Reply #159: you've got to check out the director/producer commentary track

[Lisa]

... on the DVD! (Only, don't do it on a full stomach.) If anything, it's even better than a "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" critique.

The filmmakers are so pro-Bush I thought that they were doing a satire like Stephen Colbert ... but it turned out that they were SERIOUS. They spend the whole film just patting each other on the back for how clever they are. But they were so eager to make Bush appear godlike that it actually got in the way of a sympathetic portrayal -- and they didn't even realize that. So much for their Hollywood credentials ... one would think that they would at least have some rudimentary skills in storytelling and how to create sympathetic characters. Evidently not.

DC 9/11 isn't even decent propaganda, it's so poorly done. "Casablanca" is proof that you can have a propaganda-ish flick which is also excellent on its own merits. About the only story that would seem halfway plausible and appealing would have Bush starting out as a doofus but maturing (that old Hollywood standby) ... but heaven forfend them showing flaws in their hero. So the character starts out as a plaster icon and has no place to go from there.

Suffice it to say that their version of "drama" has Bush uncapping a Sharpie marker with his teeth, to show how firm and decisive he is. And the scene where he is all fatherly and reassuring towards a nervous and indecisive Cheney! Has to be seen to be believed.

And you're absolutely right -- they did make the film in Canada, getting tax credits from my home province to do so.

I ended up feeling sorry for Timothy Bottoms. He seemed uncomfortable on the commentary track, with all the Bush adulation from the filmmakers. He ended up talking about the itchy rash that afflicted him (I swear I'm not making this up) during the shoot. Maybe that accounts for the strained look on his character's face? By the way, some of my friends in the Santa Barbara area say that his whole family are big-time Dems who are active in the local party ... so I'm not blaming him for either taking the role or having it turn out to be such a fiasco. Not his fault that the filmmakers gave him such ludicrous lines ... or subbed in footage of the actual Bush at crucial points, destroying his character portrayal.

The whole thing reminded me of that "Red Dwarf" episode where the egotistical Rimmer makes a film about his life ... and his friends are totally shocked at how contrived his version of reality is.