Five Best Movies for Presidents Day

The country has discussed Alec Baldwin’s “Trump” impersonation on “Saturday Night Live” ad nauseam for well over a year now, and with it all the other “SNL” presidential takedowns from the past — from Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford to Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, Phil Hartmann’s Bill Clinton, Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush, and even Jay Pharoah’s Barack Obama.

Instead of any further comment on the lightweight and the trivial, it’s time to focus on some of the fantastic dramatic work, on both television and the big screen, that has gone into portrayals of nation’s leaders over the years.

And we don’t mean guys like Harrison Ford or Bill Pullman playing fictional presidents, either.

We’re talking about top-notch portrayals of actual American leaders — work that in some cases earned major industry awards.

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Here are five movies about the presidency — and all that goes into this significant role, the toll it can take, the sacrifice and the scares — to serve as a reminder of what’s really at stake in honor of Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.

“Truman” (1995). Winning a slew of Emmy Awards, this HBO mini-series featured Gary Sinise in the titular role, in a production based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by historian David McCullough.

Sinise chewed up the scenery as Harry S. Truman, showing his rise to the presidency, through WWII, to his decision to use the first atomic bomb. Interesting side note: Tony Goldwyn is in a supporting role here, and later played a fictionalized president in the hit ABC series, “Scandal.”

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“Lincoln” (2012). When it was announced that Steven Spielberg himself would direct a film about one of our most beloved presidents, and that Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis would be playing “Honest Abe,” audiences already knew it’d be spectacular. Day-Lewis immersed himself in the role, as has been his method (though he’d probably chafe at the mention of that word) — and the sprawling, epic film earned the actor his third Academy Award.

“Thirteen Days” (2000). Oscar winner Kevin Costner, who had already had his fair share of “presidential movie success” with “JFK” some years before, returned to the till here, as both actor and producer.

This time around, it was Bruce Greenwood playing JFK, though, and the focus was on the Cuban missile crisis, as opposed to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Greenwood’s Kennedy was unlike any other we’ve seen on screen, as he was on the job and intent on showing that the U.S. would not allow a missile threat.

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“DC 9/11: Time of Crisis” (2003). Slated to air near the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the film took an insider look at the George W. Bush administration, as the events unfolded from W. and his staff’s point of view. There were the days leading up, the actual day, plus W.’s journey to Ground Zero and his now-famous national address nine days after the attacks occurred. Timothy Bottoms played W. with a brimming intensity, even while it was not, in fact, the first time the actor would portray him. He had also played him comedically in a short-lived sitcom called, “That’s My Bush!”

“John Adams” (2008). This epic mini-series “event” saw Paul Giamatti in the lead role, huffing and puffing as Adams, with the mini-series ultimately scoring 13 Emmy Awards — more than any other in history. Broadcast in a record seven parts on HBO, the series contained masterful portrayals of our Founding Fathers, from Stephen Dillane as Jefferson and David Morse as Washington, to Tom Wilkinson as Franklin.

The film closed on Adams’ death, just after he witnessed the election of his son, John Quincy.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette last year and has been updated.