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A post by Maynard

I need to make a confession: I’m one of those pseudointellectuals who attends art-house films. I’m a (pardon my French) connoisseur of a few of those abstract, brooding, pretentious movies. Sometimes I find myself defending shows that my fellow travelers in the vast right-wing conspiracy seem to unanimously condemn.

I’m also against censorship, and I think most of my right-wing comrades are with me on this one. We must defeat bad ideas by tackling them head-on, rather than silencing them.

Even so, some things are so vile and disgusting that it is necessary and appropriate to protest. The British mock-documentary, “Death of a President”, falls into this category. It depicts the fictional assassination of President Bush. Here are a few excerpts from a FoxNews editorial report, Bush ‘Death’ Film: Placing a Target on the President?, which is worth reading in its entirety.

In “Death of a President,” George W. Bush is murdered after making a speech in Chicago on Oct. 19, 2007…

After Bush is killed and Dick Cheney becomes president, it takes about seven months for law enforcement to arrest a Syrian-American for the assassination. He’s tried and convicted. In the meantime, we meet a black soldier recently returned from Iraq. He is initially suspected but later dismissed. Then it turns out his brother died in the war, and their distraught father has killed himself because of it. The soldier goes through his father’s things and realizes that his grieving dad was Bush’s real killer. He held the president responsible for his son’s death….

There are some big questions that have to be answered about this movie. One, will it give some crazy person the idea to go out and try to kill the president? I don’t know, maybe. I think there’s something tasteless about showing a sitting president in this light, whether you like him or not. The producers of the film told me they thought Bush looked sympathetic here, but I didn’t see that.

Their intention is to show him hoisted by his own petard, as it were; the ultimate victim of his Patriot Act. This doesn’t quite work, since “Death of a President” simply turns into a laborious episode of “CSI” rather than expanding the premise so we can see America post-Bush…

This film hasn’t received widespread attention, and that’s a good thing. I hate to give it additional focus. I would have ignored the whole ugly episode, except I just got notice that a major Los Angeles theater that I often attend plans to show it. This news sent me scrambling to send the theater a note. Here’s what I said:

Dear ——–,

I’m disturbed to see that you have chosen to screen “Death of a President”, which postulates the assassination of President Bush. This imagery is simply on the wrong side of the line, either for the purpose of discourse or entertainment. I understand you have the right to screen whatever you want, and I’ve been enthusiastic about certain challenging dramatic material. I’m not an advocate of censorship. But surely there’s a limit imposed by your own sense of decency. Would you screen, for example, hardcore pornography or the latest Egyptian dramatization of the Protocols of Zion? When you move into the realm of indecency, you foul the spirit of your business. You create a stench that lingers. I hate to see that happen to an establishment that I’ve been so enthusiastic about.

This is not about George Bush. It’s about the abandonment of propriety. It’s about filth and hate masquerading as art. I’d write the same letter with respect to any elected American leader.

Thanks for your attention.

My purpose in highlighting this is to suggest that, if you happen to notice any local venue presenting this outrageous film, you may want to similarly comment. We’ve heard the voices of the hatemongers. Let your voice also be heard.