Warner Bros. has made an early announcement to retailers about the arrival of Rob Reiner’s The American President and Ivan Reitman’s Dave to Blu-ray. Both will hit store shelves on September 25, 2012, six weeks before Election Day. The announcement is good news for fans of The American President. Since its debut on DVD and subsequent repressings it has never had an anamorphic widescreen transfer. These two comedies would spawn a number of piggybackers involving the political arena. This includes Wag the Dog, Primary Colors, and Bulworth. But both The American President and Dave are so funny and endearing that they are sentimental favorites compared to the others listed. Revisiting them myself, they illustrate how confounded the political process is. What I wouldn’t give to see an acting President make this sort of statement in front of an assembly.
“I’d like to apologize to the American people. I forgot that I was hired to do a job for you, and it was just a temp job at that. I forgot I had 250 million people who were paying me to make their lives a little bit better, and I didn’t live up to my part of the bargain. You see, there are certain things you should expect from your president. I ought to care more about you than I do about me. I ought to care more about what’s right than I do about what’s popular. I ought to be willing to give up this whole thing for something I believe in. Because if I’m not, then maybe I don’t belong here in the first place…” — Kevin Kline as Dave Kovic/President Bill Mitchell in Dave
Artwork for both titles can be seen in the sell sheet below.
