These Are the Best Movies About American Presidents, Ranked
By: Rachel Johnson (MovieWeb)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
These Are the Best Movies About American Presidents, Ranked
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Some of the United States' most highly revered and deeply admired presidents have been beautifully captured and depicted on the silver screen. From historical dramas to tantalizing political thrillers, these films feature famous leaders and provide a more personal and intimate look at their tenure as powerful world figures. The cinema has never been one to shy away from detailing the private and public lives of these monumental men, superbly showcasing the good, the bad, and everything in between. The great biopics and dramas often come from the genius minds of Hollywood's most talented filmmakers and include A-list cast members and dynamite portrayals.
The legendary Steven Spielberg stunningly captured Abraham Lincoln's crusade to abolish slavery in 2012's Lincoln, while Oliver Stone helmed the fascinating yet polarizing picture JFK, chronicling the alleged cover-up of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Many fantastic actors have stepped into the shoes of these distinguished presidents, most notably Daniel Day-Lewis as the aforementioned Lincoln, Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, and even Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower. These are the best movies about American presidents.
8. Lincoln
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20th Century Studios
The critically-renowned Steven Spielberg directed the Oscar-winning 2012 biographical historical drama Lincoln , starring cinema great Daniel Day-Lewis as the sixteenth President of the United States Abraham Lincoln. The picture takes place during the American Civil War and depicts the admired historical figure as he struggles with bloodshed on the battlefield and his efforts to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude in January 1865.
Screenplay writer Tony Kushner considered Lincoln "the greatest democratic leader in the world" yet found capturing his legacy in words to be quite daunting because, as he said, "I have no idea what made him great; I don't understand what he did any more than I understand how William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet or Mozart wrote Cosi fan tutte ." To prepare for his role as the president, Day-Lewis read over 100 books on Lincoln and only spoke in his voice throughout the shoot, asking the British crew members who shared his native accent not to chat with him. For his impressive role as the monumental leader, Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first three-time recipient.
7. Frost/Nixon
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Universal Studios
Based on the play of the same name, Ron Howard's 2008 historical drama Frost/Nixon tells the story behind the infamous Frost/Nixon interviews of 1977 between British talk show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. The talented Michael Sheen appears as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon, and showcases the two battling it out for the upper hand during the notorious sit-downs. The two leads completely immerse themselves in their roles and become their counterparts, and Howard tells a gripping and eloquent recollection of the disgraced president's attempts to salvage his legacy.
Despite a lackluster response at the box office, Frost/Nixon was lauded by critics, with NPR writing on the insightful drama, "It wasn't really Frost who did Nixon in: It was Nixon's old nemesis, the TV camera-that unblinking eye, capturing every bead of perspiration, every nervous shift of posture, every furrow in a guilt-ridden presidential brow."
6. Hyde Park on Hudson
Universal Pictures
The always in-demand Bill Murray and Olivia Colman star in the 2012 British historical dramedy Hyde Park on Hudson , portraying Franklin D. Roosevelt and Queen Elizabeth, showcasing the love affair between FDR and his distant cousin Margaret "Daisy" Suckley. The film takes place during the 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Roosevelt's country estate, with events based on Suckley's private journals and diaries that were discovered after her death. Laura Linney portrays Daisy, with the actress and Murray's charming chemistry on full display throughout the dramedy.
Screenwriter Richard Nelson was inspired to bring the story of Daisy Suckley and her personal relationship with FDR to the big screen after reading a posthumously published collection of her letters and diaries; he was intrigued by the unique perspective Daisy offered on a series of historical events. For his lovely depiction of the 32nd President of the United States, Murray received a Golden Globe Award nomination.
5. Southside with You
Richard Tanne's endearing 2016 biographical romantic drama Southside with You chronicles the 1989 summer afternoon when the future President of the United States, Barack Obama, courted his future First Lady, Michelle Robinson, on a first date in Chicago's South Side. Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter appear as a young Obama and Robinson, documenting their visit to an African art exhibit and viewing of a screening of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, culminating in their first kiss outside an ice cream parlor.
Sawyers revealed in an interview with The Huffington Post that his uncanny resemblance to the president and spot-on impression became a favorite party trick even before being cast as the leader. He said, "Well I had been doing the voice, because I heard that I resembled him. So as a joke I was doing his voice at parties and on-set and stuff like that, but I did think I'd play him in 10 or 15 years. And then this popped up and I had to dial back the impersonation…and play the 28-year-old." Southside with You earned widespread praise from critics, with appreciation for Tanne's direction and screenplay and the impressive performances of its leads.
4. JFK
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Warner Bros.
Visionary filmmaker Oliver Stone directed the 1991 epic political thriller JFK , which examines the events leading up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and details the alleged cover-up through the perspective of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison. The film features an impressive cast of talented performers including Kevin Costner as Garrison, Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon and Tommy Lee Jones, and follows Garrison as he conducts his own private investigation into the murder that leads to blowback from powerful political figures.
