It’s that time again, when we are forced to exercise our hard-fought right to self-government amidst inescapable political ads, shrieking media commentary, and a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach. While we at Media Services do not have the solution to the polarization, calcification, and corruption that so often defines our political reality, we do have an array of movies and TV shows featuring all sorts of real and fictional, moral and morally questionable American presidents. In whatever way you exercise your rights this November, you’ll enjoy the following five depictions of good-ish presidents from our collections.
Jed Bartlet in The West Wing (1999-2006)
Martin Sheen’s award-winning turn as President Jed Bartlet on The West Wing is perhaps the liberal platonic ideal of a fictional president. For seven seasons, The West Wing featured creator Aaron Sorkin’s trademark snappy dialogue, rousing speeches, and an achingly sincere belief in the power of the people, via the government, to make positive change in the world. At its helm was Bartlet, a human but fundamentally good and competent leader who seemed to embody the best of the era’s Clintonian optimism (without all the Clintonian baggage).
James Marshall in Air Force One (1997)
While Bartlet would probably contend that the pen is mightier than the sword, Harrison Ford’s President James Marshall would probably argue that nothing is mightier than an American president punching a vaguely-Soviet villain in the face. As he fights the terrorists who have taken over the titular plane midair, Ford’s Marshall demonstrates the qualities all Americans want in their Commander in Chief: resourcefulness, intelligence, strength, and being ridiculously good-looking. In Air Force One, the president rises (literally) above the mud-slinging of domestic politics to defend American interests (and government property), making him a literal hero in a time when politicians often feel much like villains.
Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009)
Is Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) President of the United States? Technically, no, although the relationship between the Twelve Colonies, of which she is president, and present-day Earth is a little more complex than it may initially appear. Is she a good president? Well, she’s certainly not the worst president in the universe of Battlestar Galactica, but the show spends a lot of time unpacking this question both directly and indirectly. Following a robot-led genocidal attack on humanity, Roslin leads a ragtag group of survivors across the galaxy towards a mythical planet called Earth. Along the way, the humans must negotiate the contradictory demands of fighting fifth columnists, preserving democracy, upholding human rights, and staying alive, thus making Battlestar Galactica, and its flawed leaders, perhaps the most cutting commentary on the post-9/11 security state to ever air.
https://www.charactour.com/hub/characters/view/Laura-Roslin.Battlestar-Galactica
Thomas J. Whitmore in Independence Day (1996)
We do not know much about Bill Pullman’s President Whitmore, other than that he has the misfortune of being in office when aliens attack. The 1996 blockbuster spends less time developing its characters and more time blowing things up, but it does so really, really well. As the film reaches its climax, Whitmore delivers one of the cheesiest yet most memorable speeches in recent memory; then the American president gets into a fighter jet and helps liberate Earth on, of course, July 4. Independence Day is the kind of film you can watch while binging on hot dogs, setting off fireworks, and singing the national anthem to your pet bald eagle, even if viewers from other countries may roll their eyes.
Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln (2012)
Choosing Lincoln as the final entry for this list is probably cheating, as Abraham Lincoln was, of course, not only a real president but the best president in American history. There’s nothing cheesy, sentimental, or overwrought in Daniel Day-Lewis’s turn as the sixteenth president; instead, Day-Lewis is an artist at the height of his considerable power as he portrays Lincoln’s efforts to cajole, coerce, and coax Congress into passing the Thirteenth Amendment and outlawing slavery. In Lincoln‘s Lincoln we can see the best of the American experiment—the beliefs that all people are equal and that a shared destiny binds us all together—no aliens, fighter jets, or explosions needed.
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