July 11, 2025 • 57 mins
Presidents are portrayed in movies in so many different ways: fictional presidents, real presidents, real presidents in a fictional role, satirical presidents, and so many more. Our movie draft this week, in which we draft both real and fictional portrayals of US presidents covers these wide varieties as we discuss what we love most about some of the best film versions of our commander in chief. This draft was in honor of our discussion of Spielberg’s Lincoln last week, so Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln was ineligible (and is probably the #1 choice).
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Guest Info:
Jean-Pierre Boudreaux
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanpierreboudreaux/
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/jpboudreaux/
Inhabit Creative Co.
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Website: https://www.inhabitcreative.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
It wasn't closely. What's the secret?
Thing just got to find somethingyou love to do and then do it
for the rest of your life. I don't want to be a product of
my environment. I want my environment to be a
product of me. Hello and welcome to the
(00:41):
Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into
directors and their filmographies.
I am your host Eli Price, and weare here on episode 104 of the
podcast, joined again by Jean Pierre Boudreaux.
From. Yeah, from last week.
You may recognize him from the Lincoln episode where we find
(01:05):
out found out that he is in factmore man than lizard, not more
lizard than man as House of Representatives.
Thaddeus Stevens. Yeah, Thaddeus Stevens calls Old
George Pendleton on the House floor.
Yeah. 2 great names, Yeah, two really great now, and then a
(01:26):
third one, Jean Pierre Boudreaux.
I mean, great name, you know. Yes, thank you.
Yeah. JPD, you know, people, that's
what eventually, like when you make it big time, people are
going to be like, Oh yeah, did you see the new JPD, you know?
JPB. JPB, I'm sorry, Jelly and
peanut. Butter, you know.
(01:46):
Yeah, that's probably what I wasthinking.
Yeah, that's wrong with like, I just, I can't imagine someone
being like like if you could be like, did you see the new, the
new Jean Pierre? And it's like Boudreau movie
like. Oh, man.
But yeah, JP, he is well decorated on the podcast, been
(02:09):
on many times before, so we'll skip the introductions.
You can go listen to past episodes to hear more about him.
And we'll get right into it because this week, you know, we,
we do deep dives into directors in their filmographies, but we
also do fun, you know, fun, exciting episodes in between
(02:29):
those. So we're doing a movie draft
today. We're doing movie presidents.
So this is going to be a fun one.
Now some ground rules for this draft.
We, we kind of talked about it and we decided since there is 2
categories of movie presidents, there's real presidents
(02:50):
represented in movies and then there's fake presidents, I guess
for lack of a better term, in movies.
Fictional I guess would be the better way to say it, fictional
presidents and non fiction presidents.
So we're going to actually, instead of just lumping them all
together, we're going to requirethat we draft 3 each from each
(03:11):
of those from the real presidents and from the
fictional ones. So we don't have to do them in
any sort of order so we can. Draft.
All of our real ones are all of our fake ones.
Are say we should do our our mixit up for presidents 1st and
then we'll do, we'll do. That no, I think we just mix it
up. OK, all right, fun everyone.
Take who you want to take, when you want to take them and we'll
(03:33):
slot them into the categories. But by the end of by the end of
each of our 6 picks, we have to have three in each, I think.
But before we get into that, what what is better are?
Are real presidents in movies better or fictional ones?
I don't know man. It's tough, you know.
It is. It is because I think I think
(03:55):
historical presidents can give an actor so much room for a
great performance. Like we see with Lewis here in
Lincoln for what she won an Oscar.
But I feel like there's just something really fun about
fictional presidents and puttingthem in a situation that the
president. Would, yeah.
Probably never find themselves in yeah or or do things that you
(04:18):
that the president would never do so yeah, I think I might have
to lean fictional president personally just because it's fun
for sure yeah, yeah. It just leaves the door open for
for so many more like like they get what's that movie that's
coming out soon called. I think it's called heads of
state where it's like John Cena's the president of the
United States and Andrews Elba'sthe Prime Minister of the UK.
(04:40):
And it's like a it's like an action comedy where they have to
fight off terrorists together. And it looks really fun.
I kind of, I kind of want to seeit, but but especially with, you
know, John Cena kind of being a bit of a bumbling idiot and
yourself was like the straight man kind of.
Yeah, trying to trying to be allserious.
So. But yeah, just stuff like that.
Like you can't, you can't like you wouldn't, you can't have
(05:02):
like Abraham Lincoln in a situation like that.
So. Right.
You know. Right.
Yeah, it it's fun. I think fictional presidents are
definitely more fun and we'll we'll definitely get into.
I like that you pulled an example that is not eligible
because it's not released yet. So getting nice with that
because I can't. Even give any examples, It's not
on my list. I can't give him the trailer.
(05:24):
And I was like, yeah, exactly. I'm going to.
Draft the trailer. I'm going.
To draft the president in this movie trailer?
No, not not allowed. Yeah, I agree.
I think, I think there are some fun real president stuff that
(05:44):
that we might get into dependingon how the draft goes.
But yeah, I think when you're when you're dealing with
fictional, fictional material, it can be fun, but it also can
be like you can explore scenarios that didn't happen
most time. Most of the time when you have
(06:04):
like a real president in movie, it's like you're exploring the
real things that happened. And I think even if it's not
like a fun movie, a more like a more serious drama, you're able
to like maybe explore some scenarios that haven't happened
to our real president. So and.
It's crazy because I think we wecould have split this into a 1/3
(06:24):
category because you have your fictional presidents, then you
have your historical presidents.You could have split that into
two where it's like historical presidents historically
portrayed, right, versus historical presidents non
historically portrayed, right. Like whether it be a comedy or
you know, or, or like, you know,oh, what if kind of situation.
(06:48):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I, I, so I think, I think we're pretty much on the same
page with that. But yeah, I don't think, you
know, usually I'll we'll talk about like, oh, what criteria
did we use for making our list? Well, we just looked at what
presidents we we've seen in. Movies.
I was actually surprised that I expected to find a lot more
(07:10):
options than I did, but yeah. Me too.
There's but there's honestly like there's a whole Wikipedia.
You can, there's a whole Wikipedia page if you're
interested in looking at this onyour own, but where you can just
type actors that have played presidents in movies.
Well, actors and actresses. But, and there's just like a
(07:31):
whole Wikipedia page. So it has like fictional
representation, fictional presidents.
It has the real presidents and the real presidents it lists
like in chronological order and like all the people that have
played them and what movie it was.
And so it's pretty cool. There's like, there's a decent
amount of them, but when you look through the list you're
like, I've never heard of like 90% of these movies.
(07:53):
Yeah, well, and it's also reallyinteresting, like, like you're
Abraham Lincoln's or you're JohnF Kennedy's have like a bunch of
people have played them. But then someone like, like
George Washington, not that manyoptions.
No. Yeah.
You know, I think it's all like one guy that played Grover
(08:13):
Cleveland in some some random TVdocumentary thing one time, you
know, just yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of
Lincoln's, there's a lot of Nixon's, there's a few JFK's,
but other than that, like most of the presidents don't have a
lot of options. Yeah, like one or two maybe.
Just aren't. I mean Nixon and Lincoln.
I I think, I mean JFK, obviously, you know, with his
(08:39):
assassination, that's kind of interesting.
But I but I do feel like Lincolnand Nixon are the two that give
an actor the most to work with for.
Very opposite reasons. Yes, yeah, It's also really
interesting, especially like I was looking at the list for
Nixon and just like the range ofactors that have played that him
(09:01):
in different scenarios was really fascinating.
Yeah, yeah, I know for. Me my my criteria is that I
usually try and pick movies I'veactually seen because that's why
I wanna I wanna, I wanna have some conviction behind my voice,
but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
definitely not picking movies that I haven't seen.
I don't, I've never done that before.
(09:23):
And, you know, I, I don't foresee any scenario where that
would happen because typically, like, I don't like, suggest a
draft if I don't even have enough movies to draft in it.
So yeah, I'm trying to remember.I'm going back because we did a
Christian Bale movie draft last time you were on.
(09:44):
And you, yeah, you chose first for that one.
So I'm looking at it right now #1 Patrick Bateman, the JP.
So you took the first pick in that one, so.
And I still lost. My turn.
Still lost that track that's. True, I thought he would take
you a long way. American Psycho, Christian Bale.
(10:05):
But. I think enough.
I don't think enough people haveseen it outside of the.
Beach. Maybe not, maybe not.
Yeah, definitely like a cinephile favorite, I guess.
Or letterbox bro favorite. I don't know.
I mean, I think I didn't really get it.
Like I don't think I'd ever watch that movie again, but I
did appreciate the context for the memes.
(10:26):
Yeah, say that. Yeah, Yeah.
And the acting is good. Oh yeah, I mean, he's great.
Absolutely for sure. Also, we'll all right.
It's hilarious. All right, this is tough.
Really, really tough. I don't I don't know.
So there's so I'll say this, there's an upcoming draft that
there's a little bit of overlap with.
(10:48):
And I have AII know that like there's a pick I made in that
one that like I wish I could have back.
And I might go ahead and just like start this draft off by
making up for that future draft that no one's heard.
(11:10):
And I might go ahead and pick Peter Sellers as the president
and Doctor Strangelove as my first fictional president.
So, yeah, I just think, I mean, so Peter Sellers in that movie,
(11:31):
obviously he plays three parts. He plays the the titular Dr.
Strangelove. You.
I'm assuming you've seen Doctor Strangelove.
Actually, I actually haven't. It's always been on my list.
It's one of the movies that's always on my list, but yeah.
Never got so I'll say this I I only saw it for the first time.
(11:53):
I can't remember if it was two years ago or I think it was two
years ago maybe. I haven't seen it since.
So I've only seen it the one time.
But man, Peter Sellers plays, I mean he put so he plays the
titular Dr. Strangelove. He plays President Merkin
Muffley and he plays captain Lion, old man Drake.
(12:15):
He's playing three different characters in this movie and
he's just like incredible hilarious.
There's this. You can look up the scene on
YouTube. It it would, it's not like
spoiler or anything, but it's him.
I guess a little bit to this thescenario, you can probably
figure out what the scenario is for the movie.
The movie is like 60 years old. Yeah, he's, he's on the phone
(12:38):
with, I can't remember the name of the, the Russian guy he's on
the phone with, but the it's like this hilarious phone call
about like, hey, you know, some of our guys went rogue and
there's some bombs on the way orwhatever, potentially.
And, you know, there's this likeback and forth of like kind of
(13:00):
satirical back and forth of like, you know, you know, well,
obviously I'm calling because this is important, you know, and
then he's like, well, yeah, of course I would have called just
to talk. You know, we we're, you know,
we're, we're friends, you know, of course I would.
