Sorkin Workin'

I recently caught The American President (1995). Hadn't seen it since it was in the theatres. It's an enjoyable film (probably better than Dave, Primary Colors or The Contender--other films about the White House), and a passable follow-up to the previous Aaron Sorkin/Rob Reiner collaboration A Few Good Men.

The plot is weaker--the Prez and his gal play footsie and fight over policy, all while the evil Republicans try to take them down. But Sorkin's dialogue is snappy (though, as always, everyone sounds the same) and things move along okay. Sorkin's hawkish liberalism is front and center, but it goes down easy enough.

At the time, it was funny to contrast Hollywood's ideal liberal with the real thing. Michael Douglas's president is a stand-in for Bill Clinton, and the plot couldn't be clearer--it's Sorkin and Reiner telling him not to compromise on liberal issues like global warming and gun control, and letting him know if he'd just state how proud he is to be a liberal, the nation would be stirred. (Though they did cut some nasty anti-Reagan stuff that was in the script--probably because Reagan announced he had Alzheimer's while the movie was in production.)

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton tried to force too many bills through without Republican support (when he had Congress) and learned very quickly to compromise or face ruin. Soon he was signing welfare reform and denying he was a liberal. That's how it works in the real world.

Watching it today, the thing that strikes you most is it's a dry run for West Wing. It's got the same situations, the same characters (smart, super-competent, and so ready to help the nation that they can hardly stand it), even many of the same actors (Martin Sheen plays the Chief of Staff--he'd soon be kicked upstairs). In fact, if you chopped this up into two hours of TV and dropped it into West Wing reruns, I'm not sure anyone would notice.