‹ All movies

The Rewatchables ·

Dave

year 1993decade 90sdirector Ivan Reitmangenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Sean Fennesseyhost Amanda Dobbins
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 20:31

Ving Rhames's 'I would have taken a bullet for you' farewell

Six nominees are offered, starting with the scene when Dave becomes Mitchell's stand-in, is taught the part, runs into the guy and then goes out and does God Bless America; it has the right dramatic tone and is really fun.

Second is the montage when President Mitchell is feeling better, with the 'I once caught a fish this big' moment, the early-nineties shows like the McGoughlin group (as transcribed) and real senators weighing in, nicely edited and finishing with the first pitch at the Orioles game at Camden Yards, probably shot right before a real game started; third is Dave fixing the budget in four minutes, one of a host's favorite scenes in movie history.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 59:03

"Why can't you die from a stroke like everyone else?"

Nominated lines: 'why can't you die from a stroke like everyone else?', 'you're a flea, you're a blip', the exchange 'I'm going to kill him / you can't kill a president / he's not a president, he's an ordinary person, I could kill an ordinary person, I could kill a hundred ordinary people', and then the speech.

The film

Dave (1993)

Directed by Ivan Reitman · Drama

110 minutes

IMDbLetterboxdJustWatch
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Kevin Kline Dave Kovic/President William Harrison Mitchell
Sigourney Weaver Ellen Mitchell
Frank Langella Bob Alexander
Kevin Dunn Alan Reed
Ving Rhames Duane Stevenson
Ben Kingsley Vice President Gary Nance
Charles Grodin Murray Blum
Faith Prince Alice
Laura Linney Randi
Tom Dugan Jerry
Stephen Root Don Durenberger
Ralph Manza White House Barber
Bonnie Hunt White House Tour Guide
Anna Deavere Smith Mrs. Travis
Charles Hallahan Policeman
Stefan Gierasch House Majority Leader

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

14:23

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:23Read transcript
  • Roger Ebert came through with three and a half stars, writing that this movie is more proof that it isn't what you do, it's how you do it, and that Ivan Reitman's direction and Gary Ross's screenplay use intelligence and warm-hearted sentiment to make wonderful light-hearted entertainment.
  • A host jokes that the it-isn't-what-you-do axiom could apply to Ebert's entire career as discussed on this show, that the archives don't lie, and that it isn't about two stars but what's inside the two stars.
Share this discussion More Roger Ebert's review answers
36:21

Casting What-Ifs

Arnold Schwarzenegger batted around when Warner Brothers wanted a box-office star; Warren Beatty and Kevin Costner co...

Arnold Schwarzenegger batted around when Warner Brothers wanted a box-office star; Warren Beatty and Kevin Costner considered, with Beatty bringing Dave to Ivan Reitman; Robin Williams considered; Kevin Kline almost turned it down as too close to his A Fish Called Wanda character

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:21Read transcript
  • Warner Brothers wanted a box office star and Arnold Schwarzenegger was batted around at one point, which is weird for a variety of reasons, though a host jokes he could have pulled off the Laura Linney cheating scenes; both Warren Beatty and Kevin Costner were considered, and Beatty took it seriously enough that after deciding not to do it he brought Dave to Ivan Reitman, which is how Reitman got the movie.
  • Costner is interesting but one voice doesn't think it works; he had the most power of his career right around then and basically plays Bob Alexander in 13 Days (as transcribed), so he has some interest in the executive branch; Kevin Kline almost turned it down because he thought the character was too close to his Fish Called Wanda character, which none of the hosts can see.
  • Casting what-ifs are blown early: this was almost a Robin Williams movie, which is 90% likely a disaster and 10% likely a reined-in Dead Poets Society performance; Kevin Kline being such a good and subtle actor keeps the ridiculous premise from becoming a circus show of clown ideas, whereas Williams's big expressive face riding that pig would make you ask what ridiculous movie this is, and how could two people look like Robin Williams.
Share this discussion More Casting What-Ifs answers
38:19

Half-Assed Internet Research

The Oval Office set was reused more than 25 times; Bill Clinton gave Gary Ross an autographed script and a photo with...