Stone was always fascinated by Kennedy's assassination, and the director even had the chance to meet with Garrison and question him on his accounts. Though Stone's pressing eventually caused Garrison to leave, his pride and dignity impressed the filmmaker, who said "Garrison made many mistakes. He trusted a lot of weirdos and followed a lot of fake leads. But he went out on a limb, way out. And he kept going, even when he knew he was facing long odds." Upon its theatrical release, JFK was met by polarizing reviews but nonetheless won two Academy Awards and has since been lauded as an innovative picture.
3. All the President's Men
Warner Bros.
Hollywood heavyweights Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star in the 1976 biographical political thriller All the President's Men , which focuses on The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that eventually leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation. Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by the legendary journalists, the drama covers the first seven months of the scandal, from the time of the break-in to Nixon's second inauguration on January 20, 1973.
To prepare for their paramount performances, Redford and Hoffman visited The Washington Post's offices for months, attending news conferences and conducting research for their roles. All the President's Men was heralded by reviewers and audiences alike, winning four Academy Awards out of eight nominations. Roger Ebert said of the picture, "It provides the most observant study of working journalists we're ever likely to see in a feature film. And it succeeds brilliantly in suggesting the mixture of exhilaration, paranoia, and courage that permeated The Washington Post as its two young reporters went after a presidency."
2. The Butler
The Weinsteen Company
Lee Daniels' 2013 historical drama The Butler is a riveting film loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen, who worked in the White House for decades and served under seven different presidents during his time as a butler. The biopic was inspired by Wil Haywood's Washington Post article, "A Butler Well Served by This Election" and stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, an African-American who is a witness of notable political and social events of the 20th century during his 34-year-tenure serving as a White House butler.
The character is based on Allen, and The Butler includes many impressive depictions and performances of presidents such as Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson and James Marsden as John F. Kennedy. The historical drama was both a critical and commercial success, with Whitaker earning a NAACP Image Award for his moving portrayal.
1. Thirteen Days
New Line Cinema
Dramatizing the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 from the perspective of the United States political leadership, the 2000 historical political thriller Thirteen Days features Kevin Costner, Steven Culp, and Bruce Greenwood as President John F. Kennedy. Based on Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow's book The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the dramatization contains some newly declassified information with much of its dialogue taken from John F. Kennedy's private White House recordings.
Greenwood shines in his role as the president, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the fallen political figure; before production began he and Culp (who portrayed Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy) would call each other on the phone and to practice their Boston accents and called it playing "Dueling Kennedys." Kevin Costner traveled to Cuba in 2001 to screen Thirteen Days for Fidel Castro, saying at a press conference, "It was an experience of a lifetime to sit only a few feet away from him and watch him relive an experience he lived as a very young man."
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For some obscure reason I thought this was a good time to post this article.
Reading that list, it just occurred to me that there haven't been any good movies about Presidents.
Sorry to disagree.
Nobody has to agree with the lists I post - I make it pretty clear that each such list depends on the author's personal tastes. Will you at least consider the list to be somebody's choice of the best of a bad lot?
Sure. As a matter of fact, that may be the whole lot.
Sure as Hell there are bound to be movies made about Trump - is that what you're waiting for to be able to find what you feel is a "good" movie about an American President?
Oh yes, and we know there is a huge difference of opinion on him. That movie would be about who tells the story. I do know there is a movie out on Ronald Reagan. I haven't heard much about it.
I think the most important thing is trying to get it right about the man with both flaws and attributes. I saw this movie about Douglas MacArthur (played by Gregory Peck) and although it was about MacArthur it managed to get what I thought was a very accurate account of Harry Truman. We saw Truman (Ed Flanders) usually angry at MacArthur and telling his aides that while he was trying to prevent WWIII, MacArthur was trying to start it. And of course, Truman was left with cursing Stalin ("that son of a bitch lied to me.") It was just a handful of scenes, but I think it told us more about a particular President than the movies that were actually about one.
I never saw the MacArthur movie, only a part of it, but the thing about Gregory Peck movies is that no matter what movie it is, he's always Gregory Peck.
It could have done better had it been released at a better time.
I see that it was released in May of 1977. What do you think overshadowed its release?
Vietnam falling two years earlier. I just don't think people were in the mood for it.
Hasn't it remained questionable as to whether the Vietnam war was ever "won"?
IMO its not questionable-- clearly the U.S. lost.
I had read an article claiming that The war Against Viet-Nam was the only war the U.S. ever lost (I don't know if that true or not).
I thought so. I just didn't want to say it.
The US left Vietnam in 1973. South Vietnamese forces were defeated in 1975.