So it's like this really hilarious back and forth.
Great scene. He's just great in the movie.
I want to give big props to thatand maybe make up for a
(13:21):
potential future snafu that I made in a future draft that you
will find out when it comes. So yeah, so that's what I'm
going to go with. Doctor Strangelove, Fake
president Number one pick. Interesting.
I think it's a good one. I think, I think I'm also going
(13:42):
to have to start with my my first fake president, OK.
And I I feel like I got to go with possibly the greatest
fictional president ever. I got to go with Bill Pullman as
Thomas Whitmore on Independence Day.
OK. I mean, quite possibly, yeah.
(14:04):
One of the greatest fictional president portrayals of all
time. Phenomenal movie.
I mean, his whole speech about And they will know this is our
Independence Day. I mean it's.
Great, I watched it on YouTube the other day.
Is it your first time seeing it?No, no.
Oh. OK, OK, OK.
(14:24):
You just have to watch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was.
Trying to like, it's been a while since I've seen it.
And I was like, OK, let me go and watch some, like, YouTube
scenes of, like some of these presidents.
And that pulled that one up. And I was like, oh, this is
still good. Yeah.
Even out of context. And, and, and I love that he's,
you know, he's just a like, it'sjust a solid portrayal.
(14:45):
He's just a solid character. You know, he cares about people,
just, you know, everything you could want in a in a president.
And which makes them all the more fictional, actually.
I guess so. Sure.
Sad. Sad, but true.
But I think I got to go with Thomas Whitmore from
Independence Day. Yeah, it's great.
Yeah, great pick. I I, I think we're the it's it's
(15:09):
not I don't know that he's wouldbe he's well, obviously he's
not. I picked a different fake
president first, but fictional president.
But even a even Strangelove aside, I think there might be
another like big one that I don't know.
(15:30):
So I do have to do another pick and I'm struggling like, do I
go? I, I don't think I'll, I think
I'm going to stick in the fictional president realm
because I think that's where like, we're both like really
trying to snatch guys up. And I'm not really sure like
where you're going to go with real presidents.
(15:50):
And so I'm going to, I'm going to go, it's OK.
This is where it gets tough because there's four fake
presidents I really would love to have.
And one of them I don't think you're going to pick, but all
(16:12):
but another one I think you might pick.
And so I'm struggling of like, OK, do I want to get the one
that you might pick or do I wantto like, take the 1?
I don't think you will and leavethe one for you.
So at least both of them are on our list.
Minds games what the mind games are all about, it's.
You know, it's killing me. OK, this is what I'm going to
(16:37):
do. I'm going to pick this one at
the risk of leaving off a reallygreat one from my list that I
want. But I'm going to go the more
like this is a great one that isalso going to be a crowd
pleaser. I'm going to pick President
James Marshall from Air Force One, Harrison Ford.
(17:00):
You know, the the line, get off my plane.
Oh, so good. So classic, yeah.
So that's what I'm going with. Great Harrison Ford action
President performance. Surprisingly, he has not played.
I could have sworn he's played more presidents, but apparently,
well, apparently the only other one he's played is President
(17:24):
Thaddeus Ross. Yeah.
Embracing what's? Referring to, unfortunately.
Yeah, yeah. I was like, when I saw him on
the list, I was like, is that really the only few times he's
played a president? Yeah, OK.
He just feels so presidential, You know, he's got, he's got
that presidential finger. Yeah, yeah, he's, I mean, it's,
(17:44):
it's great. I'm glad we have a Harrison Ford
president and I'm glad to have him on my list.
So it's been a long time since I've seen that movie.
So definitely pulled up some YouTube clips to refresh on that
one. Well, I think, I think I need to
go with a fictional president for Round 2 because I, I really
want to lock this one in for me because I'm, I'm really wanting
(18:08):
to win this draft this time, youknow?
OK, so, so I think another one that I think a lot of people
probably will have fond memoriesof.
And it is from a movie that if you haven't seen it, maybe don't
watch it because it might depress you a little bit
actually. OK.
I think I got to go. I think I got to go with Terry
Crews as President Camacho from from Idiocracy.
(18:32):
I'm so glad you picked this. I I think, I think it's, you
know, it's, it's one of those movies that is so far ahead of
its time. And if you watched it right now,
today, in 2025, you'll yeah, it'll, it'll probably leave you
with with quite a, quite a mood,but yeah, yeah.
I think Terry Crews love the man.
(18:54):
He's oh, man, he's so funny. He's so funny and.
What's his full name? Cuz he said like gosh, I'd.
Have to, I'd have. To I know Mountain Dew is in
there, President. Something something mountain.
Dew Camacho one second. Oh man, it's great.
It is. Luke Wilson too.
(19:19):
Luke Wilson in it. Yes.
You could also please President not sure played on Luke Wilson.
Yes, yes, his. Full name is Dwayne Elizondo.
Mountain Dew. A bear Camacho or Herbert
Camacho? I don't know if it's a bear or
Herbert. It's probably Herbert because,
yeah, I don't imagine it's not. Cajun by Cajun.
(19:43):
Yeah. Yeah.
Quite the quite the name. Quite the name.
Yeah. I love it.
And he is. He's hilarious.
He's so funny. Great pick.
It's it's definitely like one ofthose like mid 2000s comedies
that. It kind of like on the radar
thing. Yeah, it got lost, but also
it's, I was going to say it's one of those where it's like, I
(20:05):
don't know that some of these jokes would have gotten written
today, but, you know, a little bit, a little bit dated in that
way, but yeah. And in other ways, like yeah,
very fun movie. Actually had seen like parts of
this in the past, but I did actually watch it like a couple
weeks ago because I knew this was coming up and I love Terry
(20:28):
Crews. So I was like, let me see if I
want to take a Terry Crews president, but but alas, you got
it, So I don't. I don't know that I was going to
take it honestly, but. Hello again.
Do you know how you can really support the show for free in
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(20:50):
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(21:15):
that rating and review. Now back to the show.
All right, my I guess I think I'm going to save my other fake
president for now or fictional. I keep saying fake.
It's more fun to say fake president because I do have two
fictional ones that I still want.
(21:36):
But so I have two options there.I'm going to go to the real
president realm and I'm going totake performance that I thought
was really incredible. It's a very like, it's a 1
scene. It's a recent performance and it
(21:59):
is Harry S Truman in Oppenheimer, played by Gary
Oldman. Just like knocks it out of the
park in one scene. So good.
Apparently a very like historically accurate
conversation, you know, I mean, like it's behind closed doors,
(22:22):
but like things that were said are noted in history.
Like the whole like, I don't want to see that crybaby, you
know, scientist again, like that's actually like documented.
He said some something like that.
So like just like, and Gary Oldman, just one of those guys
that just transforms into somebody else.
(22:46):
Yeah, I'll say this like I don'tknow a whole ton about President
Harry S Truman, but I'll tell you this, after watching him in
this scene, 1 scene in this movie, I don't like the dude.
So, yeah, great, great performance by old man there and
(23:07):
Oppenheimer and yeah, yeah. Great pick.
And yeah, I got to say I I love seeing him pop up in that movie.
Fun fact about Gary Oldman is hehas played so many characters
with different accents that he actually had to relearn his
native accent because he forgot what it was.
(23:28):
That's wild. Yeah, he's great.
I think, man, I man, one of these days maybe you'll do a
movie where you could just do a Gary Oldman draft and that would
be such a fun list to go. Through yeah, yeah, that would
be. Cool.
I love him. And AS Jean Baptiste Zorg or
whatever his name is in Fifth Element, probably one of my
(23:48):
favorites. But yeah, that's a good option.
That was that was one I was I had on my list.
But you know, you got to it first.
So that's how the game works, folks.
That's how the game works. So all right.
Well, I think I'll also go aheadand throw my first historical
president in there. I think this is going to be, I'd
say probably a childhood favorite.
(24:11):
This comes from a movie that my family and I would watch every
year on July 4th. You know, so I grew up in a
musical. I grew up in a family where we
watched musicals all the time. Pretty much everyone else in my
family plays some kind of instrument except for me.
And one of my favorite musicals because I love History, has
(24:34):
Always been 1776, which has quite a few people who would
become presidents in it. But my favorite is kind of the
central character and the stand out.
I'm gonna go with William Daniels.
It's John Adams from 1776. OK, never seen it.
Yeah, it's great. It's great and he is great.
(24:55):
It's the same, the same actor that plays.
I'm gonna date myself here because I'm not super familiar
with the show, but Boy meets Worlds.
What's the name of the teacher that's like lives next door to
him that's like his? Buddy, Mr. Feeney, Yeah.
Yes, same actor. That's that guy plays William
Adams. That's him.
(25:16):
That's him. And he plays John Adams in you
know, this is one of those movies where I tell the audience
listening to this, if you're nota big fan of musicals, totally
understand. I do think it'd be, you know,
it's worth the while of like just maybe looking up some
scenes. I think he played John Adams on
the stage play and then they they also had him play John
(25:36):
Adams in the the film version which they shot in 1976 for the
that would have been what the tricentennial bicentennial.
Yes. Bicentennial Bicentennial
because it was 18761976 so. Yeah, 1976.
Yep. So I think a lot of the cast are
(25:59):
where people from the stage playthat got transferred over to the
film version. But it's fun and and it's a
movie that it's like kind of on a short list of like if I ever
got an opportunity to remake a film, I think an updated version
of something like 1776 would kind of be cool.
Yeah. Maybe even Spielberg wanted to
do an update and like he did with West Side Story.
I think that'd be really fun. Yeah.
(26:20):
So yeah. So is it like, is it like filmed
on sets or like is it? Yeah, filmed on a.
Stage. It's not.
Yeah, it's on sets. It's so it's not like Hamilton,
right? It's the recording of Hamilton
where it's just a stage play recorded.
No, it's like on actual sets. Most of it takes place within
(26:43):
the confines of the the buildingwhich the first Congressional
Congress or Continental Congresstook place.
A lot of that makes sense. Takes place just in that main
room cuz it's it's all centered around the debates about the
Declaration of Independence is kind of the main focus of the
makes sense of the film. Yeah, cool.
(27:06):
Yeah, Yeah, I've never seen it, but I might have to check it out
now. It's a fun, it's a fun 4th of
July watch for sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm still watching
with Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
My wife and I did like Musicals of March, so we watched a bunch
of musicals in March. But yeah, we're always down for
(27:26):
another one. Yeah, OK.
This is where it gets tough. I'm going to go ahead.
I'm just going to go ahead and do this, take another real
president, but in a, in a more like fictional portrayal.
So this is one of those that like could fall into a whole
(27:49):
another category, but we're onlydoing the two I'm going to I'm
going to take trying to find theactor's name.
