The Hunting of the President (2004) – DVD

**½/**** Image A Sound A Extras B-
directed by Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry

by Walter Chaw Galling to the abused outrage assimilator is Nickolas Perry's and Harry Thomason's The Hunting of the President, based on a book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons (subtitled The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton) in which the "massive right-wing conspiracy" is given a face (Kenneth Starr) and an agenda. Eighty million of our taxpayer dollars were funnelled into discovering whether or not our then-Commander-and-Chief got a blowjob in the Oval Office. I wonder how many of us would trade that worry for the ones we have now? Probably not enough. The horror of it all is the general horror of it all: the idea that justice in the United States has become a plaything for the rich and powerful. Worse is that I begin to wonder if it hasn't always been this way (presidents getting hummers under the Lincoln Archway; presidents hiring their undergrad boosters to decide how to distribute reconstruction money in a country we've summarily invaded)–whether corruption and constitutional manipulation knows no party lines.

The greatest irony of the popularity of "The Daily Show" is that "The Daily Show" mocks both sides and the source of the laughter is, not surprisingly, always the same. What aches about the film is the treatment of Susan McDougal, who was sent to prison for contempt of court, according to McDougal, for not repeating what the Republican-appointed witch-hunters were feeding her. The rest of it you watch with an arched eyebrow; The Hunting of the President is virulently, unapologetically left-wing. There's nothing like balance in the piece–it doesn't even pretend to portray a different viewpoint, and while it has no obligation to do so, it also makes for a film that's unlikely to shake one side or the other much from their respective baselines. So, $80M later and we have ironclad proof that after two terms of a thriving domestic policy and at least better esteem in the world's eye, Clinton received oral sex. Thank God that's out in the open. What the picture, clumsy though no clumsier than Fahrenheit 9/11, does best is speak to the intelligentsia on both sides of the aisle–to their disillusionment, despair, and fatigue.

THE DVD
by Bill Chambers Fox presents the digital video production The Hunting of the President on DVD in a direct-from-tape (and stunningly clear) 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The elements themselves are stable and artifact-free, except of course during footage culled from library sources. Audio is in Dolby Surround and similarly pristine, though the mix consists almost exclusively of dialogue and Bruce Miller's simplistically ominous score. The disc includes a trailer and a 43-minute post-screening address from one William Jefferson Clinton, who's joined two-thirds of the way through by a moderator fruitlessly trying to back Clinton into a Q&A. Good ol' boy Harry Thomason (co-creator of "Designing Women" and "Evening Shade") gets called to the front soon after the former President exits stage left but refuses to say anything for fear of treating Clinton like his warm-up act. The camera then lingers for an interminably long time as people file out of the theatre. In other words, it looks to have been produced by someone on the A/V crew, but the chatty Clinton is well-miked enough that his false modesty is transparent. ("What do I know? I'm just some guy from Arkansas.") All things considered, although his monologue is definitely worth a listen for his self-described "history of the right-wing movement in America," Thomason and (Nickolas) Perry were wise to interview everybody but Clinton for their documentary: However justifiable, there's a conspicuous chip on his shoulder that doesn't flatter his posture.

89 minutes; NR; 1.78:1 (16×9-enhanced); English Dolby Surround; CC; English, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Fox