The Hunting of the President

By PETER CALDER

(Herald rating: * * * )

This week's events have moved this documentary, depicting what Hillary Rodham Clinton called "the vast, right-wing conspiracy" to destroy her husband's presidency, into the domain of political archaeology.

That's not to say it's without interest, though it rather undermines its claim to be taken seriously by a musical score that belongs in a horror movie and the tiresome use of stock footage inserts to underline the point it is making. These inserts may illustrate abstract ideas - telephone-tapping, for example - or make the point that a given Clinton-hater might be a dumb hick by showing a picture of another dumb hick, but either way they are irritating and intrusive.

Based on the book of the same name by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, the film does a credible and creditable job of demonstrating that the campaign to impeach Clinton was, as one of the Clinton White House political strategists puts it, "an attempted coup d' état". In assembling the case against the conspirators - and in particular special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, for whom the phrase "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth" might have been coined - the film-makers create a labyrinthine narrative peopled by an almost Gothic cast.

Co-director Thomason is a close friend of the Clintons and the film makes no attempt to disguise its partisan leanings. Neither does it let Clinton off scot-free. But they are balanced by those like James Carville, the Clinton campaign adviser who was one of the stars of the fabulous documentary The War Room: "We have all done silly things," he says, "but most of us haven't had 1000 people spending US$80 million looking into them."

Given what has happened since in the "land of the free" - in particular the curtailment of freedoms in the name of preserving freedom - this film's claims don't seem very far-fetched.

What's more telling is that, as we watch it, it all seems so long ago: we might gaze wistfully back at a time when our biggest worry about the US president was whether he could keep his trousers zipped.

DIRECTORS: Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry

RUNNING TIME: 89 mins

RATING: PG

SCREENING:Academy