With Liberty and Explosions For All

This year we have had two movies with the unlikely premise of terrorists taking over the White House. They have comparable casts and marketing, and the less discerning viewer might have trouble telling them apart. However, "White House Down" was directed by Roland Emmerich, the man behind such disaster epics as "2012," and "Independence Day." Now, I haven't seen what Antoine Fuqua did with "Olympus Has Fallen," but in my experience, when you have a silly, over-the-top concept like this, you want a man in charge who will not hesitate to put a rocket launcher in the president's hands. I'm happy to report that "White House Down" is more or less the kind of cheesy, red-blooded American action spectacular that Emmerich is best known for. However, where it bears any resemblance to reality is where it is the most problematic.

"White House Down" does capitalize on the popularity of first term President Obama, with the character of President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx), an African-American Commander in Chief trying to implement a peace plan in the Middle East that is upsetting the defense industry at home. Sawyer's security detail is headed up by Martin Walker (James Woods) and Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal). It's Walker who is in cahoots with a gang of terrorists, lead by a rogue agent (Jason Clarke) and a hacker, Skip Tyler (Jimmi Simpson), who blow up the Capitol building, invade the White House, and attempt to capture the president. Sadly, they have poor timing, as they execute their scheme on the very day when Channing Tatum, playing an Iraq vet named John Cale, comes to the White House to interview for a position with the Secret Service, and has also secured passes for himself and his 11-year-old vlogger daughter Emily (Joey King) to take the White House tour. Clearly, this highly skilled team of armed and dangerous mercenaries doesn't stand a chance.

If you know anything about how U.S. politics actually operates, how White House security measures are implemented in real life, or have any inkling of actual military tactics outside of what you see in the movies, "White House Down" makes no sense. However, if you you can get into the headspace that this all takes place in the magical world of big-budget action movies, "White House Down" is an awful lot of fun. Way too familiar and predictable, but fun. Channing Tatum has become an immensely likeable everyman action star, with just the right amount of down-on-his luck charm and humor to keep us rooting for him. Jamie Foxx is not playing Obama, but the kind of idealistic, super-competent diplomat with a secret inner badass that we secretly want him to be (and perhaps some believed he really was before the current morass of NSA and drone controversies came to light). The pair play off each other well, and the movie's best scenes are of them racing around the White House interiors, getting to know each other while avoiding the bad guys.

I'm also very grateful that Maggie Gylenhaal's character is nobody's love interest. Instead, she's our helpful point person over at the Pentagon, where the remaining members of the nation's government have gathered to ineffectually deal with the situation. She and several other trusty character actors like Richard Jenkins and Lance Reddick spend their scenes in front of large screens, helpfully relaying exposition and making utter nonsense sound kind of plausible. Little Emily also gets to be considerably more active than most movie kids in her position, though she quickly ends up being used as tearful leverage against the good guys. She is also given one of the most shameless bits of ultra-patriotic emotional manipulation to perform near the end of the film, something even the cheesiest of 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movies would have had trouble trying to get away with.

Emmerich avoids serious political commentary and jingoism - there are a few jabs at a Rush Limbaugh stand-in and the knee-jerk reactions of the cable news - but he can't avoid the whole film feeling a little too celebratory of America. Post 9/11 cynicism is entirely absent, which makes the film feel awfully old-fashioned and naive. It's funny that of all the impossible things that happen in the movie, from John Cale even getting to the interview stage of the hiring process in the first place, to a full scale car chase on the White House grounds, it's the positive, trusting attitudes of the heroes that are the least believable. The villains are all nutters, of course, but several of them have legitimate grievances that touch on some familiar controversies, so they could have easily been more sympathetic if this were a different kind of movie.

Thanks to the cognitive dissonances, it may be harder than it looks to turn your brain off and enjoy the film for what it is. As light entertainment "White House Down" does its job, and there are some delightful images involving fireballs and national monuments that evoked some momentary glee. But as 4th of July approaches, and the current administration remains in hot water, right now this kind of feel-good fantasy version of the American government in major crisis mode rubs slightly the wrong way.
---