Tom Hanks as the American President, at Least in a Movie

COMMENTARY | Tom Hanks has an all-American air about him that has served him well in such films as "Forrest Gump," "Apollo 13," and "Saving Private Ryan." He would be a natural for the role of president of the United States.

Hanks has been offered the role of president as action hero in a film called "Patriot Down." The premise is that Air Force One has gone down over Afghanistan and the president has to go on the run to make it to the nearest coalition base without being captured by the Taliban. The scenario is somewhat similar to that of "Air Force One" that had Harrison Ford as president fighting off Slavic terrorists who had hijacked the aircraft in exchange for their imprisoned leader.

Hanks has been in a film that dealt with Afghanistan before, "Charlie Wilson's War," in which he played the colorful congressman who helped to provide support for the Afghan Mujahadine fighting against the Soviet Red Army.

First, the nit-picking. One suspects that during those occasions when the president visits our fighting men and women beyond the Khyber Pass, the scenario of him being shot down in Taliban territory has been wargamed extensively. Air Force One is accompanied by a fighter escort, which would provide top cover for the crash site before the smoke cleared. A special ops team would likely have been prepped on stand-by for that occasion and would be airborne within moments.

One would have to assume that the writers of "Patriot Down" will have figured out a way around this and developed a plausible scenario that has an American president lost in Afghanistan's hills. One suspects that Hanks' president will be a war veteran, perhaps of Afghanistan, and would have survival and weapons skills that would be necessary for him to last through the length of the movie.

One does not know what Hanks' attitude toward the war of terror is. He is an Obama supporter to the extent of being mawkish about it, citing as his reasons the president saving "billions of jobs" at General Motors and Chrysler as well as the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. He, nevertheless, is not given to saying alarming things - most of the time. The last time Hanks said something that was off-putting was on the occasion of the release of his miniseries "The Pacific," when he referred to the Pacific War as a racist war.

If Hanks can keep that sort of thing out of "Patriot Down," provided he accepts the role, and concentrate on the heroics of his character and that of the coalition forces, the evil of the Taliban, and the plight of the Afghan people, the movie will do well. Hanks, at his best, is the Jimmy Stewart of our age and would do well in such a role.