The Kidnapping of the President (1979)
Director: George Mendeluk
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Oh yeah. Verily. For it is he of Starship Enterprise (Shatner). He cometh and walketh with the American Prez in the valley of the shadow of death (a pedestrian mall in Toronto). He faceth up to the Cubans and Weathermen and psychos and he saith unto them: 'Fuck off. For we shall fear nothing. Especially not you creeps and Commies'. And they reply: 'Look upon us. We are Moloch and Satan. We come creeping forth as vermin on our bellies , the legacy of Chile and El Salvador and American imperialism. We take your Prez and hold him in our chariot (a booby-trapped armoured car), using implements of destruction from Hawaii Five-O, Mission Impossible and other halls of TV fame.' But Captain Kirk turns upon the Commies and Cubans and Weathermen, and his voice is as thunder, saying: 'Lo. I did once (in the '70s, in fact) what you do now, and I did it well. But I look upon you and ask, is it good? It is not good'. And there is a great flashing of lightning (TNT), a beating of brows and rattling of bones, and the Prez walks on, free, down the American Way with his wife on his right hand and Kirk on his left. For although we walk through the valley of crap...Author: CA
Cast & crew
Director: George Mendeluk
Producer: John Ryan, George Mendeluk
Cast: William Shatner, Hal Holbrook, Van Johnson, Ava Gardner, Miguel Fernandes, Cindy Girling, Elizabeth Shepherd full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 113 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.

What do you think?
Post your review now