O Sequestro do Presidente

THE KIDNAPPING OF THE PRESIDENT is a familiar but well-handled hostage thriller in which Hal Halbrook plays an American president kidnapped and held for political reasons by South American terrorists. This one starts off with some rather extraordinarily violence and grit for the era which felt to me, as a seasoned fan of Italian cinema, inspired by the hard-hitting cinema of Fulci and his giallo contemporaries; there's certainly no shying away from the violence here. From there we move into more familiar territory as William Shatner's secret service man tries to tackle a complex situation. The level of grit is admirable, the suspense works well and the punctuation of violent moments offsets the tension nicely.

The notion that a terrorist could kidnap the President of the United States while he's standing in a crowd shaking hands sure seems ludicrous. And, it's also ludicrous to imagine the Canadian government doing such an awful job protecting the man. You must look past all this in order to enjoy the movie....or at least to not discount it. Additionally, you must also accept that the terrorists could shoot a gas station and make it explode...again and again and only with one shot! And, you must accept that the main terrorist's confederate pulls out the detonator from her pocket and holds it...while a crowd is standing around her...even though she is supposed to stay hidden. And, when an insane man wanders into the middle of this 'situation', nothing is done to stop him until the last possible second. And, a dedicated terrorist changes her mind at the last second. And, finally, you must accept that pretty much everyone in the film, with the exception of the CIA agent (William Shatner), is stupid.

It is a shame, really, as Shatner is very good here and the film has some other excellent actors, such as Hal Holbrook, Van Johnson and Ava Gardner (who does a nice Lady MacBeth impersonation). But the basic premise just doesn't make much sense. For a similar but far more intelligent story, try watching the original "Day of the Jackal". It covers similar ground but does it much more intelligently and believably. Overall, watchable but really, really, REALLY farfetched.

By the way, gas stations do NOT blow up like this. If they did, they'd be blowing up all the time and no one would ever consider driving a gas powered car!

Latin American terrorists abduct the President of the United States while he is on a state trip in Toronto. The Secret Service have to devise a plan to get him back alive.

This Canadian political thriller features Captain Kirk - I mean William Shatner - in a starring role as the head of the American Secret Service. It's always kind of fun watching him in contemporary roles and in this one he even gets to utter an f-bomb which was a bonus. He's pretty good value here and the main reason I am guessing anyone would actively seek this one out. Starring alongside him is one of those reliable 70's stalwarts, Hal Holbrook, who gets to play the President. The film itself really starts out pretty well and by the half-way point it has set in motion a pretty intriguing scenario. It would only be fair to say though that in the second half it kind of peters out a bit and the varied action and events of the set-up culminate with a situation that can best be described as a man in a van. Still, it ultimately is decent enough fare and the Toronto setting I quite liked. It certainly had the potential to be better though.

...but not as good as it thinks it is. It's an interesting concept, the American president is kidnapped, locked in an armored truck and held for ransom. The script has plot holes you could drive an armored truck through and logical non-sequiturs abound.

The soundtrack is annoying as heck. There's some music mixed in there someplace but it's frequently lost behind a wall of chirpy synthesizer noises.

And the pacing is sluggish. It's like being in grade school and receiving an assignment to write an essay of some arbitrary length, say 500 words, so you just shovel padding words into the essay until you reached the mandated length. That's how the script feels - padded and bloated.

The cast is OK-ish. Hal Holbrook is fine as the presidential hostage but he's not asked to do much more than sit in a truck. It's always a pleasure to see Van Johnson, who starred in some of my favorite childhood movies - Brigadoon and The Pied Piper of Hamlin - and Ava Gardner.

What to say about Shatner that hasn't been written countless times already? I'm not really sure we should call what he does "acting". He just is Shatner just as he is just Kirk and just every other character he's ever portrayed. He's always the same. Like Robert Morley or Jerry Lewis. Unchanging. Constant. The most disconcerting aspect of his participation is most actors sharing a scene with him unconsciously act like him.

There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours but I know there are better ways as well.

I really wanted to hate this movie. William Shatner has played in some real turkeys, 'Big Bad Mama' being a prime example. However, there was something about this film that I really liked. Maybe it was WS looking all natty and noble in his navy blue suit and trench coat. Or the idea of Van Johnson as the vice president, married to Ava Gardner -- oh, what a casting fiasco that was! Or Hal Holbrook being presidential yet once again. Or the fact that this was a Canadian film actually shot on location in Toronto (starring my favorite guy from north-of-the-border). The story wasn't too bad, the acting wasn't too horrible. And did I mention how cute Shatner looked?