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Best Usa president Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of usa president cinema — measured across 1,690 indexed frames from 18 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Usa president films over-index on podium, american flag and cape — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Mars Attacks! (1996)

    Tim BurtonDP Peter SuschitzkyIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.

  2. 2

    Heads of State (2025)

    Ilya NaishullerDP Ben DavisIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    The UK Prime Minister and US President have a public rivalry that risks their countries' alliance. But when they become targets of a powerful enemy, they're forced to rely on each other as they go on a wild, multinational run. Allied with Noel, a brilliant MI6 agent, they must find a way to thwart a conspiracy that threatens the free world.

  3. 3

    Lincoln (2012)

    Steven SpielbergDP Janusz KamińskiIMDb 7.3TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    In 1865, as the American Civil War winds inexorably toward conclusion, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln endeavors to achieve passage of the landmark constitutional amendment which will forever ban slavery from the United States. However, his task is a race against time, for peace may come at any time, and if it comes before the amendment is passed, the returning southern states will stop it before it can become law. Lincoln must, by almost any means possible, obtain enough votes from a recalcitrant Congress before peace arrives and it is too late. Yet the president is torn, as an early peace would save thousands of lives. As the nation confronts its conscience over the freedom of its entire population, Lincoln faces his own crisis of conscience -- end slavery or end the war.

  4. 4

    Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)

    Peter LandesmanDP Adam KimmelIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    1972. Following the death of fifty year FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who the last three Presidents had considered firing, FBI outsider L. Patrick Gray is appointed Acting Director. Associate Director Mark Felt, a dedicated, loyal and meticulous employee of the Bureau for thirty years, and his wife Audrey, feel he being passed over for the job is a major snub, they who have sacrificed their own personal lives for the Bureau. Part of that sacrifice is not being able to devote time in locating the Felts' daughter, Joan Felt, who they have not heard from in a year, they only assuming that she going off their radar being on her own volition in her anti-establishment ideals. Felt not getting the job is arguably due to he being such an integral figure in the controversial Hoover tenure. One of the first cases for the Bureau in Gray's tenure is a break-in at and bugging of the Democratic National Committee offices, the case unofficially called Watergate for the complex in which the break-in occurred. Ordered by Gray by what what seems to be unofficial orders passed down from the White House, FBI staff are hamstrung in their investigation, Watergate which has seeming ties to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President and thus possibly the Republican administration in the White House. For the first time in his career, Felt decides to go rogue in an effort for the FBI to gain back its independence without interference by any other organization, including especially the White House. Those rogue actions are largely the treasonous offense of leaking FBI information into the Watergate investigation to the media, first to his friend, Time reporter Sandy Smith, then to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, their source - Felt - known in the public mindset through the code name, Deep Throat. Through the process, Felt tries to protect himself from discovery and protect his FBI associates from innuendo each as possibly being Deep Throat, which becomes more and more difficult with the reelection of Richard Nixon, his administration which uses every tool in their legal and illegal toolbox, including through their patsy Gray, to discover the identity of Deep Throat.

  5. 5

    JFK (1991)

    Oliver StoneDP Robert RichardsonIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    On November 22, 1963, president John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the crime and subsequently shot by Jack Ruby, supposedly avenging the president's death. An investigation concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone in their respective crimes, but Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison is skeptical. Assembling a trusted group of people, Garrison conducts his own investigation, bringing about backlash from powerful government and political figures.

  6. 6

    Watchmen (2009)