I'm going to take Robert V Baronplaying Abraham Lincoln and Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I was full score.
And checks. Watch 7 minutes ago.
(28:13):
Love it man man love love this movie.
My wife really hoping that was going to be a dark horse, one
that you somehow didn't know about, you know, Yeah.
I thought I was really, really pulling something from from from
deep when I found out what that guy's dating.
But yeah. And I mean, you gotta think.
(28:34):
Be excellent to each other and party.
Excellent dude. Yeah.
Yeah, it's great. It it's phenomenal.
It's and, you know, you got to you got to give real props to
this particular Lincoln because he goes to the future.
He sees how everything's turned out and he still, like, goes
back and just like, does exactlywhat he was supposed to do, you
(28:57):
know, Because I mean, if he didn't, you know, things would.
Affect. Yeah, Butterfly.
Effects and he, you know, he sticks to his convictions, just
like in the movie Lincoln that we talked about last week, which
I should mention. People might be wondering why
has no one taken Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln yet?
Because this is like a memorial draft for that movie.
(29:19):
We like set it aside. It's it's like the main, it's it
is the number 1 I think. I think typically when we do
that question, when we do drafts, we don't do that
whatever movie we're talking about exactly so.
So just, but just in case anyonewas listening and didn't know
that I, I forgot to mention it at the front, but yeah, Lincoln
(29:43):
obviously, I think would have been really high up on both of
our choices and would have been taken by now.
But yeah, it's set aside for thesake of we discussed it last
time, so. Yeah, All right.
OK, so I see, I see. All right, You're playing,
playing a little dirty here, butit's all right.
It's all right, I think. Well, in that same van, I'll do
(30:04):
another historical president, but a non historical portrayal
And look, you know him, you lovehim.
I gotta go with Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt from night at
the museum. He is just such a such a lovely
presence in in all all of the films the night.
(30:27):
I can't believe they made three of those movies, but.
I can't either. I don't think I've ever seen the
the other two. Maybe they've seen the second
one. I've probably seen the second
one, but not the third one. But I I do have some fond
memories of the first one being like a movie I liked when I was
younger. So especially I think my
favorite scene is is no, it's the United States of don't touch
(30:50):
that thing in front of you like that.
That's the line that always sticks with me.
But but yeah, I just, you know, Teddy, like Robin Williams,
Teddy in these movies, he's justa very warm like, like figure,
Yeah, who kind of is a, is a bitof a of a mentor, so to speak,
for Ben Stiller's character. And yeah, I just and a great
(31:12):
likeness too, I think, to the real Teddy Roosevelt.
And I think, you know, RIP RobinWilliams gone too soon.
You know, we we are still recording this during men's
mental health month specifically, so June.
So definitely want to say, like anyone listening out there,
especially with the men out there, like if you're struggling
with things like, you know, reach out to your friends, to
your family, let them know. But man, it's, it's yeah.
(31:37):
There's just something about like the funniest people are the
ones who who are dealing with the most, you know, and it and
it and it also, I love a role like this where like, yes, he
has an opportunity to be funny, but also you get to see another
side of Robin Williams too. And I and it it makes you wonder
what other kinds of performanceswe could have gotten from him
had he still been with us. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
(32:00):
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, great pick.
It was on my list of real presidents, my short kind of
short list. But yeah, that would have been
the other like fictional portrayal of a real president
that I would have picked. I might have.
(32:20):
I might have gone that. I probably would have gone that
way if you had gone Bill and Tedbefore me.
But yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to go back to the
fictional president. Well, I've made-up my mind who
I'm going to take. And it is a president that might
(32:41):
feel a little bit too familiar to our current situation today.
And you can only wonder what would happen if, you know,
aliens from Mars came to Earth under our current
administration. Have no idea what would happen,
(33:01):
but but yeah, I'm taking Jack Nicholson playing President Dale
and Tim Burton's Mars Attacks. Have you seen Mars Attacks?
I have and he was also on my list, which means I now need to
find another fictional presidentoption because I only had four
and he took two of them. So oh man, OK.
(33:25):
It's all good. It's all good.
We'll figure this out all. Right, you have.
If you don't have anybody, I canswitch.
We'll we'll no, no, no at the end of the draft.
That's right. I got another one.
I got. Yeah, I got.
I got. You do OK.
Yeah. Well, I'll figure it out.
All right, well, that's that's my pick.
I mean, Jack Nicholson is great in this role.
(33:48):
He's like, if you haven't seen the movie, so like it's really
like crazy. Tim Burton just like going nuts.
Yeah, very like, yeah, there's alot of wild stuff that happens
in this movie. One of the like the funniest
things though, is that the general like the I guess the
(34:09):
head military guys, like we got to kill these fools.
These these Martians are like crazy.
We just need to kill them. And President Dale, he's he's
like trying to befriend them andit just like it doesn't go
anywhere, like because they're here to take over.
And yeah, he meets, he has quitethe fate.
(34:34):
President Dale, after a a wonderful speech that is full of
a full of not like profound nothings, I guess you could say.
So yeah, yeah, that's my third fake president.
(34:54):
I'm leaving a really good one that I don't think you're out.
You would take this one. I don't think you, I don't know
if you've seen the movie. But anyway, I'll I'll leave you
to take your second to last. One might, might, might have to
at this point. So I think I'll go ahead and
wrap up my my fictional presidents.
And I think the other option I got to go with that I just
(35:15):
reminded myself of from a movie that I don't necessarily think
it was. It's like one of the people that
you watch it, you're like, I don't think this is as good or
as smart as people think it is. But did kind of feel very
relevant the year it came out. And even now in some ways still
does. I think I gotta go with Meryl
(35:36):
Streep as President Orlean from Don't Look Up.
Yeah, I'm glad you took this because we needed a female
president on here. Yeah, yeah.
You know, there, there are some,there are some out there.
You know, I, I, I was kind of interested in seeing.
I think Viola Davis is in this movie called G20 where she's a,
she's the president in the G20 summit, gets taken over by
(35:58):
terrorists and she has to fight them.
I've heard it's terrible, but I do like Viola Davis.
So look, yeah, I kind of still want to watch it.
Yeah. I mean you and Anthony.
Homelander himself, Anthony Starr is is the bad guy, but.
But yeah, I have Angela Bassett in the newest Mission
Impossible. That's true.
I haven't seen it, but that is true.
(36:19):
But yeah, I do. I mean, I love Meryl Streep.
Great actress, probably one of the best of all time.
And I think I yeah, I think she really, she really nails her
character who's just this kind of very in some ways kind of
Trumpian, but but maybe a littlebit more intelligent and
(36:39):
intentionally kind of foolish. And.
And of course, like her death scene at the end is like really,
really funny. Yeah.
For sure. And.
Like has like really good comedic chops.
Like she plays really well off of Jonah Hill, who's like her, I
guess assistant or something like that in the movie of sorts.
(36:59):
Yeah. You wouldn't ever like, think.
Oh yeah, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill, that's a pair.
That's a pair that I'm looking forward to.
But actually they play off each other really well.
And I think she is a strong point of the movie for sure for
Don't look like Don't Look Up asone of those movies where like
(37:20):
some of it works and some of it doesn't.
And I I wasn't like super. I wasn't as negative as many
people were on the movie. I thought it was fine.
But yeah, she's definitely a strong point.
Meryl Streep, President. What's her name in the movie
President? Orlean Orlean Orlean Orlean,
(37:42):
ORLEAN. Yeah.
Hi. Quick reminder that you yes, you
can be a huge help to the production of the show.
If you visit establishingshoppod.com/donate,
you'll find out how to join the Establishing shop family through
(38:03):
some giving peers starting as low as $5 a month.
You heard that right, only $5.00a month.
And not only will you be helpingme keep the show going, but
you'll also get some perks yourself like early and AD free
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(38:26):
Might even let you choose a movie for me to review for the
show. Check out that link in the show
notes to learn more. Back to the show.
OK, I have to take another real president.
This is my last pick. I do have like a few options
left, two stronger options, and I think I'm going to go with one
(38:53):
that's probably not very. This isn't going to get me any
votes, I don't think in the poll.
But it's I've caught up with it in preparation for this and was
just kind of like blown away by the performance.
But I'm going to play Philip Baker Hall portraying Richard
Milhouse Nixon and Secret Honor.Robert Altman's movie Secret
(39:17):
Honor. So this is a movie that is, I'm
pretty sure adapted from a stageplay and it's literally Nixon.
Philip Baker Hall's Nixon is theonly person in the whole movie.
It's just him and his little like study and the, the, it's,
it's a fictional premise, but it's, it's all based on like who
(39:40):
Nixon was and what we know abouthim and, and all that.
And it's basically him like recording the, the it's
basically him recording like a memoir of him, like defending
himself. So this is like post post
Watergate, post resigning post like all this stuff.
(40:03):
And it's basically like him defending himself and there's.
It's this interesting hour and ahalf long monologue by 1 actor
in one room with the camera following him around with
different angles. And it's just really a really,
really interesting movie. A really, really interesting
(40:25):
like exploration of like, what are these men like Richard Nixon
all like, what happened to thesemen?
Why are they the way they are? And you're, you're kind of
looking at him exploring like his psyche at the end of his
like, era of power. And, you know, there's moments
(40:50):
where like there's moments of even a little bit of sympathy,
but it's kind of like this exploring like, OK, yeah,
there's there's certain like things from this person's
background that maybe made them who they are, but it, it doesn't
excuse those things, but it explores them.
(41:10):
And so it's it's really, really good.
I really enjoyed it. I thought Phillip Baker Hall was
really, really, I mean, to to bein an hour and a half long movie
and you're the only one on screen in one room.
Like you really have to go all out.
And he's really, really good in it.
So yeah, that's what I'm going to pick from Secret Honor.
(41:34):
Yeah, it is. The only place it's streaming is
Criterion Channel. But yeah, I haven't seen very
many Robert Altman movies. He's one of those blind spots
that a very well like, well respected director that I just
haven't seen enough of his movies.
(41:54):
So yeah, this made me want to check out some more so.
Yeah, great. OK.
I think for my my last pick, my last historical president, yeah,
I want to go with with a performance that from from an
(42:16):
actor that I love and pretty much everything that he does.
I think he's one of the best to ever do it and a performance
you're probably very familiar with and probably talked about
very recently. I want to go with Sir Anthony
Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in Amistad.
Like I said, I I haven't seen Amistad in a while, but I do
(42:39):
remember his performance being being great and I love Anthony
Hopkins and pretty much anythinghe does so.
Yeah, I, I don't. So the thing about that movie is
like, I don't like how he's maybe used necessarily in the
movie, but like his portrayal and like his acting isn't the
(42:59):
problem. Like he's phenomenal in the
part. So my my problem would be more
like just like how it's used in the movie and all that.
