If you're in Australia, you may have seen Charles Firth's (of 'Chaser' fame) comedic documentary on the American Election - Mr. Firth Goes to Washington (2008)
In a part mockumentary style, Charles explores the Bush Presidency, the Primaries and General Election between Barack Obama and John McCain applying the analogy that Politics is not unlike Hollywood. Segmenting the documentary using chapters like 'The protagonist', 'The villain', 'The ending'. It's a meme that this blog has often expressed.
Read a review from the TV Tonight blog
Mr. Firth Goes to WashingtonWatch video of 'Mr Firth goes to Washington' here
According to firth it has all the elements of a popcorn movie. There’s a hero (Bush) and a villain (Al-Qaeda). That’s pretty obvious. But his other parallels are equally amusing.
Like every good screenplay, the story has to open with an inciting incident. A big, eye-catching action set-piece in the first act. Enter 9/11. It immediately pits Bush as American’s very own Harrison Ford. Firth finds lots of footage of pithy, aggressive sentences to help the audience understand the premise. Some would even make a ripping poster by-line.
Firth says the scene of Bush on a navy warship declaring victory in the Iraq War was actually filmed a few miles off Los Angeles. He even visits a set said to be used for filming Baghdad scenes in Hollywood movies.
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