My Fellow Americans

My Fellow Americans is a 1996 comedy film starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher also appear. The film is named for the traditional opening of Presidential addresses to the American people.

My Fellow Americans
Directed by	Peter Segal
Written by	E. Jack Kaplan Richard Chapman Peter Tolan
Produced by	Tracy Barone
Starring	Jack Lemmon James Garner Dan Aykroyd
Music by	William Ross
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	December 20, 1996
Running time	101 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$22,000,000

Originally Lemmon's perennial collaborator, Walter Matthau, was slated to co-star. However, health problems kept Matthau from appearing in the film and Garner was instead chosen to star opposite Lemmon in their only project together.

Former United States Presidents Russell P. Kramer (Lemmon) and Matt Douglas (Garner) have spent the past thirty years hating each other. The movie starts out with the Republican Senator Kramer of Ohio winning the Presidential election, narrowly defeating Democratic Indiana Governor Douglas in a very close race. We hear Kramer's trademark speech, "Our dreams are like our children ... " He says he hopes their stay in Washington is for a long time to come.

The film then skips forward four years, to the Democrat Douglas's landslide win over the incumbent Kramer. Kramer later states 80 million voted against him. By the end of his first term, Douglas is well-known for his infidelity. Then it skips forward another four years, to the point where Kramer's former Vice President William "Bill" Haney (Aykroyd) defeats Douglas. Haney's Vice President Ted Matthews (Heard) is widely seen as an idiot and becomes a continuing embarrassment for the Haney administration. Finally it skips ahead three years.

At this point, Kramer is spending most of his time writing a large number of books, and speaking at various inconsequential functions. Kramer continues to use the "Our dreams are like our children" line at every opportunity. Douglas is in New York, putting the finishing touches to his own book. Douglas is also going through a divorce. Kramer and Douglas are sent to a funeral aboard Air Force One by Haney, and spend almost the entire trip arguing with each other.

Soon, the Democrats find out about "Olympia", a series of kickbacks to a defense contractor named Charlie Reynolds (James Rebhorn) organized by Haney when he was Vice-President. Democratic Party Chairman Joe Hollis (Brimley) encourages Douglas to investigate further whilst Haney and his Chief of Staff, Carl Witnaur (Whitford, who appears in The West Wing in a similar role), plot to have Kramer take the blame. Hollis tells Douglas that the Democrats would support him if he wanted to run for office again. Douglas takes the offer hoping to beat Haney and get back into the Oval Office. When the rumors of Olympia begin to suggest that Kramer was involved, Kramer begins his own investigation.

At this point, Reynolds becomes very nervous. The NSA Chief, Colonel Paul Tanner (Everett McGill), arranges to assassinate Reynolds. White House officials then take both former Presidents on Marine One, and tell them that Haney wants to see them at Camp David. Some way into the flight, it turns out the helicopter is heading in the wrong direction, toward what will later be revealed as North Carolina. When Douglas realizes the error, he and Kramer force the pilots to land the helicopter. They leave just before the helicopter explodes.

Kramer and Douglas are left in the middle of nowhere. They decide to go to Kramer's Presidential Library in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio to obtain a record the penny-pinching Kramer kept of all meals served during his time in the White House, which will prove Haney was present at a key meeting with the contractor. During a series of misadventures, the two ex-Presidents meet a variety of ordinary Americans and see the effects their terms in office have had.

After several close encounters with NSA agents, they arrive in Ohio and discover there is no evidence. Whomever is behind the plot had broken into Kramer's Presidential Library and changed the official record of the meeting so it looks like Kramer met alone with Reynolds and not along with Vice-President Haney, as Kramer remembered the meeting. A security guard at the library hands Kramer a message from Reynolds secretary who was concerned about his "disappearance." The message mentions that President Haney's Chief-of-Staff had visited Reynolds. Douglas and Kramer then kidnap Witnaur and take him to Hollis's home, where he is forced to reveal the full plot to blame Kramer for "Olympia," which he admits was a Haney project.

When Douglas and Kramer mention the attempts to kill the Presidents, Witnaur is shocked and obviously knows nothing about it, indicating that it was all Tanner's doing, likely on Haney's orders. Hollis arranges for Douglas and Kramer to meet with journalist Kay Griffin to tell their story, but they decide to go straight to the White House to confront Haney directly.

Colonel Tanner knows that the two ex-Presidents will be coming to the White House and imposes strict security. Douglas and Kramer slip through with the help of a White House cook named Rita (Esther Rolle). They make it through to the Oval Office only to discover Haney is giving a press conference in the gardens, and the story of their deaths in a helicopter crash has been released to the press. The NSA traps them in one of the White House guest rooms, which was Tanner's plan. However, they use a secret tunnel in the room to exit the White House. They hijack and ride police horses through the grounds to get to Haney, pursued by the NSA, police and security. The two are finally saved when a Secret Service sniper recognizes them as the real Presidents Kramer and Douglas and decides to disobey orders to shoot them. Instead, he shoots Tanner, who is himself about to shoot the ex-Presidents.

Arriving in the middle of the president's speech, Douglas is reluctantly welcomed by Haney (Kramer's horse doesn't stop), and Douglas tells him they need to talk. Back in the Oval office, they play him a tape of his Chief of Staff's confession. Haney agrees to resign, whilst Douglas and Kramer are introduced to the sniper who saved them, who turns out to be a gay man they had encountered earlier in the film during a Gay Pride parade in West Virginia. As Haney delivers his resignation speech, Kramer and Douglas muse on Ted Matthews's elevation from Vice-President to President. They realize that the only way he could have become President was if something like this had happened.

Kramer and Douglas confront Matthews and he admits the truth, thinking he's now safe and explaining that his apparent stupidity was really just a "fakade" [sic]. But Kramer and Douglas have the last laugh, recording his admission for later release to the press. This leads to Matthews ouster from office and a stretch in a Federal Prison.

The film ends nine months later, with Matthews set to begin his prison term and Douglas and Kramer, running on the same ticket as independents in the Presidential election, arguing which of them will be the nominee for President. Douglas first takes the podium when he throws a dollar on the floor to distract Kramer. As Kramer bends over to pick up the dollar, Douglas takes the mic and says: "My fellow Americans." We assume he announces himself to be the nominee, but that fact is unknown.

First scenario:
The year is not mentioned, but Kramer's wife states that when Kramer fakes not drinking liquor, she says "Russell, don't do that, it's so George (H.W.) Bush," indicating that Kramer might have been President after Bush, winning the Republican nomination from him in 1992 and losing in 1996 to Douglas. In turn Douglas won the 1996 election and lost the 2000 election to Haney. Haney resigned in 2003 and Matthews served from 2003-2004.

• Russell P Kramer 1993-1997
• Matthew Douglas 1997-2001
• Bill Haney 2001-2004
• Ted Matthews 2004-2005

Second scenario:
The second scenario is that still keeping Bush in the timeline, Ronald Reagan served one term and chose not to run and Bush was President after. So Kramer won the nomination in 1989 and served until 1993. Douglas served from 1993 to 1997 and Haney was 1997-2000. Matthews must have served from 2000 to 2001.

• Russell P Kramer 1989-1993
• Matthew Douglas 1993-1997
• Bill Haney 1997-2000
• Ted Matthews 2000-2001

Third scenario:
A third scenario is that Ronald Reagan was assassinated by John Hinckley, Jr., and Bush served out the remainder of his first term. Kramer then won the nomination in 1984 and served until 1989. Douglas served from 1989 to 1993 and Haney was 1993-1996. Matthews must have served from 1996 to 1997.

• Russell P Kramer 1985-1989
• Matthew Douglas 1989-1993
• Bill Haney 1993-1996
• Ted Matthews 1996-1997

Fourth scenario:
Since Kramer states that his Omega Constellation watch was given to him by Mikhail Gorbachev, it places Kramer as President during the Cold War or slightly afterwards. Including President Bush and Reagan, who were mentioned in the film, and assuming that the movie is true to the 1996 timeline, as evidenced by the vehicles and music, the timeline follows as such.

• Ronald Reagan 1977-1981
• George H.W. Bush 1981-1985
• Russell P Kramer 1985-1989
• Matthew Douglas 1989-1993
• Bill Haney 1993-1996
• Ted Matthews 1996

However, it is worth noting that the Macarena is heard at a couple of different points during the Presidents' trip to Ohio, indicating that the action is meant to be taking place about the actual time of the film's 1996 release, at the height of the Macarena's popularity.

Most of the principal filming for the movie was done in the mountains of western North Carolina including scenes: along the Rocky Broad River where it flows into Lake Lure in Rutherford County, Dillsboro, along the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad; Waynesville, where a giant clown sign crashes through their windshield as they try to flee; and in Asheville, at the Biltmore Estate.^[1]

In Asheville, the downtown area stands in for an unnamed town in West Virginia. There, the Western Carolina University Marching Band portrays the "Marching Dorothys" (from the Wizard of Oz), at a gay pride parade.

• "Our dreams are like our children ..." - Kramer's catch phrase

• Kramer: When you were in the White House, who was the person you were most excited to meet?

Douglas: Nelson Mandela.

Kramer: I'm not a reporter.

Douglas: Ella Fitzgerald.

• Kramer: You could spit into a petri dish and create a whole new civilization

• Last lines of the movie.

(Douglas and Kramer argue over who runs for president)

Douglas: My fellow Americans.

Kramer: You son of a ...

• Douglas after licking the lid of Kramer's coffee: Decaf? You pussy.

• Kramer: The first penis?

Douglas: Actually, I think that's what I'm gonna call it from now on. What do you think, Blinky?

(Kramer gives him a creeped-out look)

• Kramer (commenting when Douglas wants to borrow $5 for a bacon burger): You want me to give you five dollars for a $1.95 hamburger? And you wonder why the Democrats are in trouble?

• Douglas (to Kramer who asks him what they do next after discovering they are on the wrong side of the White House lawn from Haney's speech): Who do I look like, fucking MacGyver? I'm making this up as I go!

• Ms. Kramer: (after Kramer fills a liquor bottle with water to amke it seem as if he didn't have any) "Don't do that with the liquor Russ, it's so George Bush"

• Kramer: Ever have one of her pizzas? It was like a wet dream with a crust. (referring to white house cook Rita)

Matthews: (after accidentally hitting an african-american bystander with a golf ball), "I am so sorry and I am embarrassed and I hope this doesn't scare you away from golf cause it's such a great sport. I know your people...the black people don't really like the game but I think that's cause you can't get into the good clubs..the restricted ones...but then again maybe it's time us white folks had a sport you black folks aren't so good at." (a demonstration of V.P. Matthews stupidity.)

Matthews: "you know it's funny everyone thinks I'm this big idiot but no one knows it was all a big facade (mispronounced fah-kade)."

Kramer: It's a kick in the balls, sorry sweetheart. Mrs. Kramer: Please, I'm a politician's wife, I have a set of my own.

Kramer: I was Time Magazine's man of the year Douglas: So was Hitler Kramer: Not twice.

Kramer: Ben, we're gonna need to borrow your car is that alright? Ben: Do I have a choice? Kramer: No. Ben: Then it's alright.

Our dreams are like our children

Don't fall into the trap, democrats are full of crap. (a talking Kramer doll available for purchase in his library.)

"Hail to the chief, he's the chief and he needs hailing, he is the chief so everybody hail like crazy" (Kramer's lyrics for "Hail to the Chief")

"Hail to the chief if you don't I'll have to kill you, I am the chief so you'd better watch your step you bastards" (Douglas' lyrics for "Hail to the Chief")

Douglas: Oh you wanna talk popularity? kramer: Yeah, let's talk popularity. There was only one assassination attempt on me, you had three Douglas: Two! The woman in Phoenix doesn't count...she only had a starter pistol.

• My Fellow Americans at IMDb
• James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show
• James Garner interview at Archive of American Television