ABSTRAK
This thesis is written based on the analysis of the film Olympus Has Fallen starred by an African American actor Morgan Freeman. It is aimed to explain how the film represents the leadership of a character of African American President named Allan Trumbull and how he handles his power as the president of the United States through him. It is a descriptive qualitative research in which the data are taken from the film Olympus Has Fallen in the form of dialogue, mise-en-scene, camera angle, frame or shot, lighting, sounds, and other cinematographic elements of the film. Meanwhile, the supporting data are retrieved from from books, journals, website pages, and other references. This is an American cultural studies research that employs some approaches and theories. There are two approaches: historical approach and sociopolitical approach; and three theories: race and ethnicity theory by Roderick A. Ferguson and Henry Yu , leadership theory by Victoria C. DePaul and Michael Siegel, and semiotics film theory by James Monaco and Jonathan Bignell. The research concludes that the film Olympus Has Fallen represents an African American president in which his followers and the American citizens are not bothered by the color of his skin and also how his blackness does not affect his approach to leading not only just his black community, but also to his country. The film also shows that an African American can be in the level of high ranking officer in the capital or even a president, since the U.S. Constitution does not provide any prohibition for certain races to be the president as long as they American citizens. Moreover, the way the African American handles the power in the film can be seen through his leadership qualities that led him to the accomplishment of his vision as the President of the United States. The character Allan Trumbull shows that he has leadership qualities: situational analysis, innovative, decision-maker, empowerment, risk-taker, vision, few major goals at a time, and intrapreneurial leadership. Keywords: African American, president of the United States, leadership, leadership quality