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Obviously, a presidential administration is defined by a number of factors, many of them outside of the control of the president himself (will Bush’s term of office ever be thought of separately from 9/11?), but the character of the commander-in-chief contributes a great deal to the national mood, which, in turn, ripples through our media. It’s not hard to see Bush’s influence in projects as far-ranging as Saved (a parody of religious fervor), X2 (a bald-faced criticism of the Patriot Act), and Good Night and Good Luck (a somewhat feeble attempt to draw parallel between the modern era and the McCarthy hearings). But what influence would John McCain, the current Republican front-runner, have on our movies?

It’s hard to believe that the left, which doesn’t control Hollywood, but does somewhat define its character, would ever really embrace McCain in the way that certain avenues embraced Reagan in the 80s, best expressed in masculine wartime fantasies such as Commando and Rambo: First Blood, but (and this is just a necessary prediction) it’s hard to believe that McCain could be as bad as Bush. There just isn’t the budget to start a completely unnecessary and poorly-planned war, and McCain just doesn’t have the cartoonish features that would lend to parody in the way that Bush did. Plus, his Vietnam veteran credibility would carry him a long way with the public, making enough jokes completely off-limits that he would not be subject to the same vindictiveness that Bush has been subject to.

In short, McCain would exist in a sort of entertainment limbo, where he was neither embraced nor driven out of town on a rail, and we could probably expect the following projects:

• At least one high-profile Vietnam film. After the glut of Vietnam films that appeared in the late 1980s, it’s hard to know where to take the genre, but McCain’s presence in the Oval Office would create enough interest to fuel a tent-pole Oscar bait release.
• More movies about Bush. With W. already in the pipeline, and United 93 and World Trade Center already two years old, expect there to be a number more films about the last eight years of our lives. With Bush out of office, there’ll be enough distance for studios to feel comfortable releasing the Abu Ghraib film, the lone-senator-fighting-the-Patriot-Act film, and possibly even the 9/11-truth film (hey, it could happen).
• More old people jokes. Think about it: specific old people could be off-limits, but with so many mainstream comedians wanting to make jokes about him, it could funnel its way into other projects. Imagine Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers in their old-person makeup doing pratfalls and mugging for the camera (don’t, if you can help yourself, but it still might be on the way).
• Fewer torture-themed horror films. This might be a good thing (though I steadfastly defend Hostel: Part Two), but with the issue of torture brought to the forefront in such a way, the public could turn on the horror films that it has so absorbed for the last five years.
• More African-American history films. If McCain wins, his primary legacy will be that he defeated the first viable African-American candidate for President in this nation’s history (no matter what else he does in office), and that will be reflected in the way that Hollywood chooses to remember our history. I would expect at least one Brown vs. Board of Education film, possibly a Plessy vs. Ferguson, and maybe a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic that would end at his assassination (as opposed to the March on Washington).

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