by Martin Davie, Christian Today
The American screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is best known for his seven series American political drama The West Wing, which was first aired between 1999 and 2006, and is generally regarded as the best TV political drama ever produced. What is not well known is that The West Wing was a spin off from ideas which Sorkin first developed when he wrote the script for a movie called The American President which came out in 1995.
This film is about a fictional American President called Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas). Shepherd, a Democrat, is a widower who begins a romantic relationship with Sydney Ellen Wade (played by Anette Benning) who is a lobbyist for an environmental campaign group which wants the Shepherd administration to introduce legislation to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Shepherd is running for re-election and his Republican opponent, Senator Bob Rumson, uses Shepherd’s relationship with Wade to attack Shepherd, arguing that she is a dangerous left-wing political activist who burned the American flag during an anti-apartheid demonstration, and is a member of the left-wing campaign organisation the ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union).
The climax of the film comes when Shepherd gives an impromptu press conference at the White House after Wade has broken off their relationship because she feels he puts political expediency before his principles.
In this press conference Shepherd gives a barn storming defence of his beliefs, his actions and his relationship with Wade. Addressing the question of his own membership of the ACLU (something on which he has previously refused to comment) he responds to Rumson with some of the best lines in the film: