Best Film Assassinations Of US Presidents

Hollywood loves killing its presidents and they have perfected the art of sending the most powerful man in the world to the other side.

As US President George Bush is awaited to come to Croatia for a state visit, this country is completely wrapped up in the matter and conversations about Bush can be hear in every café. There are all sorts of terms, from "imperialist" to "the man", and sometimes an odd lone "statesman" comes to mind, but what is on everyone`s lips is “assassination”.

Oh yes, assassination of George Bush is one of the favourite topics these days, theories are named, conspiracies revealed and snipers are under every rock. If you are interested in this sort of thing, then read the article that names the best possible way to ASSASSINATE the US president.

But, for film makers, assassinating Bush or any other US president is actually an old record. Perhaps ever since the first adaptation of the Abraham Lincoln assassination, to Oliver Stone`s “JFK”, US presidents were killed by the dozen on the big and little screen. Most of these adaptations were, truth be told, quite unimaginative because they usually tackled a buff guy who, dressed in black in broad day light, swings a cool riffle on the forehead of the most powerful politician.

- Yeah, right! – millions of film fans throughout the world would think and continue eating their pop corn.

But there were examples when Hollywood made an effort to create an assassination of its president worthy of their reputation and power. Let`s take a look at some of the best Hollywood assassinations of US presidents!

Gun as pendant

On a serious note now, with Clint Eastwood`s classic “In the Line of Fire”, as the legendary film maker does his best to prevent John Malkovich (Mitch Leary), an ingenious psychopath who is quite hung up on murdering the US president. As a former CIA agent, Leary is a master of disguise, determined in his cause and because of his mental instability, he practically feels no fear. During the thrilling plot, he demonstrated his elusiveness several times training and cunningness, while his greatest invention is a make-shift gun. Leary placed parts of the gun all over his body and the synthetic material which he used solved the metal detector issue. Two bullets could fit into this stealth weapon, in case the first one could not deliver. And where did he fit the bullets? Leary, a cunning little fox, put them in a key pendant, which activate metal detectors anyways and cause no suspicion. When he successfully sneaked at the party. Also attended by the president, our hero simply had to arrange all the parts of his gun and aim well. If it were not for Clint, who cannot be fooled by anyone, of course, his plan just might have worked.

Hypnotised hero

If you crave something paranoid, then this is the right film for you: “The Manchurian Candidate”. Laurence Harvey and his unit were taken hostage by the Soviets during the Korean War. In stead of torturing and then executing them, as you do, the evil commies had a much more malicious plan. Using advanced hypnosis techniques, the Soviets first completely brainwashed the US soldiers and then loaded their brains with fake memories. According to the Russian script, their unit barely survived the fight against their enemy and Harvey was their saviour. Lawrence was given different programme, which would be activated with a poker card. Once it is activated, Lawrence would perform every order which he would subsequently forget. When he is given the Medal of Honour for rescuing his unit, Lawrence starts climbing up the social and political ladder which makes him distinguished. He then has to follow orders to kill the American president. If it were not for Sinatra, the communists would have made it and in stead of hot dogs, we would now be eating Borscht!

Neighbours from Mars

If all previous plans fail, you can always seek interplanetary help and Martians proved to be an ideal choice. In Tim Burton`s “Mars Attacks”, all you need is a silly US president (Jack Nicholson) who decides to ceremonially welcome the prominent interplanetary guests without giving it a second thought. At first everything runs smoothly, but big-headed Martian soon show their real intentions. Using laser guns which turn their victims into skeletons, they first disintegrate the dove of peace and then the flabbergasted US president is next. In the end, the world was not saved by a large amount of nuclear bombs, but common yodelling which makes the Martians` heads explode. Long live the Alps!

Demonic mutants

If you think all of this is a bit ridiculous, then you have “X-Men”, a group of mutants with special powers. While some can fly, others bend bars with their hands, Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) can teleport himself, leaving behind just a cloud of sulphur. As Secret Service agents hopelessly try to stop him, this mutant beats the daylights out of them, appearing behind their back, on walls – everywhere. Well, try to aim at that…

Film experts have surely noticed that these attempts have mostly failed, but no errors were in question. As real film buffs, we were not interested in the mission`s success, but the amount of film dust that was spent in trying to assassinate the most powerful man in the world. Most powerful, of course, after Chuck Norris.