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> AFAIK that barrier of good taste has never been crossed by Hollywood before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_a_President_%282006_film%29 http://en.wiki
by swombat 12y ago
> AFAIK that barrier of good taste has never been crossed by Hollywood before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_a_President_%282006_film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_a_President_%282006_fi...
I'm sure there are earlier precedents too, but this one comes to mind immediately.
Oh, another one: Team America: World Police... which actually did depict a mission to go kill Kim Jong Il (while he was still ruling North Korea). Though to be fair they didn't actually manage to kill him, since in that movie he turned into a cockroach and fled in a spaceship.
- VLM 12y agoThanks for the link, I never heard of that movie. Interesting. Wikipedia says it pretty well : "was much criticised by those who believed it exploited the subject of presidential assassination, and that by doing so, was in bad taste" There's a quote by Hillary Clinton, like it or not, likely to be our next president, describing that movie as "despicable". I never thought I'd agree with her on absolutely anything, but here I am. (and again I state two wrongs don't make a right, etc)
- antientropic 12y agoIf you haven't seen the movie (which she probably didn't either), then what's your basis for calling it "despicable"? FWIW, I did see it at the time, and thought it was a fairly intelligent and sensitive depiction of what might happen to American society if Bush were murdered. In any case, why should such a "what if" scenario be off-limits to artists?
- phaus 12y ago>There's a quote by Hillary Clinton, like it or not, likely to be our next president, describing that movie as "despicable". And she's a despicable person. Sadly, she's probably going to be the best candidate in the next election, but she's a horrible person whose opinion counts for nothing.
- ulisesrmzroche 12y agoDeath of the Jackal! I think Hitchcock's 39 steps can count too, even if its not about a major figure. They're both great though. Political assassination has been a fiction trope since early literature, no?
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y agoYou meant The Day of the Jackal, the thriller about the assassination of de Gaulle, right?
- ulisesrmzroche 12y agoYes, my bad. Thanks for catching that! I wish I could go back and edit.
- ulisesrmzroche 12y agoEdit: It's actually "Day of the Jackal". Sorry HN!
- bruceb 12y agoExcept death of a president and Day of Jackal are not saying haha we are going to kill the leader of a country.
- ulisesrmzroche 12y agoCharles de Gaulle was president of France. I don't think tone matters here. I think we'd still be here if it was a Michael bay snoozer.