The American President Movie Analysis

The American President is a movie surrounding both the political and social life of the President of the United States. The movie shows the difficulties of decision-making faced by the President. President Andrew Shepherd is faced with choosing between a crime bill that was personal to him, and environmental energy bill that was very important to his girlfriend, Sydney Ellen Wade. Socially, Andrew Shepherd faced many attacks on his character because of his relationships with Sydney Ellen Wade. The issue becomes even more important with the falling approval rate of the President during an election year. In Shepherd’s previous election his wife died and because of this he was not attacked on his character. However, after Shepherd formed a relationship with Sydney, he was faced with frequent and harsh character attacks on the basis of his relationship with Sydney. The President plays multiple roles as head of the country; one of those roles is the chief of state. As Chief of State the President is seen as the head of the country in a symbolic country. In the movie, President Shepherd hosted a State dinner with the newly elected French President. The State dinner followed special White House traditions; such as the way the President was presented to all of the guests at the dinner. The dinner did not have any major political discussion or …show more content…
This is the first movie I have seen where the social life of the President is a main feature of the movie. I liked how they showed the difficulties of holding a social life while running the country and maintaining political priorities. My only critique of the movie is that in reality I don’t see a story like this happening with a modern president, because of the increased role the media plays with public opinion of the President. I don’t see a President ever taking the route Andrew Shepherd took during an election