    Zack SnyderDP Larry FongIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    It's 1985 in an alternate reality. The Watchmen - comprised of the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl II, Ozymandias, Rorschach and Silk Spectre II - are a disparate band of masked superheroes, modeled after the Minutemen, who were masked superheroes of a generation earlier, most of who are dead or afflicted by the ravages of life. The Comedian belongs to both groups. Despite the activities of the Watchmen leading to the west winning the Vietnam War which in turn has kept Richard Nixon in the White House, Nixon has now outlawed masks, resulting in the Watchmen disbanding and going into retirement, most hiding their Watchmen past under their human identities. However, the Comedian, in his human persona of Eddie Blake, and Dr. Manhattan - former physicist Jon Osterman who obtained his superhero powers through a scientific accident which almost killed him - now work for the government. Dr. Manhattan's powers in particular have kept a watch over nuclear proliferation, as he is able to stop any nuclear attack. Regardless, the Cold War is at its height with recent Soviet posturing regarding nuclear bomb buildup. In her human persona of Laurie Jupiter, Silk Spectre II is Dr. Manhattan's assistant and lover, as much as they can be in Dr. Manhattan's now non-human state. Meanwhile, Ozymandias has come out to the world as wealthy genius Adrian Veidt, capitalizing on his Ozymandias identity to better the world, and Rorschach continues to work as a vigilante, although one wanted by the law despite he the reason that many criminals are behind bars. When Blake is murdered, Rorschach, as the only one still on the streets, believes the murderer is out to kill all the Watchmen, despite any number of people wanting to kill the Comedian for being a misogynist. Evidence points to it perhaps having something to do with an imminent attempt of nuclear annihilation. Rorschach has to convince his colleagues, who he has not seen since their superhero days, of the validity of his theory for them to come out of retirement, which is no easy task. If they do, which will require them to overcome external forces which seem to be conspiring against them, they will have to discover both who killed the Comedian and why before they befall the same fate as him and/or before the mastermind is able to exact his larger grand plan.

  7. 7

    Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

    Stanley KubrickDP Gilbert TaylorIMDb 8.3TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    Paranoid Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper of Burpelson Air Force Base, believing that fluoridation of the American water supply is a Soviet plot to poison the U.S. populace, is able to deploy through a back door mechanism a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without the knowledge of his superiors, including the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Buck Turgidson, and President Merkin Muffley. Only Ripper knows the code to recall the B-52 bombers and he has shut down communication in and out of Burpelson as a measure to protect this attack. Ripper's executive officer, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (on exchange from Britain), who is being held at Burpelson by Ripper, believes he knows the recall codes if he can only get a message to the outside world. Meanwhile at the Pentagon War Room, key persons including Muffley, Turgidson and nuclear scientist and adviser, a former Nazi named Dr. Strangelove, are discussing measures to stop the attack or mitigate its blow-up into an all out nuclear war with the Soviets. Against Turgidson's wishes, Muffley brings Soviet Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky into the War Room, and get his boss, Soviet Premier Dimitri Kisov, on the hot line to inform him of what's going on. The Americans in the War Room are dismayed to learn that the Soviets have an as yet unannounced Doomsday Device to detonate if any of their key targets are hit. As Ripper, Mandrake and those in the War Room try and work the situation to their end goal, Major T.J. "King" Kong, one of the B-52 bomber pilots, is working on his own agenda of deploying his bomb where ever he can on enemy soil if he can't make it to his intended target.

  8. 8

    Being There (1979)

    Hal AshbyDP Caleb DeschanelIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Simple-minded gardener Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. home of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run-in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of Eve and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider.

  9. 9

    Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)

    Sam LiuIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    United States President Lex Luthor uses the oncoming trajectory of a Kryptonite meteor to frame Superman and declare a $1 billion bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel and his ‘partner in crime’, Batman. Heroes and villains alike launch a relentless pursuit of Superman and Batman, who must unite—and recruit help—to try and stave off the action-packed onslaught, stop the meteor Luthors plot.

  10. 10

    Long Shot (2019)

    Jonathan LevineDP Yves BélangerIMDb 6.8TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) is a gifted and free-spirited journalist with an affinity for trouble. Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is one of the most influential women in the world. Smart, sophisticated, and accomplished, she's a powerhouse diplomat with a talent for...well, mostly everything. The two have nothing in common, except that she was his babysitter and childhood crush. When Fred unexpectedly reconnects with Charlotte, he charms her with his self-deprecating humor and his memories of her youthful idealism. As she prepares to make a run for the Presidency, Charlotte impulsively hires Fred as her speechwriter, much to the dismay of her trusted advisors. A fish-out-of-water on Charlotte's elite team, Fred is unprepared for her glamorous lifestyle in the limelight. However, sparks fly as their unmistakable chemistry leads to a round-the-world romance and a series of unexpected and dangerous incidents.

What usa president films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a usa president frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — podium is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • podium12.2×
  • american flag10.8×
  • cape6.1×
  • suit5.8×
  • necktie4.6×
  • suit jacket4.1×
  • tie4.0×
  • military uniform3.1×

How usa president films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate usa president from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 15%closeupvs 21% baseline
  • 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Forrest Gump (1994) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,690 frames from 18 films carrying the usa president label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/usa-president

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