History in the
present tense
Why past is prologue
By Warwick Sabin
June 10, 2004
"The Hunting of the President," Harry
Thomason's film documenting right-wing efforts to topple former
President Bill Clinton, is being released at about the same time as
"Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore's movie dissecting the actions of the
Bush administration and the Republican Party from the 2000 election
through the current conflict in Iraq.
Will Thomason's effort seem less relevant and significant as a result?
Gene Lyons, co-author of the best-selling book that provided the
framework for "Hunting," does not think so.
"If you want to know how we got to where we are, this film is pretty
instructive," Lyons said. "When people say this is ancient history,
there must be something they don't want you to know."
Lyons believes a last-minute addition to the movie will illustrate the
significant consequences of the right-wing assault against Clinton. The
filmmakers will insert a clip of Clinton addressing the United Nations
on Sept. 21, 1998 - the same day that the Starr Report made public the
graphic details of Clinton's liaison with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton's
U.N. address was about the need to increase efforts to fight
international terrorism. Guess which subject got more attention that
day?
"Here we had a messianic lunatic in the form of Osama bin Laden trying
to get his hands on nuclear weapons to kill as many Americans as
possible," Lyons notes. "Clinton tries to warn us about it, and the
whole national media and the Republican Party are focused like a laser
beam on his zipper."
Lyons sees a parallel between the inaccurate reporting of the
Whitewater case and the current scandal concerning the New York Times
coverage about Iraq's supposed stockpile of chemical and biological
weapons.
"It is the same story with different particulars," Lyons asserts. "A
newspaper infatuated with its own self-importance sends reporters to a
place they are not familiar with, and gets taken in by a couple of con
men."
Making the movie
Thomason bought the movie rights to the book that Lyons wrote with Joe
Conason because he thought it told an intriguing story.
"These guys from Little Rock took their political dislikes for each
other and moved it to the national level," Thomason says.
The film cost $2 million to make, which included not only the
production expenses associated with taping interviews and editing
footage, but also the purchase of archived news coverage, which can be
$100 a second.
Lyons and Conason conducted most of the interviews of characters across
the political spectrum, from James Carville to Jerry Falwell. Thomason
did not have room for all of the interviews in the final cut, but some
of the interviews will be included as a bonus on a DVD to be released
in the fall.
Listed by name in the closing credits are 137 people who refused to
talk to the filmmakers, all of whom played prominent roles in the
events described by the movie, from Matt Drudge to Ken Starr.
When it was time to put the film together, Thomason covered an entire
wall of the editing room with index cards to help keep the names and
events in order. The first cut was three and a half hours - too long.
"With a documentary, if the audience has to sit longer than 90 minutes,
you are in trouble," Thomason said.
Thomason also saw a need to add to the film, to liven up the serious
and sobering material. A friend sent him 10 cassettes of old movie
footage, and he spliced some of it into the film. The result is
sometimes goofy, with old black-and-white shots of strippers appearing
when the subject is sex, or a vaudevillian routine of cops battering
down a door when someone mentions being served with a search warrant.
Thomason said that older test audiences did not like the device when he
initially screened the film, but the enthusiasm of younger viewers
convinced him to keep it.
Despite these and other artistic indulgences, Lyons believes the film
version of "The Hunting of the President" is true to the spirit of his
book.
"When you write a several-hundred-page book, you autopsy the subject,"
he said. "By the time you are done, it is inert material. But watching
the film made me feel a lot of this stuff again."
"The Hunting of the President" is debuting in New York City at an
invitation-only event this week, ahead of its Arkansas premiere on June
15. From there the film will be released in large cities like
Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles before it is shown in smaller
markets. Its eventual overall distribution will depend on its reception
in the initial release cities, but a Little Rock run is confirmed to
begin at Market Street Cinema on June 18.  |
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