Jump to content

Dave (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TMS63112 (talk | contribs) at 01:34, 21 November 2006 (rvv). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Dave
Directed byIvan Reitman
Written byGary Ross
Produced byIvan Reitman,
Lauren Shuler-Donner
StarringKevin Kline,
Sigourney Weaver,
Frank Langella,
Kevin Dunn,
Ving Rhames,
and Ben Kingsley
Music byJames Newton Howard
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
May 7, 1993
Running time
110 min.
LanguageEnglish

Dave is a 1993 comedy-drama movie written by Gary Ross, directed by Ivan Reitman, and starring Kevin Kline (in a dual role), Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley, and Laura Linney. Ross was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay. Kline's performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Kline plays Dave Kovic, who runs a temporary employment agency in Baltimore. As a sideline, he makes public and private appearances impersonating President William "Bill" Harrison Mitchell, whom he greatly resembles (and who, of course, is also played by Kline). Mitchell's devious Chief of Staff, Bob Alexander (Frank Langella), hires Kovic to make an exit at an appearance of President Mitchell, to cover up an extramarital affair that Mitchell is having.

When the real President Mitchell suffers a stroke during the affair that leaves him in a coma, Bob Alexander sees an opportunity. Along with Communications Director Alan Reed (Kevin Dunn), Alexander arranges for the President's comatose state to be kept secret. They then con Kovic into impersonating the president on an ongoing basis by telling him that the country would suffer if the truth was revealed or if Vice President Gary Nance (Ben Kingsley), who they say is mentally ill, took office.

The real idea, of course, is that Alexander will now exercise the power of the presidency through Kovic as a patsy. But instead Kovic sets his own course of action, which revives Mitchell's popularity with the public and mystifies both the Washington media (several well-known personalities make cameo appearances as themselves) and First Lady Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver), whose public support of her husband has been a cover for bitter marital strife in their private life. When he takes the exteme action of reworking the national budget in order to save a $650,000,000 program for helping the homeless -- a project she supported but Alexander wanted vetoed -- she confronts him and eventually joins in the act. With this development, Kovic holds a news conference announcing that he is firing Bob Alexander.

Eventually, Kovic meets Nance, who chastises him for being isolated from the cabinet by being sent out of the country on a public relations coup. Kovic comes to realize that affable Nance isn't insane, but merely has different political ideas than Alexander. They end up bonding one night when Nance discusses his career from being an unhappy shoe salesman to being the Vice President. He is also exposed to Ellen, whom he has to convince to hang around in order to maintain the ruse. Despite Ellen's cynicism, she is soon charmed by Dave's sincere desire to use his position to improve the nation.

Eventually Bob Alexander tries to destroy Kovic by exposing a scandal that implicates Mitchell and Nance. In a joint session of Congress, Kovic, as Mitchell, admits to his role in the scandal, but provides evidence proving that Alexander was the mastermind and that Nance was innocent. Kovic then fakes a stroke and is switched back with the still-comatose Mitchell. Mitchell is then declared incompetent under the 25th Amendment, and eventually dies. The groundswell of affection generated by the fake President is transferred to the real President, as the public and the media mourn his death, still unaware of the presumably illegal ruse that had been conducted when Dave was acting as President. Bob Alexander keeps quiet about it, presumably because exposing it would only serve to add more years to his prison sentence. Nance becomes President and promises to carry out Mitchell's (actually Kovic's) promise of a full-employment program.

In the movie's final scene, Kovic is running his own campaign for city council; Ellen Mitchell comes into the office and kisses him. Template:Endspoilers

Background

The film bears significant resemblance, in both its plot and characters, to a little-known Hollywood musical, The Phantom President (1932), which starred the Broadway song-and-dance-man George M. Cohan in the dual role of the cold, corrupt politician and his charming, idealistic double. Claudette Colbert played his politically savvy bride-to-be, and Jimmy Durante was his razzle-dazzle campaign manager. The film included songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The Paramount film was directed by Norman Taurog.

Such doppelgänger plots have a long literary and dramatic lineage in such works as Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, Robert A. Heinlein's Double Star, Moon Over Parador starring Richard Dreyfuss, The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas and Colin Forbes's The Leader and the Damned.

Cast

Characters

  • ALEXANDER, BOB

President Bill Mitchell’s chief of staff, and Dave Kovic’s chief of thorns-in-the-side. When Mitchell’s life is taken by a stroke, Bob decides not to turn over the reins of power to kind and decent Vice President Nance, but instead to use Dave as a front man. The deception works…but too well. Whereas Mitchell was an oily and dishonest manipulator—as is Bob—Dave is truthful and noble enough to make you cry. So do the dismayed Bob and his henchman, Alan Reed, realize that they’ve created a monster…but only by their own standards.

  • KOVIC, DAVE

This undistinguished nice guy runs an employment agency. Well, he’s not entirely undistinguished, since he happens to look exactly like the president of the United States. When President Bill Mitchell (a wimpy philanderer who’s on the brink of divorce from his First Lady) sneaks away for a quickie with his mistress, Dave is recruited by the Secret Service to stand in for him. Then President Mitchell dies of a stroke, and Dave is hired on a permanent—or at least indefinite—basis. Dave (who could never rest when one of his clients needed a job) is thrilled when asked to fill the President’s shoes, and enjoys the experience immensely. That is, until White House chief of staff Bob Alexander tries to manipulate him and run the country as a puppet-master.

Political cameos

To enhance the film's realism, many political and entertainment personalities have cameos in the film as themselves:



In addition, several fictional segments from shows frequented by political junkies were created specifically for it, including The McLaughlin Group, The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno, and Larry King Live where Oliver Stone is interviewed by Larry King. Stone describes a conspiracy theory that turns out to accurately reflect the developments unfolding in the movie (see plot description above).

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Dave_(film)&oldid=89136007"