Slaughter Nick for President (2012) Reviews

• The Positive Power of a forgotten Action Crime Drama

  shaaazbat572016-05-10

  'Slaughter Nick For President' begins with a narration that sounds like the opening of a Film Noir murder mystery, but then we realise that the narrator is the actor who played the protagonist for three years in a little known action crime drama from Canada called Tropical Heat or Sweating Bullets as it was called in Canada and the United States which played on television in the early nineties. On my local channel (HTV Wales) they were still thankfully repeating it almost ten years later. So the narrator of Slaughter Nick, actor Rob Stewart, tells us how he survived LA for ten years but by 2009 ended up broke and living with his parents in Ontario. In Serbia though, he's been famous for fifteen years and didn't even know it. 'Slaughter Nick For President' works on many levels, whether you're interested in European politics and the Serbian Government's tyranny during the time of the TV show or purely on an entertainment level and nostalgia for Tropical Heat fans. Quoting Nick from the show, "What's not to like". The documentary is a personal journey for Rob Stewart and how he comes to realise that the show he starred in (and gives no creative credence to) has helped to topple a dictatorial government in Serbia, and how his fictional character is a Serbian national hero. This is a powerful, personal and heartfelt documentary (with some humour) that deals with political oppression, overcoming the odds, and how television can change people's lives in a positive way. For actor Rob Stewart though, it brought a series of strange coincidences together and led him on a spiritual journey to Serbia and its people. My thanks to Marc Vespi, Liza Vespi and of course Rob Stewart for producing a documentary masterpiece.

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