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The Celluloid President

The Celluloid President

Written by: Gary Holmes
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About this listen

Jim Robinson and Gary Holmes met at college and have been talking about politics ever since. In addition to being presidential history buffs they are former aides to top politicians, and both have written for Ronald Reagan. They're here to discuss movies on American presidents. Each podcast focuses on what Hollywood is trying to tell us about America by using a president as a lead character. Join us for provocative insights, opinions and recommendations as we examine the celluloid president.

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Episodes
  • Warren Beatty's "Shampoo"

    Warren Beatty's "Shampoo"
    Jan 15 2026

    Warren Beatty has long insisted that his sex farce "Shampoo" set on the night in 1968 when Richard Nixon was elected President, was a political satire. But was it really, or does it tell us more about the 1970s than it does the 1960s?
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Netflix's "Death by Lightning" --The Assassination of James Garfield

    Netflix's "Death by Lightning" --The Assassination of James Garfield
    Dec 19 2025

    "Death by Lightning is a four-part Netflix series about the assassination of President James A. Garfield in 1881, which despite sounding pretty esoteric, is an absorbing depiction of a moment in time during the Gilded Age. Jim and Gary discuss whether this event has any lessons for us today and wrestle with the important question: what's up with all the beards?
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    1 hr
  • Peter Sellers in "Being There"

    Peter Sellers in "Being There"
    Nov 19 2025

    In possibly his greatest movie role, Peter Sellers plays Chance, a simple-minded gardener whose mundane observations are taken as oracular epigrams and metaphors that take the political establishment by storm. "Being There" has a lot to say about our gullibility and our habit of hearing what we want to hear. Once widely lauded as a hilarious and biting commentary about politics, the movie is now rarely in the conversation about great political films but it is as timely today as it was in 1979.

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    1 hr and 1 min
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