The Oval Office set was reused more than 25 times; Bill Clinton gave Gary Ross an autographed script and a photo with a Dave mug; Barack Obama told Kevin Kline he loves Dave; a musical opened in 2018; Nelson Rockefeller's 1979 death with his assistant; Woodrow Wilson's 1919 stroke and his wife running the presidency; the impersonator scene was added late in the shoot; Ivan Reitman's wife and son Jason play Vice President Nance's family

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:19Read transcript
  • The film's Oval Office set was reused more than 25 times, including for The Pelican Brief, Hot Shots Part Deux and Absolute Power in the 90s, which makes sense since everyone has seen a million pictures of the Oval Office; a nerdy aside notes the residence here is like no other White House residence on film, with a president's bedroom totally different from the identical Sorkin bedroom in The American President and The West Wing, this one quite large and full of red velvet with the bed really far from the other furniture; Hot Shots Part Deux will never get a Rewatchables.
  • Bill Clinton surely approved of a film that gives hope and optimism to the presidency: he gave Ross a framed autographed script calling it a funny, often accurate lampooning of politics, plus a picture of himself holding a Dave mug, though a host adds you can't really trust Clinton saying he likes something.
  • Barack Obama once told Kline he loves Dave and watches it when depressed because it makes the job look fun and easy; the hosts debate whether the line about the current president rooting for Mitchell was Obama's or Kline's, a punctuation issue, and find it weird for Obama, who did that job for eight years, to care what a movie says about it.
  • A musical based on the movie opened in 2018, and President Mitchell's stroke apparently really happened: Nelson Rockefeller, the former vice president and New York governor, died in 1979 at 70 during an encounter with his 22-year-old assistant, though the hosts think he probably wasn't in office at the time and nobody found a Rockefeller lookalike to bring out in front of the people of New York.
  • Woodrow Wilson, two years into his second term in 1919, had a stroke that left him semi-paralyzed, partially blind and mentally incapacitated, and since the 25th Amendment had not been ratified his wife took the presidency for the last two years; a century later it is still not known how bad it was, and a host feels like being in history class with Dr. Bill.
  • The Wilson story is pitched as the greatest hundred-years-ago Hulu series, the First Lady in 1919 taking things over, with a joke about ending the pod to open Final Draft.
  • The scene where Dave and the First Lady are presidential impersonators was added late in the shoot because Reitman didn't buy that those two would click and felt they needed something leading to that scene; the hosts agree you can't go from 'I hate you' to 'you're a stranger' to 'hey'.
  • Ivan Reitman's wife and son play the wife and son of Vice President Nance as he is sworn in at the end; the son is Jason Reitman, who became a famous director, so look for him in the Nance scene.
Share this discussion More Half-Assed Internet Research answers
51:07

Picking Nits

A body double hired just to cover the president's affair; whether body doubles have ever really happened; Dave's temp...

A body double hired just to cover the president's affair; whether body doubles have ever really happened; Dave's temp agency during the five months; the confusing fall-to-fall timeline; the stroke never leaking; the hush payouts are far too low; the balcony security risk; the president and First Lady getting back into the White House; the everyone-gets-a-job program; why Bob didn't just let the VP take over; the First Lady turning around too quickly