But but yeah, great. I mean, great real president
pick for sure. And at the at the point at that
point in the movie, he's not president, but that's because
(43:22):
he's still eligible, because he was a president.
Right. I mean, 1776, John Adams isn't
president yet, right? He will, you know?
So yeah. Yeah, yeah, great, great picks.
I think we got some great lists.Any honorable mentions you want
to throw out there for for real or fictional?
Yeah, I think, you know, I, I never finished the series, but
(43:46):
I, I did really enjoy Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in
House of Cards, and I do believehe becomes president in like the
second season or whatever. Yeah, I've watched like maybe a
few episodes of that, but yeah. Yeah, and I also, I really love
Aaron Eckhart in the Fallen franchise.
(44:13):
The I get, I think he's only thepresident.
He's in the he's the president in Olympus, his Fallen and
London has fallen and by by the third film, Angel has fallen.
Morgan Freeman's character is ispresident.
Gotcha. But but in the first film
especially, I think I think he does a pretty solid job.
(44:36):
You know, he he's very, very presidential.
I think he has a very presidential face, like he has a
politician. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, and, and he's one of those actors where I'm like,
man, I, I don't know why his career is kind of falling off in
the way that he that it has, butyou know, I, I guess it happens
to everybody. And I think, yeah, I think, I
(45:00):
think that's, that's kind of theones I can really think of.
I think I, there's a few more I kept seeing pop up on like every
single list that that I looked at.
But and then maybe I I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that
Sebastian Stan is amazing in TheApprentice.
Yeah, I have also not seen that so.
So an honorable mention for myself that I need to watch
(45:21):
that, yeah. Yeah, my my honorable mentions
for I have a couple for real president.
So have you seen the movie Selma?
Maybe. Maybe like bits and pieces but.
Yeah, a really good movie, but Tom Wilkinson plays Lyndon B
(45:46):
Johnson in that movie. Really, really good performance
in that. And then I also watched John
Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda playing Abraham
Lincoln kind of in the beginnings of his career as a
lawyer and politician. And it's pretty good.
It I didn't love it, but but it's a good movie.
(46:10):
It's, you know, 1939 John Ford movie.
So yeah. And I did I.
Didn't count era, you know, Yeah.
For sure, I didn't count this aslike a proper movie, even though
I really wanted to take either Christopher Jackson as George
Washington or Davey Diggs as Thomas Jefferson in the
(46:33):
recording of Hamilton, though either of those could have been
my very first pick if but I was like, it's kind of in that Gray
area of I think it I think it's doing enough with the camera
where you can count it as a movie.
But I'll just leave it and do anhonorable mention, you know?
Yeah, especially who plays George Washington.
(46:57):
I just said his name and now I've forgotten.
All right. Christopher Jackson.
So. Freaking good.
I mean I love W digs as as Thomas Jefferson, but I think.
I would have picked Washington, yeah.
I actually think I prefer him asLafayette in the the first half.
Yeah. But yeah, but Christopher
Jackson as Washington, his voice, the way he he performs
(47:19):
those songs, like in my mind. And I I'd also say like, you
know, 1776 includes quite a quite a few other presidents to
be. I mean, you got Thomas Jefferson
is in there. He plays, he's like kind of like
the main tree. The main trio is like John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
(47:40):
OK, Like that's kind of like your main, your main 3.
And then there's a bunch of other, much like Lincoln,
there's a bunch of other representatives that have like
more bit parts, but that's kind of your main kind of trifecta.
Like they have like a whole songthey do together and everything.
So. So, yeah, I think, I think it's
kind of a similar thing where there's, there's these other
(48:00):
really great performances in there.
But yeah, but yeah, surprisingly, like I said, I, I
think you know this, this draft made me realize that there's not
as many options out there as I as I would have expected.
Yeah, I feel like there's a. Lot of people would know.
Yeah, yeah, this is the so the one that I really wanted to take
and just, I don't know, I left it off my list.
(48:23):
It's probably one of my favoritemovies of all the movies we've
mentioned. I watched it last year for the
first time, Cindy Lumet's Fail Safe 1964.
Have you ever seen this movie? It's also a Henry Fonda playing
the president unnamed president in this site.
(48:44):
I did see a lot of them were called the president.
Right. Yeah, but yeah, that counts.
This movie is so freaking good. It's like a it is like a
political thriller. Where some, there's some like,
it's like Cold War era, there's some bombers that don't get a
(49:08):
certain code at a certain time and are going and their radios
are cut off. And so they, they're not getting
the directive that they're not supposed to go drop bombs on
Russia. And so and then that's, you
know, it's, it's cutting betweenall that.
And then it's just Henry Fonda with his, like, assistant in
this room with a phone, like making calls.
(49:31):
And it's just like captivating and thrilling.
And Henry Fonda is really good in it has to make a very
difficult decision at, you know,towards the end of the end of
the movie. That's very, very, very good.
And interesting last last honorable mention, you know, if
(49:51):
you want to do a 2012 Lincoln movie, you know, double feature
Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter.Or alternatively you could watch
the Asylum parody Abraham Lincoln versus Zombies, which
features like a 10 year old Teddy Roosevelt.
(50:14):
So OK, yeah, yeah, that I, I watched that one as a kid.
I think we actually rented that movie from like Blockbuster or
something or Hollywood Video back there.
Maybe it was Netflix or I don't know.
Somehow I remember we, my familyand I, we watched that movie and
at the time I think I actually preferred that over Abraham
Lincoln Vampire Hunter because Ithink it's one of those movies
(50:35):
where it's like awesome premise,terrible execution.
But I haven't seen a. Lot yeah, I've I have not heard
many. I've not heard great things
about Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, obviously, but like
it's, I feel like the vibe I getis that it's not one of those
types of bad movies that's stilllike really fun to watch.
(50:57):
Yeah, well, I mean, the the the most, it had some cool.
I haven't seen him forever, but I remember it had like some cool
action stuff. I mean, it was kind of at the
height of like 3D, so there's like some of that stuff in
there. Yeah.
I think the most interesting thing about it is, and they kind
of do this in Abraham Lincoln Versus Zombies as well as part
of the parody, is they framed the assassination by John Wilkes
(51:19):
Booth to cover for the fact thatAbraham Lincoln is infected and
he's soon to turn into a vampire.
I believe. It's been a long time since I've
seen it, but I believe that that's what the explanation is
for that. It's a little bit questionable
of a choice, but yeah. Yeah, well, but, but I think
it's, I think it's like I, I think if I remember correctly,
(51:40):
it's like John Wilkes Booth still hates Lincoln, but they
like, they like pay him to do itand like be the fall guy for it.
But he like is like, sure more than happy to do it.
Yeah. Oh, that's great.
Yeah. I mean, I think we ended up with
some great lists. I would say honestly, like if I
(52:03):
could recommend any of these movies to watch, it wouldn't
even be I would I would recommend people watch Fail Safe
because I just think it's a really great, you know, classic
Sidney Lumet movie of such classics as, you know, 12 Angry
Men and Dog Day Afternoon and yeah.
(52:23):
It sounds like Have you seen Black Sunday?
No, I haven't, but I know what you're talking about it because
it relates. It came up in Munich talking
about Munich, so. Yeah, I think I think we
actually may have talked about it during Dark Knight Rises.
Did I, I don't know if I did, I don't know or not.
(52:45):
But because it was one of the movies that they that they had
everybody watch before they did that movie The Rises.
And it it sounds there's some plot points you said that sounds
similar where it's like it's this really weird premise that
wouldn't work these days where like they get in this like blimp
and it's designed for the to drop to explode and it's going
(53:06):
to drop all these lawn darts andkill a bunch of people in this
football arena. But outside of that kind of very
1970s silly premise, it's a veryintense like movie like as far
as like how they set up the plotin like these like kind of eco
terrorists, so to speak, kind offormulating this attack.
(53:29):
And like it was it was quite it's quite tense.
It's very good. So but fail safe sounds great.
Yeah, definitely give that a watch.
Yeah, I highly, highly recommendit.
And in fact, like I was doing kind of a Sidney Lumet watch
through filling in a bunch of blind spots last year because it
was it would have been his 100thbirthday last year.
(53:50):
And I think after what I ended up with like 10 of his movies
logged and that was my favorite of all of them, even over.
Some of the lists. The Wiz?
Yep. Oh, 12 anchor men.
OK, yeah, I'm looking at his hislist right now.
Yeah. Serpico.
I've heard of a bunch of these before.
(54:11):
The devil knows you're dead. Yeah.
Yeah, great. The.
Original murder Only Orient Express.
OK, yeah, I haven't seen most ofthese, but I've definitely heard
a lot of these names. Yeah, he's just worth, he's just
worth watching through like his filmography.
He would be a great like future subject for the show for sure.
But he's, it sounds like kind oflike a like a John Mctiernan,
(54:33):
you know, where it's like just has all these random movies
that, that you kind of did that you're like, oh, I didn't know
that was his film. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I'll read back our lists and then we'll wrap up.
So I'm not going to read them inthe order picked.
I'm just going to read through. So JP ended up with his three
(54:54):
real president picks were 1776, Night at the Museum, and
Amistad, and his three fictionalpresident picks were
Independence Day, Idiocracy, andDon't Look Up.
Great list. My picks.
My real presidents were from Oppenheimer, Bill and Ted's
(55:17):
Excellent Adventure and Secret Honor, and my fictional
presidents were from Doctor Strangelove, Air Force One, and
Mars Attacks. So 2 great lists.
I think it'll be fun to see whatwhat people go with.
I think. So I think for your list, I
(55:39):
think Independence Day and nightat the Museum are going to be
the, the, the vote pullers. I, I'm.
Hoping Idiocracy enjoyers will be like Oh yeah.
Yeah, maybe so. Maybe, maybe I'll I'm hoping for
an Air Force. One Oppenheimer pool.
That's what I'm hoping for, you know?
Yeah, probably, probably I think, but I don't know.
I think, I think Independence Day is kind.
(56:01):
Of Independence Day is a good one, yeah.
It's the bulldozer in this race for sure, but.
Yeah, I think so. I think people will buy it and
just pick your pick your optionsregardless so but we'll see.
Yeah, probably so. People love me?
I guess so. My mom always votes for me even
if she's never seen any of the movies that I picked.
(56:24):
So thanks mom. Shout out to my mom.
That's that's all we have for this week though.
You can follow JP on his Instagram or on Letterbox, which
I will link in the episode description to see what what
he's up to and what movies he's watching.
So go do that whenever you finish the show.
(56:45):
But yeah, that's all we have forthis week.
Next week we are going to jump back into Spielberg with Bridge
of Spies, the third Tom Hanks collaboration with Spielberg.