One of the movies you have listed is JFK. That movie was not really about President Kennedy. It was a leftwing conspiracy theory on the Kennedy assassination, which raised the idea that LBJ and military leaders who wanted the Vietnam war to continue killed Kennedy because Kennedy was going to end the war. Of course, there is absolutely no evidence of any of that. To the contrary Kennedy was looking for a place to finally draw the line against Khrushchev:
No one has provided more persuasive evidence that it was President John F. Kennedy who got the United States into the Vietnam War than James Reston in his recently published memoir, "Deadline."
"Khrushchev," writes Reston, "had treated Kennedy with contempt, even challenging his courage, and whatever else Kennedy may have lacked, he didn't lack courage. He felt he had to act."
Soon thereafter Kennedy sent more advisers to the battlefront in Vietnam. Reston thought this was a "critical mistake," because once Kennedy had more than 15,000 advisers there, U.S. power and prestige were considered committed.
And just who was it who got the United States into the winless war that killed so many Americans and sapped morale at home?
"No doubt, as president, Johnson was more responsible for commiting the United States to that struggle (he eventually had 500,000 Americans in the war), but in my view Kennedy started the slide."
Defenders of Kennedy usually point to Robert Kennedy's denial that his brother had any intention of going to war in Vietnam. Reston writes:
"Robert Kennedy, eager to protect his brother from blame, always denied that the president intended to increase the nation's commitment to Vietnam and also denied that the Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting in Vienna had anything to do with it. But he didn't hear what his brother said to me in the Vienna embassy, and I did."
JFK GETS BLAME FOR U.S. ROLE IN VIETNAM WAR – Deseret News
And all the while there was the General who ended the Korean War (Gen Ridgway) warning everyone not to get involved in Vietnam.
That war was a very dark episode for America. Think of the fallout. Not only did I know draft dodgers who had come to Toronto, I was friends with some and I set up a successful business with two of them as my partners. And there is the Jane Fonda situation, and the most sickening of all, Kent State. Whether or not America lost the war it lost so very much.
Tremendous.
IMO, the slide and enterence of the US started at the end of WWII when Vietnam were allies of ours against the Japanese and rescued American pilots that had been shot down over Vietnam. Letters were sent to President Harry Truman by Ho chi Minh asking that we NOT install the English or the French as colonizers, those requested were never answered and the letter were found in a CIA file years later. We of course put both the Brits and especially the French back in even after their 100 rape of Vietnam. As the North promised they went to war and demolished the French and then of course we entered the war and there was no way that with the mind set (commie scare) that we would not have entered the war. Ike sent in advisors Kennedy followed and then LBJ. We had ‘’advisors’’ in Vietnam right after WWII ended.
A huge mistake on our part that many paid dearly for and some still are.
The French didn’t learn anything about being colonizers since then were in a war with Algeria who wanted their freedom from France in one of the bloodiest independence revolts in history. It is worth reading the story on both Vietnam and Algeria.
Did we lose did we win or was it a draw? Who do you ask and who do you believe. The grunt on the front line who paid the price, historians, President, who. Each has their own idea but the ones with the real experience were there many you can’t ask because they never made it back.
Again, I go back to the man who brought the Korean conflict to an end.
He said that we were stuck with South Korea, but Vietnam was never something we had any bond to.
Yes, General Ridgeway is credited with turning the tide of the war in favor of the UN and IMO was vastly underestimated as a outstanding commander, Leader of the 82nd and 18th Airborne Corps he was a fighting General who jumped with his troops. He was directly responsible for guiding and encouraging President Eisenhower to end the war.
Thank goodness he took command from MacArthur or we would have bombed China and the world would be a different place today.
All of that aside, we ended up in Vietnam and I will stick with my opinion that we were going in no matter what considering the ‘’commie scare’’ and the politicians view of Russia/China. Sadly tens of thousands of Americans paid the ultimate price for their foolishness. But rarely are politicians held responsible for their mistakes no matter how bad they are.
And, in my opinion, America's politicians are STILL on the wrong track.
Only one leader put us there and his reasons were personal. Your opinion is similar to Ridgeway's, that we shouldn't have been there. Not much different from those who believed that once there we should have fought that war a lot differently. There are few people who wanted US forces there.
Thank goodness he took command from MacArthur or we would have bombed China and the world would be a different place today.
A world without Communist China.
And that leads us to the role the US inherited after World War II. I call it "the burden." Unlike the colonial powers, the US never sought being the defender of freedom, but it was the only one who could do it. Pretend for a minute that a catastrophe wiped the US off the earth. Can you imagine what the world would be like. At the very least it would be under the direct control of China, Russia and Iran. It would be a place of terror & chaos. The last 3 Presidents, including the current one have forgotten the burden.
