wrote. "Xenophobia, the hidden costs of war and the
nature of civil liberties in a hyper-media age all come under the
microscope.
"The film is never a personal attack on Bush."
The head of the channel that will air D.O.A.P. on British TV called
it a "thought-provoking critique" of U.S. politics that is "not
sensationalist, or simplistic but a very thought-provoking, powerful
drama," the Evening Standard reported.
TIFF runs from Sept. 7-16.
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