So that'll be fun. Already recorded that.
It's a good episode. So yeah, check that out next
week. But until then, I've been Eli
Price for JP Boudreaux. You've been listening to the
(57:09):
establishing shot. We'll see you next time.
We were happy here for a little while, but look, I think it was
this way. Better to be king for a night
than smoke for a lifetime.
It wasn't closely. What's the secret?
Thing just got to find somethingyou love to do and then do it
for the rest of your life. I don't want to be a product of
my environment. I want my environment to be a
product of me. Hello and welcome to the
(00:41):
Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into
directors and their filmographies.
I am your host Eli Price, and weare here on episode 104 of the
podcast, joined again by Jean Pierre Boudreaux.
From. Yeah, from last week.
You may recognize him from the Lincoln episode where we find
(01:05):
out found out that he is in factmore man than lizard, not more
lizard than man as House of Representatives.
Thaddeus Stevens. Yeah, Thaddeus Stevens calls Old
George Pendleton on the House floor.
Yeah. 2 great names, Yeah, two really great now, and then a
(01:26):
third one, Jean Pierre Boudreaux.
I mean, great name, you know. Yes, thank you.
Yeah. JPD, you know, people, that's
what eventually, like when you make it big time, people are
going to be like, Oh yeah, did you see the new JPD, you know?
JPB. JPB, I'm sorry, Jelly and
peanut. Butter, you know.
(01:46):
Yeah, that's probably what I wasthinking.
Yeah, that's wrong with like, I just, I can't imagine someone
being like like if you could be like, did you see the new, the
new Jean Pierre? And it's like Boudreau movie
like. Oh, man.
But yeah, JP, he is well decorated on the podcast, been
(02:09):
on many times before, so we'll skip the introductions.
You can go listen to past episodes to hear more about him.
And we'll get right into it because this week, you know, we,
we do deep dives into directors in their filmographies, but we
also do fun, you know, fun, exciting episodes in between
(02:29):
those. So we're doing a movie draft
today. We're doing movie presidents.
So this is going to be a fun one.
Now some ground rules for this draft.
We, we kind of talked about it and we decided since there is 2
categories of movie presidents, there's real presidents
(02:50):
represented in movies and then there's fake presidents, I guess
for lack of a better term, in movies.
Fictional I guess would be the better way to say it, fictional
presidents and non fiction presidents.
So we're going to actually, instead of just lumping them all
together, we're going to requirethat we draft 3 each from each
(03:11):
of those from the real presidents and from the
fictional ones. So we don't have to do them in
any sort of order so we can. Draft.
All of our real ones are all of our fake ones.
Are say we should do our our mixit up for presidents 1st and
then we'll do, we'll do. That no, I think we just mix it
up. OK, all right, fun everyone.
Take who you want to take, when you want to take them and we'll
(03:33):
slot them into the categories. But by the end of by the end of
each of our 6 picks, we have to have three in each, I think.
But before we get into that, what what is better are?
Are real presidents in movies better or fictional ones?
I don't know man. It's tough, you know.
It is. It is because I think I think
(03:55):
historical presidents can give an actor so much room for a
great performance. Like we see with Lewis here in
Lincoln for what she won an Oscar.
But I feel like there's just something really fun about
fictional presidents and puttingthem in a situation that the
president. Would, yeah.
Probably never find themselves in yeah or or do things that you
(04:18):
that the president would never do so yeah, I think I might have
to lean fictional president personally just because it's fun
for sure yeah, yeah. It just leaves the door open for
for so many more like like they get what's that movie that's
coming out soon called. I think it's called heads of
state where it's like John Cena's the president of the
United States and Andrews Elba'sthe Prime Minister of the UK.
(04:40):
And it's like a it's like an action comedy where they have to
fight off terrorists together. And it looks really fun.
I kind of, I kind of want to seeit, but but especially with, you
know, John Cena kind of being a bit of a bumbling idiot and
yourself was like the straight man kind of.
Yeah, trying to trying to be allserious.
So. But yeah, just stuff like that.
Like you can't, you can't like you wouldn't, you can't have
(05:02):
like Abraham Lincoln in a situation like that.
So. Right.
You know. Right.
Yeah, it it's fun. I think fictional presidents are
definitely more fun and we'll we'll definitely get into.
I like that you pulled an example that is not eligible
because it's not released yet. So getting nice with that
because I can't. Even give any examples, It's not
on my list. I can't give him the trailer.
(05:24):
And I was like, yeah, exactly. I'm going to.
Draft the trailer. I'm going.
To draft the president in this movie trailer?
No, not not allowed. Yeah, I agree.
I think, I think there are some fun real president stuff that
(05:44):
that we might get into dependingon how the draft goes.
But yeah, I think when you're when you're dealing with
fictional, fictional material, it can be fun, but it also can
be like you can explore scenarios that didn't happen
most time. Most of the time when you have
(06:04):
like a real president in movie, it's like you're exploring the
real things that happened. And I think even if it's not
like a fun movie, a more like a more serious drama, you're able
to like maybe explore some scenarios that haven't happened
to our real president. So and.
It's crazy because I think we wecould have split this into a 1/3
(06:24):
category because you have your fictional presidents, then you
have your historical presidents.You could have split that into
two where it's like historical presidents historically
portrayed, right, versus historical presidents non
historically portrayed, right. Like whether it be a comedy or
you know, or, or like, you know,oh, what if kind of situation.
(06:48):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I, I, so I think, I think we're pretty much on the same
page with that. But yeah, I don't think, you
know, usually I'll we'll talk about like, oh, what criteria
did we use for making our list? Well, we just looked at what
presidents we we've seen in. Movies.
I was actually surprised that I expected to find a lot more
(07:10):
options than I did, but yeah. Me too.
There's but there's honestly like there's a whole Wikipedia.
You can, there's a whole Wikipedia page if you're
interested in looking at this onyour own, but where you can just
type actors that have played presidents in movies.
Well, actors and actresses. But, and there's just like a
(07:31):
whole Wikipedia page. So it has like fictional
representation, fictional presidents.
It has the real presidents and the real presidents it lists
like in chronological order and like all the people that have
played them and what movie it was.
And so it's pretty cool. There's like, there's a decent
amount of them, but when you look through the list you're
like, I've never heard of like 90% of these movies.
(07:53):
Yeah, well, and it's also reallyinteresting, like, like you're
Abraham Lincoln's or you're JohnF Kennedy's have like a bunch of
people have played them. But then someone like, like
George Washington, not that manyoptions.
No. Yeah.
You know, I think it's all like one guy that played Grover
(08:13):
Cleveland in some some random TVdocumentary thing one time, you
know, just yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of
Lincoln's, there's a lot of Nixon's, there's a few JFK's,
but other than that, like most of the presidents don't have a
lot of options. Yeah, like one or two maybe.
Just aren't. I mean Nixon and Lincoln.
I I think, I mean JFK, obviously, you know, with his
(08:39):
assassination, that's kind of interesting.
But I but I do feel like Lincolnand Nixon are the two that give
an actor the most to work with for.
Very opposite reasons. Yes, yeah, It's also really
interesting, especially like I was looking at the list for
Nixon and just like the range ofactors that have played that him
(09:01):
in different scenarios was really fascinating.
Yeah, yeah, I know for. Me my my criteria is that I
usually try and pick movies I'veactually seen because that's why
I wanna I wanna, I wanna have some conviction behind my voice,
but. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
definitely not picking movies that I haven't seen.
I don't, I've never done that before.
(09:23):
And, you know, I, I don't foresee any scenario where that
would happen because typically, like, I don't like, suggest a
draft if I don't even have enough movies to draft in it.
So yeah, I'm trying to remember.I'm going back because we did a
Christian Bale movie draft last time you were on.
(09:44):
And you, yeah, you chose first for that one.
So I'm looking at it right now #1 Patrick Bateman, the JP.
So you took the first pick in that one, so.
And I still lost. My turn.
Still lost that track that's. True, I thought he would take
you a long way. American Psycho, Christian Bale.
(10:05):
But. I think enough.
I don't think enough people haveseen it outside of the.
Beach. Maybe not, maybe not.
Yeah, definitely like a cinephile favorite, I guess.
Or letterbox bro favorite. I don't know.
I mean, I think I didn't really get it.
Like I don't think I'd ever watch that movie again, but I
did appreciate the context for the memes.
(10:26):
Yeah, say that. Yeah, Yeah.
And the acting is good. Oh yeah, I mean, he's great.
Absolutely for sure. Also, we'll all right.
It's hilarious. All right, this is tough.
Really, really tough. I don't I don't know.
So there's so I'll say this, there's an upcoming draft that
there's a little bit of overlap with.
(10:48):
And I have AII know that like there's a pick I made in that
one that like I wish I could have back.
And I might go ahead and just like start this draft off by
making up for that future draft that no one's heard.
(11:10):
And I might go ahead and pick Peter Sellers as the president
and Doctor Strangelove as my first fictional president.
So, yeah, I just think, I mean, so Peter Sellers in that movie,
(11:31):
obviously he plays three parts. He plays the the titular Dr.
Strangelove. You.
I'm assuming you've seen Doctor Strangelove.
Actually, I actually haven't. It's always been on my list.
It's one of the movies that's always on my list, but yeah.
Never got so I'll say this I I only saw it for the first time.
(11:53):
I can't remember if it was two years ago or I think it was two
years ago maybe. I haven't seen it since.
So I've only seen it the one time.
But man, Peter Sellers plays, I mean he put so he plays the
titular Dr. Strangelove. He plays President Merkin
Muffley and he plays captain Lion, old man Drake.
(12:15):
He's playing three different characters in this movie and
he's just like incredible hilarious.
There's this. You can look up the scene on
YouTube. It it would, it's not like
spoiler or anything, but it's him.
I guess a little bit to this thescenario, you can probably
figure out what the scenario is for the movie.
The movie is like 60 years old. Yeah, he's, he's on the phone
(12:38):
with, I can't remember the name of the, the Russian guy he's on
the phone with, but the it's like this hilarious phone call
about like, hey, you know, some of our guys went rogue and
there's some bombs on the way orwhatever, potentially.
And, you know, there's this likeback and forth of like kind of
(13:00):
satirical back and forth of like, you know, you know, well,
obviously I'm calling because this is important, you know, and
then he's like, well, yeah, of course I would have called just
to talk. You know, we we're, you know,
we're, we're friends, you know, of course I would.
So it's like this really hilarious back and forth.
Great scene. He's just great in the movie.
I want to give big props to thatand maybe make up for a
(13:21):
potential future snafu that I made in a future draft that you
will find out when it comes. So yeah, so that's what I'm
going to go with. Doctor Strangelove, Fake
president Number one pick. Interesting.
