A hero President

There is a large body of Hollywood movies about fictional US presidents with many forming a sub-genre based on the notion that a weak (i.e. soft on international policy, read the Soviet Union/Russia) president faces domestic resistance leading to a coup, assassination or disbarment from office. My favourite film in this genre is the 1964 classic starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, Seven Days In May. In this a rogue but very senior general has it in mind to get rid of the LMF president (LMF: lack of moral fibre). Many other titles have seen the light of day since that film was made, but what reminded me of this particular genre was the all-American action hero flick, Angel Has Fallen (2019) in which Morgan Freeman stars as the susceptible Commander in Chief (who in the film is actually in a coma most of the time following an assassination attempt). This is currently streaming on Netflix and has the subtlety of a squashed beetroot. Essentially, the baddy behind it all is the Vice President who is looking for an excuse to bomb Russia and take over. Were it not for a single, determined and oft maligned action hero, the baddies would have won. There are variations on the weak President theme - in Hunter Killer (2018) it's the Russian President's turn to face a coup, only this time he is rescued by some heroic Americans (as in Angel Has Fallen, the hero is played by Gerard Butler, who could perhaps become the first American James Bond). I wonder if there is a similar film genre in Russia where an LMF afflicted President faces subversion from within, only to be saved by an all-conquering and amazingly blessed with nine lives bodyguard who successfully shoots to kill every time. Now I await a film featuring a Trump style character who heroically saves himself - from himself perhaps - before he destroys the rest of us. Quite a plot beckons.

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