Director Alan Smithee enjoyed a long and varied career in Hollywood, directing such diverse films as Death of a Gunfighter; The O.J. Simpson Story; and Hellraiser: Bloodline. From 1968 to 2000 he was credited for dozens of films and despite officially retiring a decade ago, his name still appears now and again if one looks hard enough. Despite this impressive resume, he remains largely unknown to this day.
You may be wondering what exactly is so special about this particular director that he should now warrant your attention. After all, aren't there countless numbers of directors whose careers have eventually been all but forgotten by the general public? Well yes that is true, and in that respect there really is nothing terribly out of the ordinary about Alan Smithee. What sets Mr. Smithee apart from the myriad of other forgotten directors is the fact that Alan Smithee never existed.
For over thirty years Alan Smithee was the official pseudonym used by members of the Director's Guild of America who felt that they had lost, or never had, control over the final outcome of their film. The aggrieved director would petition the DGA for an “Alan Smithee” credit and if the guild agreed that the director's vision had been compromised by forces outside of his control, his request would be granted. This practice prevented a director from having his name attached to a film he wasn't particularly proud of while simultaneously allowing the film to be released without the black mark of having had its director publicly disown it. After many years of use this face-saving tactic became somewhat of an open secret within Hollywood and was eventually discontinued.
While Alan Smithee may no longer be working in the film industry, it seems that he is primed to make a comeback of sorts on the political scene thanks to President Obama.
A year and a half after assuming office, President Obama still continues to point the finger of blame towards his predecessor at every opportunity. The prolonged economic downturn? He inherited that from President Bush. Skyrocketing unemployment? Again, Bush. The projected 20-trillion dollar debt by 2015? You guessed it. All President Bush's fault.
Why according to President Obama, even his own party's stunning loss in Massachusetts at the hands of Republican Scott Brown was the direct result of President Bush.
“People are angry and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”
-President Obama, on the election of Scott Brown
So the election of a Republican in Ted Kennedy's former seat had more to do with the residual anger the citizens of Massachusetts felt towards President Bush, a Republican, than it did with the actions and policies of the current Democrat majority under the leadership of President Obama? If we are to believe President Obama, yes.
With the economy showing little signs of recovery, the national debt exploding to absurd levels, and support for his redistributive policies continuing to dwindle (along with his approval ratings), I can foresee only one logical response for President Obama. Since, as he has made abundantly clear, his presidency has never been and apparently never will be fully under his control due to the actions of the previous officeholder, he certainly shouldn't be held responsible for his administration's numerous failures. It seems the only viable option for Mr. Obama is to dust off that old Hollywood tradition and begin petitioning historians and school boards around the world as soon as possible. If he acts now he can guarantee that long after he leaves office the history books will tell the tale of the disastrous presidency of Alan Hussein Smithee.
A terrible shame that the first black president should have to suffer such an ignoble fate, but as we all know, that will be President Bush's fault, too.
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