Film: This Old House

White House Down is an ebullient romp which takes great delight in destroying the iconic capitol building and its contents in an imaginative variety of ways. But those who write it off as just another action movie are missing a trick.

Woven into this seemingly cliched and patriotic tale of protecting the president and saving the world, is another story - that of the shift in western politics from feudal system to cult of youth and celebrity. 

The White House, symbol of American government, is a museum, a historic monument for tourists. The baddies are old, white men, who come from within its staff and exploit its rigid systems to achieve their own aims. Our hero too is trapped by his own past, his future constrained by established patterns of behaviour in both his career and his personal life. 

Blasting through this tired, stuffy world comes a President with a new vision, going off-plan in his boy racer jet plane. He’s young, black, loves his branded trainers, and cuts up the White House lawn using Grand Theft Auto style driving skills.

Also ripping up the rule book is our hero’s teenage daughter, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of US politics and defeats the terrorists through an online blog - a classic case of ‘the geek shall inherit the earth’.

Our hero erases his own shameful history in one afternoon of wanton carnage, flouting all established rules in favour of unquestioning loyalty to the cult leader, whose recognition finally secures him the future he desires. 

In the end, the symbol of Old America has been thoroughly demolished, along with its records, relics and corrupt old men. Power now lies in the hands of those traditionally excluded from it - a person of colour, a failure and a child. Welcome to the new America.