Here you thought ““Men in Black’’ had all the fantastical creatures this season. Wait until you see the Leader of the Free World in ““Air Force One,’’ in which Harrison Ford plays President James Marshall as a blend of Han Solo, Woodrow Wilson and Jackie Chan. Americans are bored by politics, cynical about leaders, too busy in a good economy to care about Washington. But maybe that’s because we’ve seen too many politicians on C-Span talking about the budget. What if we could watch our president blasting terrorists in Sensurround? In this summer of our content, Hollywood is betting on a president as action hero.
It’s a good bet. Ford is the Jimmy Stewart of our time - the epitome of decency under pressure - and ““Air Force One’’ is Frank Capra on ““Speed.’’ Winging home from Moscow, the First Aircraft is hijacked by bloodthirsty Russian nationalists, led by the hyperventilating Gary Oldman. If their leader isn’t released from prison, they say, they’ll kill everyone on board - including the First Lady and First Daughter. The president, they think, has fled the plane in an ““escape pod.’’ In fact, our buff and resourceful commander in chief is hiding in the cargo hold. He’s vowed never to negotiate with terrorists - and yet here they are, with a gun to his daughter’s temple! Oh, the dilemmas of leadership!
This one doesn’t last long, or require talks with NATO. Methodically, Ford guns down the heavily accented bad guys with Schwarzeneggerian relish, and pushes one fanatic out the cargo bay. ““Get off my plane!’’ says the triumphant president. It’s a more inspiring line than, say, ““I am not a crook’’ or ““I didn’t inhale.’’ Meanwhile, back in Washington, cheers go up from a hearteningly broad cross section of voters huddled at a candlelight vigil in Lafayette Park. There’s even joy in the White House press room - certainly the most unrealistic scene.
There’s political Zeitgeist news here. At least for now (or until ““Primary Colors’’ arrives), Hollywood seems to have maxed out on portrayals of the White House as a sinkhole of corruption. ““Absolute Power’’ and ““Murder at 1600’’ - two recent flicks with bad-dude presidents - were weaker at the box office than expected. The same trend prevails in reality-based programming. Fred Thompson’s made-for-TV hearings about money corruption aren’t generating much public interest. For all the investigations swirling around him, Bill Clinton’s approval ratings have never been higher.
So there’s room for fanciful institutional cheerleading - and perhaps even a hunger for it. God knows the presidency could use it. But we’re all so jaded, we couldn’t possibly take such a preachy message straight. It has to be in cartoon form.
Like any well-drawn cartoon, ““Air Force One’’ bows (briefly) to reality. There is no ““escape pod’’ on Air Force One, and the security procedures are tougher than those portrayed in the film, but the mock-up of the aircraft itself is chillingly realistic, down to the straps in the cargo hold, the earth tones in the cabins and the three-zone digital clocks on the walls. President Marshall is vaguely reminiscent of a certain real leader of the free world. He’s fiftyish, a television-sports junkie. He possesses a savvy, outspoken wife, a spunky daughter - and a humorless vice president (Glenn Close in the Al Gore role).
No wonder Clinton loved the script when he heard about it last summer. If you were president, wouldn’t you? It must have been fun to daydream. Instead of having to reason with Newt Gingrich, for example, you could just give him a karate chop. Special prosecutor pestering you? Eat lead, counselor! Indeed, the president liked the project so much he had a minor role in bringing it to the screen.
The ““back story’’ could be a whole other movie - a satire. Last August Clinton was in Jackson Hole, Wyo., for a poll-driven vacation. (Dick Morris, his polltaker, had conducted extensive surveys to decide where the president should go; hiking in the mountain West was the answer.) Clinton learned about the project from Ford during a dinner at the home of James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank. Ford, already cast as the president, wanted Close for his veep, and she was at the dinner, seated next to Clinton. Ford approached and proposed that she play the part. The real-life president seconded the motion. ““I feel like I was present at the creation,’’ Clinton gushed to NEWSWEEK. ““I’m probably the only president who got to pick two vice presidents.''
Clinton’s support was a boon to director Wolfgang Petersen, whose first hit was ““Das Boot’’ and who was eager to re- create its sense of dramatic claustrophobia aboard Air Force One. Clinton took Ford on a tour of Air Force One in Wyoming last summer, and the production designers also toured portions of the plane. The Pentagon cooperated big time, officially sanctioning the use of airfields and a whole arsenal of aircraft. Those aren’t computer-generated F-15s up there on screen.
The producers of ““Air Force One’’ are offering aircraft, not uplift. Director Petersen told NEWSWEEK that he was drawn to the project for one main reason: Ford was in it. The film is an over-the-top thriller, too loosely tethered to reality to be a lesson about anything other than the limits of popcorn consumption. In real life - in the real Oval Office - we’re not looking for an ubermensch, anyway. We’ll settle for a mensch. Someone who might actually want to pass campaign-finance reform, for example. Still, it may say something about the state of America - or Hollywood -that it took a Japanese studio (Sony) and a German-born director (Petersen) to bring to the screen a creature that we Americans can barely imagine: a president as hero.
