Product Details

• Actors: Morgan Freeman, Paul Begala, Sidney Blumenthal, David Brock, John Camp
• Directors: Harry Thomason, Nickolas Perry
• Writers: Joe Conason, Harry Thomason, Nickolas Perry, Gene Lyons
• Producers: Adrienne Crow, Amy Greenspun
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: September 28, 2004
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002IQK9U
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,931 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Hunting of the President" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Hunting of the President, a documentary examining the Republican campaign to discredit Bill Clinton's presidency, unfolds like a paranoid thriller--made all the more astonishing by scrupulous documentation and an impressive breadth of interviews with journalists, lawyers, political analysts, judges, newspaper editors, and many of the people caught up in the Whitewater scandal--which, after an expense of many millions of dollars and several years of investigation, failed to find any criminal act. The relentless efforts of Clinton's enemies grow into an appalling abuse of power, ultimately resulting in his impeachment (but not his removal from office). This documentary, like those of Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11), uses brief clips from Hollywood movies and television to give a boost to the narrative; this could seem cloying, but The Hunting of the President presents such an impressive barrage of facts and perspectives that it earns some moments of flippancy. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

The Hunting of the President is the story of a sustained and well-funded effort to discredit and defeat Bill Clinton, dating from his gubernatorial days in Arkansas and eventually leading to his impeachment trial. The film also acknowledges that Clinton?s reckless behavior, along with the ?panicky, defensive, and occasionally less-than-perfectly honest? responses from the White House press office, didn?t hurt his opponents. Investigative journalism at its juiciest, The Hunting of the President is a surprising valediction to a far-from-angelic public leader who often outmaneuvered his enemies with otherworldly skill.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb documentary version of a great book, July 8, 2004

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT is a documentary version of the outstanding book by the same name by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons. Although the film starts by indicating that it is based on the book, this is only very loosely true. A great deal contained in the book is left out in the film, and the film contains a surprising amount of content that is not in the book. In the end, they complement one another marvelously.

The film begins with a shot of the United States Capitol with former Senator Dale Bumpers memorably defending Pres. Clinton during his impeachment trial. When he asks how it was that the president was being impeached for lying about what was merely a private wrongdoing the film cuts back to the earliest days of the Clinton administration, and goes through the various trumped up and absurd charges made against Clinton during the nineties, from Whitewater to the ridiculous charge of the murder of Vince Foster to Troopergate to the allegations of Paula Jones (which not even her lawyers believed). Like the book, the movie excells because it shows in great detail the lack of concern with truth that the Right displayed throughout all of this, and the extraorinarily organized and partisan nature of all the opposition to Clinton.

As an Arkansan, I especially appreciated the way in which the film explains the various Arkansas characters involved in the story. As a former student of Ouachita Baptist University, I knew Bob Riley (one of the finest and most fascinating individuals in Arkansas history, as highly decorated war hero, professor, and politician), whose widow is interviewed extensively in the film. I did not know Jim McDougal. His wife, Susan, emerges in the film as one of the great symbols of the affair, as she is crushed by Kenneth Starr's inhuman prosecution machine because she refuses to lie about either Bill Clinton or Hillary. Her dedication to truth is so great that she goes to prison (where she is housed with child murderers instead of the general prison population, by Starr's orders) rather than lie. She emerges as one of the few heroes in the tawdry persecution of Clinton, and one of the most innocent victims.

Like the book, this documentary is essential viewing for anyone wanting the understand the Clinton years. It is also a cautionary tale, because the Right wing machine that mindlessly and irrationally attack a moderate Democratic president in 1993 will unquestionably do the same with a new Democratic president in 2005. All Americans should find such politics of division reprehensible and utterly opposed to the commonweal.

278 of 315 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read the book and see the movie, July 30, 2004

By	MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

One reason I recommend this DVD is simply because it shows how the media has become a big business, driven by ratings and not by unbiased hard facts. How the media goes with the hype and looks at stories more as red meat rather than media worthy. The movie opened this week in Sacramento, CA at the Crest Theatre, and I hope it comes to Stockton CA which is easier for me to get to for a return showing. And its a college town.

It is also a cautionary tale of a movie (read the book for more in-depth reasoning) of how special interests can have a seek and destroy at any cost mentality. Whitewater being the case in point. According to the General Accounting Office (GAO) the cost of the independent counsel's 4 1/2-year inquiry of the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton came to $39.2 million. And they got nothing.

Susan McDougal, is shown (correctly) as being targeted by right wing extremists who assumed that being from Arkansas that she could be brought down easily, and that it must have come as a surprise when she stood her ground and being innocent was willing to go to jail for contempt rather than hell for lying.

And the movie shows both sides fairly in my opinion, with the main focus being on the evils of what actually happened and a warning IMO that if it could happen to the Clintons, beware it could happen to anyone. The book and then the movie made me dig out my copy of Niccolo Machiavelli's THE PRINCE, which is must reading for any thinking person.

Now this is what I find interesting as a moderate voter, the conservative hacks went after Hillary because she had an initial
investment of 1k when she did some trading of commodities. Yet the whole dang Bush family has made millions off of a simple friendship with the Saudi Royal family with the payment being made in blood by our patriotic military men and women. Yet where is the outcry?

And for those who think the media is liberal one need only read the book and see the movie to see that when the Clintons were basically exonerated by the final Special Prosecutors findings that this was reported in few if any major newspaper.

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars True Words, September 28, 2004

By	Todd W. Hemphill (St Petersburg, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"We will accept it if it says what we want to believe". Too bad the last reviewer couldn't hold the mirror up before she wrote her review. When a journalist, David Brock, comes forward (See Blinded by the Right)and admits that he and others did in fact spearhead a well financed campaign to discredit President Clinton by willfully distorting and in some cases inventing facts, it's hard to believe it wasn't so. Unless, of course, you only accept what you want to believe. I'm not saying this film doesn't have a point of view. Most efforts of this sort do. But to strap on the blinders and reject the work in it's entirety because it doesn't fit in with your pre-concieved notions is exactly what Shakespeare was warning against. We live in a world where the lines between partisan politics, journalism and art are rapidly disapearing. We need to understand that process and despite the films excesses there is a lot to be learned if it's viewed with an open mind.