"W" the Movie Review

The ads for controversial moviemaker Oliver Stone's latest project, "W", about guess who, make the film seem like a rollicking romp taking us through the 43rd President's frat boy days at Yale, his struggle to escape his father's long shadow, and lots and lots of "Bushisms". You know, the unique way George W. Bush expresses himself verbally. Or doesn't, in many cases.

While that is the gist of the film, except for the rollicking part, the film is more like Stone's Nixon than the uber-controversial JFK. It would be very unrealistic to expect many paying patrons of the film to change their minds on "W" as a result of the movie. As Dubya has said many times, "I don't do nuance" and viewers of the film aren't nuanced in their view of the lowest rated President in the history of Presidential polls, as Bush currently stands in the final months of his Presidency.

The film wasn't started until a few months ago and its' rushed October release is bound to set off a furor of right wing criticism that Oliver Stone is trying to influence the 2008 Presdident election with this "October surprise". Forget that, minds have been long made up about George W. Bush and it's hard to picture this film influencing many voters, unless it's Oscar voters, possibly for Elizabeth Banks as laura Bush, or a couple of other stars of the film.

The film's story is told in flashback form, often going back to Dubya's days at Yale, his losing Congressional race in 1978, his hard drinking days and other crucial points in Bush's life.

Contrary to GOP fears, Stone actually takes it pretty easy on Bush for the most part. The most damning words spoken about Bush or his agenda have always been his own and it is the same in the film. "Is our children learning", referring to Guantonomo as "guan-ton-amero" in a lunch with Dick Cheney, numerous examples of Bush's malaprops and verbal gaffes are presented here. One couldn't very well portray George W. Bush any other way and be accurate.

It is an excellent cast with Josh Brolin having "W" down to a "T", and Elizabeth Banks doing well as Bush's better half. Richard Dreyfuss is remarkable as Vice President Dick Cheney, Thandie Newton captures the essence of Condolezza Rice as the sniveling, sycophantic Secretary of State (Head of National Security at that time), and James Cromwell does a good turn as George H.W. Bush, called "Poppy" by the Bush clan.

Ellen Burstyn does well as Barbara Bush. Bush critics might say that Burstyn was a natural as the mother of George W. Bush, since Burstyn played the mother of Regan, the demon-possessed girl in 1973's The Exorcist. It's the second time she has played the mother of such a child, they might say. However, as I said earlier, Oliver Stone does not lead the film in that direction. Stone chose to play it straight on the religiuos aspects of George W. Bush, mostly.

Stone mainly shows such things as Bush leading cabinet meetings in a prayer and meeting with his spiritual adviser, played by Stacy Keach, without commentary. There are a few scenes in which Bush states that God has spoken to him, telling him to run for President, or God has led "W" to invade Iraq, that invite laughter from the audience.

The most telling scenes in the film are the inside look at cabinet meetings leading up to the Iraq invasion in early 2003 with Colin Powell opposing the invasion, Dick Cheney pushing hard for it, and Condi Rice, nicknamed "Guru" by Bush, seeming to "brown-nose" Bush by telling the President what he wanted to hear. For those who may doubt Oliver Stone on these points, this has been documented by Bush insiders, down to political director Karl Rove sitting in on such meetings.

For the most part, there's no new ground broken by the film, and that's one of the most disappointing aspects of "W". There's not much of this that I hadn't already read or heard. While the movie is well made, as one would expect an Oliver Stone film to be, and the cast is excellent, with the aforementioned cast plus Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld, the movie ultimately disappoints.

There are a couple of other interesting cast members, Bruce McGill as former CIA Director George Tenet for one. It is appropriate that McGill, best known for his portrayal of Delta House's "D Day" in Animal House, is in the midst of "W", which is basically about a Yale legacy frat boy trying to ecsape his father's shadow by becoming President and finishing the job his father did not finish in Iraq.

After losing the race for the U.S Congress in west Texas in the 70's, Brolin's Bush proclaimed: "I'll never be out-Texaned or out-Christianed in an election again" and it's easy to put two and two together to conclude that that feeling is what led Bush to Machiavellian campaign manager Karl Rove, who according to one book tarred a GOP rival in Texas as a closet gay to destroy the rival's attempt to become the top dog in the Texas Republican Party instead of Rove.

There is a cameo appearance by recently slain Little Rock, AR news anchor Anne Pressly as a blonde, conservative robo-pundit, not unlike so many who rule the TV airwaves at Fox News. In the role, Pressly was commenting on George W. Bush's manliness after the infamous appearance by Bush on the aircraft carrier in his G.I. Joe outfit in front of the "Mission Accomplished" banner. Why critics so ridiculed Michael Dukakis riding in a tank and let Bush off the hook for his photo op on that aircraft carrier, I'll never understand. Bush looked just as ridiculous in his getup, resembling a little boy trick or treating.

Sadly, Anne Pressly, regardless of what her politics might have been, passed away saturday Oct. 25 as a result of the injuries sustained in the brutal attack, a crime which remains unsolved.

As for "W" the movie, the film, while not as disappointing as the Bush Presidency must be to most of those who voted for him and all of us who didn't, falls well short of it's goal, if indeed Stone hoped to influence anyone. I personally doubt if that was Oliver Stone's goal, more likely Stone hoped to frame the Bush leagcy before the man leaves office in January. That, and to try to understand what has made Bush pursue disastrous policies at home and abroad, falling way short of even his father's legacy.

You see, I've always believed that what drove George W. Bush to seek the Presidency in the first place was his desire to avenge his father's defeat in "Poppy's" ill-fated run for a second term. Then, having achieved that, Dubya lusted to move out of his father's shadow by winning the 2nd term that escaped his Daddy. Then, thirdly, W's apparent goal was to finish the job in Iraq, which he believed his father had dropped the ball on.

Bush stubbornly clung to these personal goals to the detriment of his party and more importantly, the nation. Numerous articles from late 2000 and early 2001 predicted that Bush would invade Iraq and find a reason to do so. One of the main premises in "W" the movie is that Saddam Hussein wanted his own people to think he had WMDs to maintain his stranglehold on the people of Iraq and deter Iran or anyone else from invading his kingdom. The theory in "W" is that Saddam was sure Bush was bluffing when he warned Saddam and his henchmen to get out of Iraq.

Of course, our intelligence should have figured all this out, and in my opinion, the fact that Iraq had no WMDs would not have kept Bush from finding a "reason" to invade Iraq eventually anyway. According to the film, Bush thought he had some mission from God to spread democracy in the Middle East. At one point in the film Bush says something like "I don't care what form of 'gov'mint' Iraq chooses, as long as it's a democracy".

All in all, the film is not as funny as I thought it would be and it was hard to maintain attention to the end, what with the film plowing the same ground as many news reports the last 8 years. While worth seeing, it's no classic and don't go if you have a short attention span. Don't go expecting the film to be strictly Bush-bashing and Stone is certainly not a Bush apologist. If you are one of the ever-shrinking number of Bush supporters, you should probably skip this film, also.