It was a continuing series of mistakes by US Presidents and policy makers, From Eisenhower to Nixon all have blame. There are a number of books on the subject but one of the better ones is ‘’A Bright and Shining Lie’’ John Paul Van an American in Vietnam. Those who was the disaster coming and could not change the views that were pushing the war.
No, it would have been a world without a very angry Communist China. As Mao told MacArthur, paraphrasing. Drop a bomb and kill a million Chinese, we have billions.
After dropping a few atomic bombs there are still a blllion Chinese spread over a huge landmass that no military expert would want to invade. Thank goodness sane thoughts prevailed.
I look at it differently, not as a burden but as a opportunity to a set structure worldwide that would help end further wars in Europe, it also showed our determination and leaderships skills to help build a better world. And I agree without the US, Russia, China Iran would probably dominate but I see China as the big dog in that trifecta. US policy for sometime has been a mix at times we are not sure what we are doing other times we try to dominate without thinking through the repercussions. Currently it seems once again that we want to withdrawn into a shell and be isolationists which will not work. Burden or opportunity we cannot withdrawn from world affairs.
I think that is a paranoid view. I'm sure China would make sure Iran's terrorism and sponsorship of it would be controlled by both China and Russia, and I doubt that Russia would do anything that would cause China a problem. As I see it, if the USA did not exist, notwithstanding the existence of the EU and Great Britain, China would be in control, and there is NO WAY that China wants to be in a world of terror & chaos so you can be sure it would with the methods it has already been using to unify the nations to make sure the world will be a better place than it is today (with, I am sorry to say, the professed control of the USA)..
What!? No mention of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter?
And what about "Dave?" Or President Whitman? 😉
There are lots of such movies - The American President, Primary Colors, Young Mr. Lincoln, etc. etc.
I felt the same way about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I've seen them both. I wanted P&PZ to be better than it was. I'm not saying ALVH was 'good' either. At least it was in 3D... hahahaha!
Just wait till a movie is done in 4D about a PotUS whose name I'll not mention. Hopefully Mel Brooks can survive long enough to do it.
I can see it up in lights... "Now in smell-o-vision!"
I doubt smell-o-vision will happen. Imagine a little smoke causing a panic in a theatre, or how repulsive body odour could be. Actually, the smell of a barbecue could cause the audience to get hungry enough to buy more concession food, so I guess it has its good and bad,. .
We keep on electing the wrong kind of presidents! Clearly Mel Brooks shouldbe our president-- if that happened watching the news every day would be a wonderful experience!
I meant for Mel Brooks to direct the movie about the PotUS I would not name, but you may be right, Mel Brooks for PotUS would keep Americans laughing. Unfortunately (or fortunately for him) he's already 98 years old.
All wonderful movies and worth watching. One that should be added IMO, is ‘’Truman’’ starring Gary Sinise.
The "buck" stopped with him. He had to make one of the most important and deadliest decisions that any PotUS has ever had to make.
IMO, Truman in addition to the atomic bomb made many other far reaching decisions. The integration of the military, the Berlin Airlift, firing Douglas McArthur to name just a few. The story of Truman and the Berlin Airlift is incredible, many were against it and in the end he did a Harry Truman, ‘’we are doing it, end of conversation’’..
He kind of hold a special place in my memory. On his whistle stop train around the country in 1948, my dad drove us kids from Red Lake MN. To Hibbing, MN about 120 miles and we slept in the car which was a 1936 Chevy, where President Trumans train stopped and he got in convertible and drove through town, I was right next to his car and was waving to him, he waved back, probably to everyone but in my mind it was just me, a little Indian kid from the Rez.
I only wish that I had a photo of it, but hell we couldn’t afford anything but my Dad a combat vet of WWII was bound and determinated to get to Hibbing to see the President, I remember Dad said to us…’’There is a man with a backbone’’…The highest compliment that my dad could give.
President Truman returned in 1952 to campaign for Stevenson and some MN dems running for office and gave a great speech at the War Memorial Building which my dad took us to. By that time we have moved about 10 miles outside of Hibbing in a ‘’location’’ (Indian town) my dad had got a job in the ore mines near Hibbing.
Great memories.
Great memories, and as usual from you, great stories.
Thank you, Buzz the article really brought back some great memories.
Thanks for posting it.
Pas de quoi.
Buzz
You forgot the best one
It was a commentary on the presidency, about right and left, about the difficulty in getting legislation passed and to the amount of utter crap that goes on in Washington as well as highlighting the love of country
The American President with Michael Douglas and Annette Benning
One of the few CD's that we watch excepting childrens' classics for my granddaughter
Robert, look at my comment number 2.1.1. I loved it when Bening started to speak French to the French Ambassador and his wife at the table that pulled them out of their feeling left out. Although I didn't mention TV series, I was a West Wing addict - watched every episode.
Great minds think alike!