I think it's a good one. I think, I think I'm also going
(13:42):
to have to start with my my first fake president, OK.
And I I feel like I got to go with possibly the greatest
fictional president ever. I got to go with Bill Pullman as
Thomas Whitmore on Independence Day.
OK. I mean, quite possibly, yeah.
(14:04):
One of the greatest fictional president portrayals of all
time. Phenomenal movie.
I mean, his whole speech about And they will know this is our
Independence Day. I mean it's.
Great, I watched it on YouTube the other day.
Is it your first time seeing it?No, no.
Oh. OK, OK, OK.
(14:24):
You just have to watch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was.
Trying to like, it's been a while since I've seen it.
And I was like, OK, let me go and watch some, like, YouTube
scenes of, like some of these presidents.
And that pulled that one up. And I was like, oh, this is
still good. Yeah.
Even out of context. And, and, and I love that he's,
you know, he's just a like, it'sjust a solid portrayal.
(14:45):
He's just a solid character. You know, he cares about people,
just, you know, everything you could want in a in a president.
And which makes them all the more fictional, actually.
I guess so. Sure.
Sad. Sad, but true.
But I think I got to go with Thomas Whitmore from
Independence Day. Yeah, it's great.
Yeah, great pick. I I, I think we're the it's it's
(15:09):
not I don't know that he's wouldbe he's well, obviously he's
not. I picked a different fake
president first, but fictional president.
But even a even Strangelove aside, I think there might be
another like big one that I don't know.
(15:30):
So I do have to do another pick and I'm struggling like, do I
go? I, I don't think I'll, I think
I'm going to stick in the fictional president realm
because I think that's where like, we're both like really
trying to snatch guys up. And I'm not really sure like
where you're going to go with real presidents.
(15:50):
And so I'm going to, I'm going to go, it's OK.
This is where it gets tough because there's four fake
presidents I really would love to have.
And one of them I don't think you're going to pick, but all
(16:12):
but another one I think you might pick.
And so I'm struggling of like, OK, do I want to get the one
that you might pick or do I wantto like, take the 1?
I don't think you will and leavethe one for you.
So at least both of them are on our list.
Minds games what the mind games are all about, it's.
You know, it's killing me. OK, this is what I'm going to
(16:37):
do. I'm going to pick this one at
the risk of leaving off a reallygreat one from my list that I
want. But I'm going to go the more
like this is a great one that isalso going to be a crowd
pleaser. I'm going to pick President
James Marshall from Air Force One, Harrison Ford.
(17:00):
You know, the the line, get off my plane.
Oh, so good. So classic, yeah.
So that's what I'm going with. Great Harrison Ford action
President performance. Surprisingly, he has not played.
I could have sworn he's played more presidents, but apparently,
well, apparently the only other one he's played is President
(17:24):
Thaddeus Ross. Yeah.
Embracing what's? Referring to, unfortunately.
Yeah, yeah. I was like, when I saw him on
the list, I was like, is that really the only few times he's
played a president? Yeah, OK.
He just feels so presidential, You know, he's got, he's got
that presidential finger. Yeah, yeah, he's, I mean, it's,
(17:44):
it's great. I'm glad we have a Harrison Ford
president and I'm glad to have him on my list.
So it's been a long time since I've seen that movie.
So definitely pulled up some YouTube clips to refresh on that
one. Well, I think, I think I need to
go with a fictional president for Round 2 because I, I really
want to lock this one in for me because I'm, I'm really wanting
(18:08):
to win this draft this time, youknow?
OK, so, so I think another one that I think a lot of people
probably will have fond memoriesof.
And it is from a movie that if you haven't seen it, maybe don't
watch it because it might depress you a little bit
actually. OK.
I think I got to go. I think I got to go with Terry
Crews as President Camacho from from Idiocracy.
(18:32):
I'm so glad you picked this. I I think, I think it's, you
know, it's, it's one of those movies that is so far ahead of
its time. And if you watched it right now,
today, in 2025, you'll yeah, it'll, it'll probably leave you
with with quite a, quite a mood,but yeah, yeah.
I think Terry Crews love the man.
(18:54):
He's oh, man, he's so funny. He's so funny and.
What's his full name? Cuz he said like gosh, I'd.
Have to, I'd have. To I know Mountain Dew is in
there, President. Something something mountain.
Dew Camacho one second. Oh man, it's great.
It is. Luke Wilson too.
(19:19):
Luke Wilson in it. Yes.
You could also please President not sure played on Luke Wilson.
Yes, yes, his. Full name is Dwayne Elizondo.
Mountain Dew. A bear Camacho or Herbert
Camacho? I don't know if it's a bear or
Herbert. It's probably Herbert because,
yeah, I don't imagine it's not. Cajun by Cajun.
(19:43):
Yeah. Yeah.
Quite the quite the name. Quite the name.
Yeah. I love it.
And he is. He's hilarious.
He's so funny. Great pick.
It's it's definitely like one ofthose like mid 2000s comedies
that. It kind of like on the radar
thing. Yeah, it got lost, but also
it's, I was going to say it's one of those where it's like, I
(20:05):
don't know that some of these jokes would have gotten written
today, but, you know, a little bit, a little bit dated in that
way, but yeah. And in other ways, like yeah,
very fun movie. Actually had seen like parts of
this in the past, but I did actually watch it like a couple
weeks ago because I knew this was coming up and I love Terry
(20:28):
Crews. So I was like, let me see if I
want to take a Terry Crews president, but but alas, you got
it, So I don't. I don't know that I was going to
take it honestly, but. Hello again.
Do you know how you can really support the show for free in
just a few minutes or less? That's right, just leave a
(20:50):
rating and review on Spotify andApple or wherever you listen
that might allow for ratings andreviews.
These really help the visibilityof the podcast.
In fact, just hit that pause button right now and drop the
review right now and then you can get back to the show.
I'd greatly appreciate it. OK, I trust that you when left
(21:15):
that rating and review. Now back to the show.
All right, my I guess I think I'm going to save my other fake
president for now or fictional. I keep saying fake.
It's more fun to say fake president because I do have two
fictional ones that I still want.
(21:36):
But so I have two options there.I'm going to go to the real
president realm and I'm going totake performance that I thought
was really incredible. It's a very like, it's a 1
scene. It's a recent performance and it
(21:59):
is Harry S Truman in Oppenheimer, played by Gary
Oldman. Just like knocks it out of the
park in one scene. So good.
Apparently a very like historically accurate
conversation, you know, I mean, like it's behind closed doors,
(22:22):
but like things that were said are noted in history.
Like the whole like, I don't want to see that crybaby, you
know, scientist again, like that's actually like documented.
He said some something like that.
So like just like, and Gary Oldman, just one of those guys
that just transforms into somebody else.
(22:46):
Yeah, I'll say this like I don'tknow a whole ton about President
Harry S Truman, but I'll tell you this, after watching him in
this scene, 1 scene in this movie, I don't like the dude.
So, yeah, great, great performance by old man there and
(23:07):
Oppenheimer and yeah, yeah. Great pick.
And yeah, I got to say I I love seeing him pop up in that movie.
Fun fact about Gary Oldman is hehas played so many characters
with different accents that he actually had to relearn his
native accent because he forgot what it was.
(23:28):
That's wild. Yeah, he's great.
I think, man, I man, one of these days maybe you'll do a
movie where you could just do a Gary Oldman draft and that would
be such a fun list to go. Through yeah, yeah, that would
be. Cool.
I love him. And AS Jean Baptiste Zorg or
whatever his name is in Fifth Element, probably one of my
(23:48):
favorites. But yeah, that's a good option.
That was that was one I was I had on my list.
But you know, you got to it first.
So that's how the game works, folks.
That's how the game works. So all right.
Well, I think I'll also go aheadand throw my first historical
president in there. I think this is going to be, I'd
say probably a childhood favorite.
(24:11):
This comes from a movie that my family and I would watch every
year on July 4th. You know, so I grew up in a
musical. I grew up in a family where we
watched musicals all the time. Pretty much everyone else in my
family plays some kind of instrument except for me.
And one of my favorite musicals because I love History, has
(24:34):
Always been 1776, which has quite a few people who would
become presidents in it. But my favorite is kind of the
central character and the stand out.
I'm gonna go with William Daniels.
It's John Adams from 1776. OK, never seen it.
Yeah, it's great. It's great and he is great.
(24:55):
It's the same, the same actor that plays.
I'm gonna date myself here because I'm not super familiar
with the show, but Boy meets Worlds.
What's the name of the teacher that's like lives next door to
him that's like his? Buddy, Mr. Feeney, Yeah.
Yes, same actor. That's that guy plays William
Adams. That's him.
(25:16):
That's him. And he plays John Adams in you
know, this is one of those movies where I tell the audience
listening to this, if you're nota big fan of musicals, totally
understand. I do think it'd be, you know,
it's worth the while of like just maybe looking up some
scenes. I think he played John Adams on
the stage play and then they they also had him play John
(25:36):
Adams in the the film version which they shot in 1976 for the
that would have been what the tricentennial bicentennial.
Yes. Bicentennial Bicentennial
because it was 18761976 so. Yeah, 1976.
Yep. So I think a lot of the cast are
(25:59):
where people from the stage playthat got transferred over to the
film version. But it's fun and and it's a
movie that it's like kind of on a short list of like if I ever
got an opportunity to remake a film, I think an updated version
of something like 1776 would kind of be cool.
Yeah. Maybe even Spielberg wanted to
do an update and like he did with West Side Story.
I think that'd be really fun. Yeah.
(26:20):
So yeah. So is it like, is it like filmed
on sets or like is it? Yeah, filmed on a.
Stage. It's not.
Yeah, it's on sets. It's so it's not like Hamilton,
right? It's the recording of Hamilton
where it's just a stage play recorded.
No, it's like on actual sets. Most of it takes place within
(26:43):
the confines of the the buildingwhich the first Congressional
Congress or Continental Congresstook place.
A lot of that makes sense. Takes place just in that main
room cuz it's it's all centered around the debates about the
Declaration of Independence is kind of the main focus of the
makes sense of the film. Yeah, cool.
(27:06):
Yeah, Yeah, I've never seen it, but I might have to check it out
now. It's a fun, it's a fun 4th of
July watch for sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm still watching
with Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
My wife and I did like Musicals of March, so we watched a bunch
of musicals in March. But yeah, we're always down for
(27:26):
another one. Yeah, OK.
This is where it gets tough. I'm going to go ahead.
I'm just going to go ahead and do this, take another real
president, but in a, in a more like fictional portrayal.
So this is one of those that like could fall into a whole
(27:49):
another category, but we're onlydoing the two I'm going to I'm
going to take trying to find theactor's name.
I'm going to take Robert V Baronplaying Abraham Lincoln and Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I was full score.
