With his killer performance at the Democratic National Convention, his ratings-boosting appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman” and his best-selling two-lives psychobabble, life has been pretty good lately for William Jefferson Clinton. He’s like, uh, totally a national hero. As filmmaker Michael Moore would say: Was his scandal-ridden past all just a dream?
Ah, ah, ah–not so fast. Don’t you want to dredge up Oval Office indiscretions? Don’t you want to relive a horrible period in our nation’s history? Don’t you want to wax nostalgic about Whitewater and Paula Jones and Travelgate and Troopergate? Don’t you want to see “The Hunting of the President,” another sometimes-powerful documentary screed, this time about the “10-year campaign to destroy Bill Clinton”?
Narrated by Morgan Freeman, “The Hunting of the President” is based on the same-named book by journalists Joe Conason and Gene Lyons and is directed by Nickolas Perry and Clinton’s Hollywood pal Harry Thomason. Through interviews with journalists (Howard Kurtz, David Brock, Jonathan Alter), former Clinton aides (Sidney Blumenthal, Paul Begala, James Carville) and Little Rock insiders (private eye Larry Case, Arkansas Times editor-in-chief Max Brantley), the film details a moneyed and powerful smear campaign against Clinton, starting with his governorship and ending with his impeachment trial.
Parts are heartwrenching, particularly the segments with Susan McDougal, an old friend and Whitewater business associate of the Clintons who refused to testify against them and ended up in maximum security jail–living alongside violent women who had murdered their own children.
Some details I had forgotten, like the fact that right-wing pundit Ann Coulter was part of Jones’ behind-the-scenes legal team, the Elves.
Other things I’d rather forget, like how former American Spectator writer Brock–prominently featured in the film, to its detriment–went fishing for dirt on a Richard Mellon-Scaife-funded expedition and then took it all back years later in his book, “Blinded By the Right.” Oops.
Although the film presents plenty of compelling material, it suffers from the same weakness of “Fahrenheit 9/11”: an utter lack of dot connection. All the name dropping in the world doesn’t make suspicions fact. So sure, there was an organization called the Alliance for the Rebirth of an Independent America (A.R.I.A.) and its mission was to discredit Clinton. And yes, the state troopers who alleged to have arranged Clinton’s extramarital affairs were not invited to join the President’s security team in Washington. And you betcha, Paula Jones turned down a $700,000 settlement offer on the advice of people like Coulter.
And it all sounds very shady. Just about as shady as the fact that the Bin Ladens’ money manager in Texas was an old Air National Guard buddy of George Bush. But what does it mean? What is the actual, real-life implication? Moore never tells us, and neither do Perry and Thomason. Instead, their film feels defensive and belated.
Plus, the timing is off–Bush is our polarizing political figure now. Real estate and sex scandals ain’t got nothing on WMD and war. And Clinton? Well, he’s selling millions of books, making boatloads of cash and his wife may just be president one day.
As “Saturday Night Live” alum Darrell Hammond, impersonating Clinton in his best Southern drawl, would say: I. Am. Bulletproof.
`The Hunting of the President’
(star)(star) 1/2
Directed by Nickolas Perry and Harry Thomason; based on the book by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons; photographed by Jim Roberson; edited by Perry; produced by Douglas Jackson; narrated by Morgan Freeman. A Regent Releasing release; opens Friday at the Music Box Theatre. Running time: 1:29. No MPAA rating (for adult audiences, with some strong language and sexual references).
