Recovery of the US president character in Hollywood film during Barack Obama’s terms

• Main Authors: Antonio Sánchez-Escalonilla, Araceli Rodríguez Mateos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2016-12-01
• Series: Cogent Arts & Humanities
• Subjects: us president depiction; film and politics; washington–hollywood axis; franklin d. roosevelt; barack obama
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2016.1237261

In the wake of a political, financial, and institutional crisis, Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, and four years later he was appointed for a second term. The media campaign that took him to the White House drew a parallel between the trajectory of the Democratic candidate and the advent of Franklin D. Roosevelt for the presidency in 1932, because of the similarities of critical context between two historical moments marked by the need for change and regeneration, both internal and external. Hollywood films have also participated in this political turn, recovering the presidential image after the negative portrait drawn during the Bush–Cheney administration. While Obama has inspired an epic vision of the presidency back on the big screen, the new forged image also offers critical traits based on the public perception of his administration.