"The American President" is a romantic comedy that was released in 1995. President Andrew Shepherd's first presidential term is coming to an end and everyone in the White House is working hard to gain public support in order to guarantee Shepherd's re-election. But when he starts falling in love with lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade, the relationship is looked at with skepticism and the public starts questioning Shepherd's ability to lead the country. The main purpose of the film is to illustrate how easily the nation can turn on the president due to a simple mistake. Because the public starts looking at Shepherd with doubt, they turn towards another presidential candidate for leadership and he quickly manipulates the country with his empowering speaking ability. This film is very similar to the book Feeding Frenzy by Larry J. Sabato. Throughout both the movie and the book, the fact that political candidates can never have a purely private personal life is presented. Every single one of their records and every single one of their mistakes could make television news and headlines faster than the blink of an eye.
The quality of this film was very good. The screenplay was well written and many of the scenes were very humerous. For example, there was a scene where the president wanted to get flowers for Sydney, so he called the florist himself. When he told the florist he was the president, she hung up on her. Later, he actually went to visit the flower shop in person, and the florist faints. The acting was pretty good, especially the two main characters. Michael Douglas's behavior and actions were bold and confident, like a real president. Annette Bening's behavior and actions were persuasive and emphatic, like a real lobbyist. In terms of music, the majority of songs used in this movie were all by the same artist, Marc Shaiman. But what really differed the music in the movie from the 'latest hits' that play on the radio today was that the songs in the movie didn't have lyrics.