And checks. Watch 7 minutes ago.
(28:13):
Love it man man love love this movie.
My wife really hoping that was going to be a dark horse, one
that you somehow didn't know about, you know, Yeah.
I thought I was really, really pulling something from from from
deep when I found out what that guy's dating.
But yeah. And I mean, you gotta think.
(28:34):
Be excellent to each other and party.
Excellent dude. Yeah.
Yeah, it's great. It it's phenomenal.
It's and, you know, you got to you got to give real props to
this particular Lincoln because he goes to the future.
He sees how everything's turned out and he still, like, goes
back and just like, does exactlywhat he was supposed to do, you
(28:57):
know, Because I mean, if he didn't, you know, things would.
Affect. Yeah, Butterfly.
Effects and he, you know, he sticks to his convictions, just
like in the movie Lincoln that we talked about last week, which
I should mention. People might be wondering why
has no one taken Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln yet?
Because this is like a memorial draft for that movie.
(29:19):
We like set it aside. It's it's like the main, it's it
is the number 1 I think. I think typically when we do
that question, when we do drafts, we don't do that
whatever movie we're talking about exactly so.
So just, but just in case anyonewas listening and didn't know
that I, I forgot to mention it at the front, but yeah, Lincoln
(29:43):
obviously, I think would have been really high up on both of
our choices and would have been taken by now.
But yeah, it's set aside for thesake of we discussed it last
time, so. Yeah, All right.
OK, so I see, I see. All right, You're playing,
playing a little dirty here, butit's all right.
It's all right, I think. Well, in that same van, I'll do
(30:04):
another historical president, but a non historical portrayal
And look, you know him, you lovehim.
I gotta go with Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt from night at
the museum. He is just such a such a lovely
presence in in all all of the films the night.
(30:27):
I can't believe they made three of those movies, but.
I can't either. I don't think I've ever seen the
the other two. Maybe they've seen the second
one. I've probably seen the second
one, but not the third one. But I I do have some fond
memories of the first one being like a movie I liked when I was
younger. So especially I think my
favorite scene is is no, it's the United States of don't touch
(30:50):
that thing in front of you like that.
That's the line that always sticks with me.
But but yeah, I just, you know, Teddy, like Robin Williams,
Teddy in these movies, he's justa very warm like, like figure,
Yeah, who kind of is a, is a bitof a of a mentor, so to speak,
for Ben Stiller's character. And yeah, I just and a great
(31:12):
likeness too, I think, to the real Teddy Roosevelt.
And I think, you know, RIP RobinWilliams gone too soon.
You know, we we are still recording this during men's
mental health month specifically, so June.
So definitely want to say, like anyone listening out there,
especially with the men out there, like if you're struggling
with things like, you know, reach out to your friends, to
your family, let them know. But man, it's, it's yeah.
(31:37):
There's just something about like the funniest people are the
ones who who are dealing with the most, you know, and it and
it and it also, I love a role like this where like, yes, he
has an opportunity to be funny, but also you get to see another
side of Robin Williams too. And I and it it makes you wonder
what other kinds of performanceswe could have gotten from him
had he still been with us. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
(32:00):
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, great pick.
It was on my list of real presidents, my short kind of
short list. But yeah, that would have been
the other like fictional portrayal of a real president
that I would have picked. I might have.
(32:20):
I might have gone that. I probably would have gone that
way if you had gone Bill and Tedbefore me.
But yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to go back to the
fictional president. Well, I've made-up my mind who
I'm going to take. And it is a president that might
(32:41):
feel a little bit too familiar to our current situation today.
And you can only wonder what would happen if, you know,
aliens from Mars came to Earth under our current
administration. Have no idea what would happen,
(33:01):
but but yeah, I'm taking Jack Nicholson playing President Dale
and Tim Burton's Mars Attacks. Have you seen Mars Attacks?
I have and he was also on my list, which means I now need to
find another fictional presidentoption because I only had four
and he took two of them. So oh man, OK.
(33:25):
It's all good. It's all good.
We'll figure this out all. Right, you have.
If you don't have anybody, I canswitch.
We'll we'll no, no, no at the end of the draft.
That's right. I got another one.
I got. Yeah, I got.
I got. You do OK.
Yeah. Well, I'll figure it out.
All right, well, that's that's my pick.
I mean, Jack Nicholson is great in this role.
(33:48):
He's like, if you haven't seen the movie, so like it's really
like crazy. Tim Burton just like going nuts.
Yeah, very like, yeah, there's alot of wild stuff that happens
in this movie. One of the like the funniest
things though, is that the general like the I guess the
(34:09):
head military guys, like we got to kill these fools.
These these Martians are like crazy.
We just need to kill them. And President Dale, he's he's
like trying to befriend them andit just like it doesn't go
anywhere, like because they're here to take over.
And yeah, he meets, he has quitethe fate.
(34:34):
President Dale, after a a wonderful speech that is full of
a full of not like profound nothings, I guess you could say.
So yeah, yeah, that's my third fake president.
(34:54):
I'm leaving a really good one that I don't think you're out.
You would take this one. I don't think you, I don't know
if you've seen the movie. But anyway, I'll I'll leave you
to take your second to last. One might, might, might have to
at this point. So I think I'll go ahead and
wrap up my my fictional presidents.
And I think the other option I got to go with that I just
(35:15):
reminded myself of from a movie that I don't necessarily think
it was. It's like one of the people that
you watch it, you're like, I don't think this is as good or
as smart as people think it is. But did kind of feel very
relevant the year it came out. And even now in some ways still
does. I think I gotta go with Meryl
(35:36):
Streep as President Orlean from Don't Look Up.
Yeah, I'm glad you took this because we needed a female
president on here. Yeah, yeah.
You know, there, there are some,there are some out there.
You know, I, I, I was kind of interested in seeing.
I think Viola Davis is in this movie called G20 where she's a,
she's the president in the G20 summit, gets taken over by
(35:58):
terrorists and she has to fight them.
I've heard it's terrible, but I do like Viola Davis.
So look, yeah, I kind of still want to watch it.
Yeah. I mean you and Anthony.
Homelander himself, Anthony Starr is is the bad guy, but.
But yeah, I have Angela Bassett in the newest Mission
Impossible. That's true.
I haven't seen it, but that is true.
(36:19):
But yeah, I do. I mean, I love Meryl Streep.
Great actress, probably one of the best of all time.
And I think I yeah, I think she really, she really nails her
character who's just this kind of very in some ways kind of
Trumpian, but but maybe a littlebit more intelligent and
(36:39):
intentionally kind of foolish. And.
And of course, like her death scene at the end is like really,
really funny. Yeah.
For sure. And.
Like has like really good comedic chops.
Like she plays really well off of Jonah Hill, who's like her, I
guess assistant or something like that in the movie of sorts.
(36:59):
Yeah. You wouldn't ever like, think.
Oh yeah, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill, that's a pair.
That's a pair that I'm looking forward to.
But actually they play off each other really well.
And I think she is a strong point of the movie for sure for
Don't look like Don't Look Up asone of those movies where like
(37:20):
some of it works and some of it doesn't.
And I I wasn't like super. I wasn't as negative as many
people were on the movie. I thought it was fine.
But yeah, she's definitely a strong point.
Meryl Streep, President. What's her name in the movie
President? Orlean Orlean Orlean Orlean,
(37:42):
ORLEAN. Yeah.
Hi. Quick reminder that you yes, you
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(38:03):
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And not only will you be helpingme keep the show going, but
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Might even let you choose a movie for me to review for the
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notes to learn more. Back to the show.
OK, I have to take another real president.
This is my last pick. I do have like a few options
left, two stronger options, and I think I'm going to go with one
(38:53):
that's probably not very. This isn't going to get me any
votes, I don't think in the poll.
But it's I've caught up with it in preparation for this and was
just kind of like blown away by the performance.
But I'm going to play Philip Baker Hall portraying Richard
Milhouse Nixon and Secret Honor.Robert Altman's movie Secret
(39:17):
Honor. So this is a movie that is, I'm
pretty sure adapted from a stageplay and it's literally Nixon.
Philip Baker Hall's Nixon is theonly person in the whole movie.
It's just him and his little like study and the, the, it's,
it's a fictional premise, but it's, it's all based on like who
(39:40):
Nixon was and what we know abouthim and, and all that.
And it's basically him like recording the, the it's
basically him recording like a memoir of him, like defending
himself. So this is like post post
Watergate, post resigning post like all this stuff.
(40:03):
And it's basically like him defending himself and there's.
It's this interesting hour and ahalf long monologue by 1 actor
in one room with the camera following him around with
different angles. And it's just really a really,
really interesting movie. A really, really interesting
(40:25):
like exploration of like, what are these men like Richard Nixon
all like, what happened to thesemen?
Why are they the way they are? And you're, you're kind of
looking at him exploring like his psyche at the end of his
like, era of power. And, you know, there's moments
(40:50):
where like there's moments of even a little bit of sympathy,
but it's kind of like this exploring like, OK, yeah,
there's there's certain like things from this person's
background that maybe made them who they are, but it, it doesn't
excuse those things, but it explores them.
(41:10):
And so it's it's really, really good.
I really enjoyed it. I thought Phillip Baker Hall was
really, really, I mean, to to bein an hour and a half long movie
and you're the only one on screen in one room.
Like you really have to go all out.
And he's really, really good in it.
So yeah, that's what I'm going to pick from Secret Honor.
(41:34):
Yeah, it is. The only place it's streaming is
Criterion Channel. But yeah, I haven't seen very
many Robert Altman movies. He's one of those blind spots
that a very well like, well respected director that I just
haven't seen enough of his movies.
(41:54):
So yeah, this made me want to check out some more so.
Yeah, great. OK.
I think for my my last pick, my last historical president, yeah,
I want to go with with a performance that from from an
(42:16):
actor that I love and pretty much everything that he does.
I think he's one of the best to ever do it and a performance
you're probably very familiar with and probably talked about
very recently. I want to go with Sir Anthony
Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in Amistad.
Like I said, I I haven't seen Amistad in a while, but I do
(42:39):
remember his performance being being great and I love Anthony
Hopkins and pretty much anythinghe does so.
Yeah, I, I don't. So the thing about that movie is
like, I don't like how he's maybe used necessarily in the
movie, but like his portrayal and like his acting isn't the
(42:59):
problem. Like he's phenomenal in the
part. So my my problem would be more
like just like how it's used in the movie and all that.
But but yeah, great. I mean, great real president
pick for sure. And at the at the point at that
point in the movie, he's not president, but that's because
(43:22):
he's still eligible, because he was a president.
Right. I mean, 1776, John Adams isn't
president yet, right? He will, you know?
So yeah. Yeah, yeah, great, great picks.
