W. (2008)

Brillant! A bio pic on a sitting president. I think this is the first time this has been done. Not only that, but a president that the country is so divided on. W. seems sort of doomed to begin with. Those on right will not take any negative criticism, and others want a conviction on George W. Bush. Then there is the fact that most people are tired of Bush, and probably do not see a movie about George W. Bush as entertainment.

As a film maker Oliver Stone has to make his main character, our president, likable enough that the audience cares about him and his story. You really like W. after watching this film. You feel sorry for him.

The story finds Bush after 9/11 and the time is during the events that lead up to the Iraq war and then the Iraq war quickly turning into a disaster. The movie shows events that lead up this moment using flash backs. According this movie W. thinks about his life a lot.

We meet the young George Bush Jr. in a Skull and Bones hazing ritual at Yale. We learn that he gets into trouble, has bad grads, and is a disappointment to his father. As he gets older we see W. as a womanizer, a man with a major drinking problem, and basically getting through life as spoiled rich boy with his father getting him out of jams often. There seems to be no end to what George H.W. Bush, W's. father, will go for him. However, young W. always pines for his father's acceptance and outward displays of affection, which seem to be hidden behind an old world waspy guard.

It is overly simplistic, as it is like Homer Simpson as George W. Bush, but get some broad brush stroke on the major events of his life. Nothing that Bush does is ever with malice. He is either having a good time or just dumb.

Oliver Stone doesn't show W.'s use of cocaine. This is probably because audiences don't like to see that. Audiences can accept alcoholism just so long as it is rehabilitated by the end of the movie.

The great part of the film is W. as president. While the back story was entertaining, the White House story is where Stone nails it.

So, how do you make a film depicting the events of the past almost eight years that are so horrific. Well, I guess you don't show them. The Bush administration has had a disaster to deal with every few months. First there was the dot-com bubble burst, then the biggest 9/11, then war in Iraq and hurricane Katrina , and now the financial meltdown. How could you put all of this in one film and do it justice? Well, Stone basically ignores it, except for Iraq.

This scenes, statements and situations are taken right from well documented news conferences, pictures and popular books that most people have seen on the evening news. The meetings were shown just has Paul O'Neal described them in Ron Suskind's book "The education of Paul O'Neal",and the description of the Dick Cheney's concept of the One Percent doctrine is done perfectly from Ron Suskind's book of the same name. The One Percent doctrine is if you think there is a 1% that something bad could happen you act like it is a 100% chance that it will happen. Of course , the problem with this is that it foregoes reason, probable cause, and means you are 99% wrong all the time. If you are familiar with other books on the Bush Administration you will see allusions them too. Not just Ron Suskinds.

The administration's chemistry and personalities seem pretty right on. If you are familiar with cover of the book Hubris that scene is recreated. Also, Bush's tendencies of giving people nickname will be found too.

The dynamic between the Colin Powell and the Neo-Cons seems to be as it has been written. That dynamic is that you have Colin Powell who is a military expert. and the Neo-Cons who see the world as through there ideological prism. They clash.

In the movie, W. is very much maneuvered by these Neo-Cons. W. wants to see the world as fitting into his own simple views.

Stone gives W. a very decent personality. He is not prejudice; more so than probably any president in history. He treats everyone the same respect no matter what social class they are in. He just seems over in his head, and is how the movie ends.

This is, of course, not a complete story. That is obvious. And it is not clear how much Stone got right, but it looks he did something right.

This is a very interesting movies. It is one that you want to talk about at length after it is over. In someways it is not really over yet.