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:07Read transcript
  • A counterpoint argues there is no hole, the movie is perfect and the second best ever made; nit number one is that they found a body double so the president could carry on with a staffer when he could have done that anyway, since he comes in and out of her office multiple times.
  • On body doubles generally: a host thinks it has definitely happened in American history, before the internet or even the cable news era, recalling the Melania body double theory; others accept it may have happened for a diversion when someone was sick but never to this extent, and even Nixon's distinctive face would be hard to replicate.
  • What happened to Dave's temp agency during the five months he was president? Faith Prince was crushing it on the phones, and he had called to say he met a Polynesian gal and was going to Hawaii to get married, with 'she was amnesian' one of the stickiest lines in the movie; a host asks at what point anyone would wonder if they disappeared from the Ringer for five months, with a joke that Chris Connelly replaced Dave at the agency.
  • The timeline is confusing: it is fall when the movie starts and fall when it ends, yet the closing voiceover says the real president was in a coma for five months before he passed away, left intentionally ambiguous; and a lot of people knew about Mitchell's stroke coma, yet it never leaked and there were no rumors.
  • The payouts are extremely low, 50K, 50K, 100K and one doctor asking to head the CDC, as learned in the Alan and Bob Alexander conversation; the president having a stroke on top of his secretary would be a 5 million dollar National Enquirer scoop and the biggest story in the history of American politics, so you always need to ask for more.
  • Dave wandering the balcony as President Mitchell, looking out at the monuments, seems like a security concern with a sniper a mile away in some hotel; another host counters that roof and air rights around the White House are locked down and that on the factual television show Scandal the Truman Balcony is used constantly; the nit is waved off as not the biggest concern in a movie where a lookalike becomes president, and listeners are told to email.
  • The president and First Lady leave the White House and are simply let back in at the front gate, which is more unrealistic than leaving, since the guard can't know it's really them, and it certainly isn't him; bad security.
  • President Mitchell's jobs program, everyone who wants one gets a job, the Oprah plan with a direct comparison to FTR (as transcribed), is probably the most unrealistic part, since a real president saying that would be destroyed; the press laughs and is then won over by the 'look on somebody's face the day they finally get a job' speech, which is played, but Dave runs a temp agency and nobody sings from the rafters about a temp job, though the speech is moving and good acting.
  • Why wouldn't Bob just let the VP take over and bulldoze him? Because the boy scout might not keep him on as chief of staff; the random-temp-agency-stooge plan isn't really thought out, Bob just sees an opportunity after an unforeseen stroke, it's a bad plan, and Vice President Nance is a good and decent public servant who wouldn't suffer a devious fool like Bob Alexander in his administration.
  • Parked for nitpicks during the research block: the Sigourney Weaver character still turns around pretty quickly, one sandwich and she wants to keep the coup going, though a host defends it as falling for the sweet, decent version of the person you first loved who looks exactly like him; the real objection is less the attraction than her signing on to the illegal operation and pushing major legislation, while others point to the balanced budget, Ted Bundy's death-row romance, the shower, and how weird it would be to see a spouse of 30 years suddenly do a magic trick.
Share this discussion More Picking Nits answers
1:03:10

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Who would divorce Dave? Would Dave ever come clean that he had been president for five months? What did the First Lad...

Who would divorce Dave? Would Dave ever come clean that he had been president for five months? What did the First Lady's reaction to Dave in the shower mean?

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:10Read transcript
  • Dave was divorced in this movie: who would divorce such a good guy and why did the marriage fall apart? Theories: he is a magic-trick-spewing charlatan who forces his friend to hire people to sustain his business, flighty and impressionable about stumbling into the arrangement, and based on his Oklahoma rendition he may sing too much at home; is Dave a great hang or a tough hang after three years?
  • Would Dave, running for office later, ever come clean that he was actually the president for five months? Should he? No, he would be arrested, maybe not for treason but impersonating a government official is a crime and this is literally a coup d'etat, so even though Dave did a great job, don't go around admitting it.
  • The shower scene: based on the First Lady's reaction, was Dave more or less healthy than President Mitchell? A host has been preparing this since the episode was announced; the reaction is coy and unclear, the common male reaction to the movie is that she should have recognized the difference, but after not seeing each other naked in a long time that is hard; the lean is that she was genuinely impressed, with shower conditions an X factor.
Share this discussion More Probably Unanswerable Questions answers