I think we got some great lists.Any honorable mentions you want
to throw out there for for real or fictional?
Yeah, I think, you know, I, I never finished the series, but
(43:46):
I, I did really enjoy Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in
House of Cards, and I do believehe becomes president in like the
second season or whatever. Yeah, I've watched like maybe a
few episodes of that, but yeah. Yeah, and I also, I really love
Aaron Eckhart in the Fallen franchise.
(44:13):
The I get, I think he's only thepresident.
He's in the he's the president in Olympus, his Fallen and
London has fallen and by by the third film, Angel has fallen.
Morgan Freeman's character is ispresident.
Gotcha. But but in the first film
especially, I think I think he does a pretty solid job.
(44:36):
You know, he he's very, very presidential.
I think he has a very presidential face, like he has a
politician. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, and, and he's one of those actors where I'm like,
man, I, I don't know why his career is kind of falling off in
the way that he that it has, butyou know, I, I guess it happens
to everybody. And I think, yeah, I think, I
(45:00):
think that's, that's kind of theones I can really think of.
I think I, there's a few more I kept seeing pop up on like every
single list that that I looked at.
But and then maybe I I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that
Sebastian Stan is amazing in TheApprentice.
Yeah, I have also not seen that so.
So an honorable mention for myself that I need to watch
(45:21):
that, yeah. Yeah, my my honorable mentions
for I have a couple for real president.
So have you seen the movie Selma?
Maybe. Maybe like bits and pieces but.
Yeah, a really good movie, but Tom Wilkinson plays Lyndon B
(45:46):
Johnson in that movie. Really, really good performance
in that. And then I also watched John
Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda playing Abraham
Lincoln kind of in the beginnings of his career as a
lawyer and politician. And it's pretty good.
It I didn't love it, but but it's a good movie.
(46:10):
It's, you know, 1939 John Ford movie.
So yeah. And I did I.
Didn't count era, you know, Yeah.
For sure, I didn't count this aslike a proper movie, even though
I really wanted to take either Christopher Jackson as George
Washington or Davey Diggs as Thomas Jefferson in the
(46:33):
recording of Hamilton, though either of those could have been
my very first pick if but I was like, it's kind of in that Gray
area of I think it I think it's doing enough with the camera
where you can count it as a movie.
But I'll just leave it and do anhonorable mention, you know?
Yeah, especially who plays George Washington.
(46:57):
I just said his name and now I've forgotten.
All right. Christopher Jackson.
So. Freaking good.
I mean I love W digs as as Thomas Jefferson, but I think.
I would have picked Washington, yeah.
I actually think I prefer him asLafayette in the the first half.
Yeah. But yeah, but Christopher
Jackson as Washington, his voice, the way he he performs
(47:19):
those songs, like in my mind. And I I'd also say like, you
know, 1776 includes quite a quite a few other presidents to
be. I mean, you got Thomas Jefferson
is in there. He plays, he's like kind of like
the main tree. The main trio is like John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
(47:40):
OK, Like that's kind of like your main, your main 3.
And then there's a bunch of other, much like Lincoln,
there's a bunch of other representatives that have like
more bit parts, but that's kind of your main kind of trifecta.
Like they have like a whole songthey do together and everything.
So. So, yeah, I think, I think it's
kind of a similar thing where there's, there's these other
(48:00):
really great performances in there.
But yeah, but yeah, surprisingly, like I said, I, I
think you know this, this draft made me realize that there's not
as many options out there as I as I would have expected.
Yeah, I feel like there's a. Lot of people would know.
Yeah, yeah, this is the so the one that I really wanted to take
and just, I don't know, I left it off my list.
(48:23):
It's probably one of my favoritemovies of all the movies we've
mentioned. I watched it last year for the
first time, Cindy Lumet's Fail Safe 1964.
Have you ever seen this movie? It's also a Henry Fonda playing
the president unnamed president in this site.
(48:44):
I did see a lot of them were called the president.
Right. Yeah, but yeah, that counts.
This movie is so freaking good. It's like a it is like a
political thriller. Where some, there's some like,
it's like Cold War era, there's some bombers that don't get a
(49:08):
certain code at a certain time and are going and their radios
are cut off. And so they, they're not getting
the directive that they're not supposed to go drop bombs on
Russia. And so and then that's, you
know, it's, it's cutting betweenall that.
And then it's just Henry Fonda with his, like, assistant in
this room with a phone, like making calls.
(49:31):
And it's just like captivating and thrilling.
And Henry Fonda is really good in it has to make a very
difficult decision at, you know,towards the end of the end of
the movie. That's very, very, very good.
And interesting last last honorable mention, you know, if
(49:51):
you want to do a 2012 Lincoln movie, you know, double feature
Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter.Or alternatively you could watch
the Asylum parody Abraham Lincoln versus Zombies, which
features like a 10 year old Teddy Roosevelt.
(50:14):
So OK, yeah, yeah, that I, I watched that one as a kid.
I think we actually rented that movie from like Blockbuster or
something or Hollywood Video back there.
Maybe it was Netflix or I don't know.
Somehow I remember we, my familyand I, we watched that movie and
at the time I think I actually preferred that over Abraham
Lincoln Vampire Hunter because Ithink it's one of those movies
(50:35):
where it's like awesome premise,terrible execution.
But I haven't seen a. Lot yeah, I've I have not heard
many. I've not heard great things
about Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, obviously, but like
it's, I feel like the vibe I getis that it's not one of those
types of bad movies that's stilllike really fun to watch.
(50:57):
Yeah, well, I mean, the the the most, it had some cool.
I haven't seen him forever, but I remember it had like some cool
action stuff. I mean, it was kind of at the
height of like 3D, so there's like some of that stuff in
there. Yeah.
I think the most interesting thing about it is, and they kind
of do this in Abraham Lincoln Versus Zombies as well as part
of the parody, is they framed the assassination by John Wilkes
(51:19):
Booth to cover for the fact thatAbraham Lincoln is infected and
he's soon to turn into a vampire.
I believe. It's been a long time since I've
seen it, but I believe that that's what the explanation is
for that. It's a little bit questionable
of a choice, but yeah. Yeah, well, but, but I think
it's, I think it's like I, I think if I remember correctly,
(51:40):
it's like John Wilkes Booth still hates Lincoln, but they
like, they like pay him to do itand like be the fall guy for it.
But he like is like, sure more than happy to do it.
Yeah. Oh, that's great.
Yeah. I mean, I think we ended up with
some great lists. I would say honestly, like if I
(52:03):
could recommend any of these movies to watch, it wouldn't
even be I would I would recommend people watch Fail Safe
because I just think it's a really great, you know, classic
Sidney Lumet movie of such classics as, you know, 12 Angry
Men and Dog Day Afternoon and yeah.
(52:23):
It sounds like Have you seen Black Sunday?
No, I haven't, but I know what you're talking about it because
it relates. It came up in Munich talking
about Munich, so. Yeah, I think I think we
actually may have talked about it during Dark Knight Rises.
Did I, I don't know if I did, I don't know or not.
(52:45):
But because it was one of the movies that they that they had
everybody watch before they did that movie The Rises.
And it it sounds there's some plot points you said that sounds
similar where it's like it's this really weird premise that
wouldn't work these days where like they get in this like blimp
and it's designed for the to drop to explode and it's going
(53:06):
to drop all these lawn darts andkill a bunch of people in this
football arena. But outside of that kind of very
1970s silly premise, it's a veryintense like movie like as far
as like how they set up the plotin like these like kind of eco
terrorists, so to speak, kind offormulating this attack.
(53:29):
And like it was it was quite it's quite tense.
It's very good. So but fail safe sounds great.
Yeah, definitely give that a watch.
Yeah, I highly, highly recommendit.
And in fact, like I was doing kind of a Sidney Lumet watch
through filling in a bunch of blind spots last year because it
was it would have been his 100thbirthday last year.
(53:50):
And I think after what I ended up with like 10 of his movies
logged and that was my favorite of all of them, even over.
Some of the lists. The Wiz?
Yep. Oh, 12 anchor men.
OK, yeah, I'm looking at his hislist right now.
Yeah. Serpico.
I've heard of a bunch of these before.
(54:11):
The devil knows you're dead. Yeah.
Yeah, great. The.
Original murder Only Orient Express.
OK, yeah, I haven't seen most ofthese, but I've definitely heard
a lot of these names. Yeah, he's just worth, he's just
worth watching through like his filmography.
He would be a great like future subject for the show for sure.
But he's, it sounds like kind oflike a like a John Mctiernan,
(54:33):
you know, where it's like just has all these random movies
that, that you kind of did that you're like, oh, I didn't know
that was his film. Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I'll read back our lists and then we'll wrap up.
So I'm not going to read them inthe order picked.
I'm just going to read through. So JP ended up with his three
(54:54):
real president picks were 1776, Night at the Museum, and
Amistad, and his three fictionalpresident picks were
Independence Day, Idiocracy, andDon't Look Up.
Great list. My picks.
My real presidents were from Oppenheimer, Bill and Ted's
(55:17):
Excellent Adventure and Secret Honor, and my fictional
presidents were from Doctor Strangelove, Air Force One, and
Mars Attacks. So 2 great lists.
I think it'll be fun to see whatwhat people go with.
I think. So I think for your list, I
(55:39):
think Independence Day and nightat the Museum are going to be
the, the, the vote pullers. I, I'm.
Hoping Idiocracy enjoyers will be like Oh yeah.
Yeah, maybe so. Maybe, maybe I'll I'm hoping for
an Air Force. One Oppenheimer pool.
That's what I'm hoping for, you know?
Yeah, probably, probably I think, but I don't know.
I think, I think Independence Day is kind.
(56:01):
Of Independence Day is a good one, yeah.
It's the bulldozer in this race for sure, but.
Yeah, I think so. I think people will buy it and
just pick your pick your optionsregardless so but we'll see.
Yeah, probably so. People love me?
I guess so. My mom always votes for me even
if she's never seen any of the movies that I picked.
(56:24):
So thanks mom. Shout out to my mom.
That's that's all we have for this week though.
You can follow JP on his Instagram or on Letterbox, which
I will link in the episode description to see what what
he's up to and what movies he's watching.
So go do that whenever you finish the show.
(56:45):
But yeah, that's all we have forthis week.
Next week we are going to jump back into Spielberg with Bridge
of Spies, the third Tom Hanks collaboration with Spielberg.
So that'll be fun. Already recorded that.
It's a good episode. So yeah, check that out next
week. But until then, I've been Eli
Price for JP Boudreaux. You've been listening to the
(57:09):
establishing shot. We'll see you next time.
We were happy here for a little while, but look, I think it was
this way. Better to be king for a night
than smoke for a lifetime.
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