W. (Widescreen)
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Movie Reviews of W. (Widescreen)
Movie Review: Watched It Twice And Liked It Even Better The Second Time
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start off by saying that I am not a Republican nor did I vote for either Bush. So I started off viewing this movie expecting to see W skewered. I am pleasantly surprised that did not happen. Instead, I saw a complex portrait of the shaping of a man and a president over many years. I won't go as far as to say I am now sympathetic to Bush but I understand him and his choices better now. First, I was surprised to see how poorly W wore the Bush mantle. It was clear that everything W did was less than his father or grandfather or brother Jeb or any other Bush had done. He couldn't fail to miss this as his parents told him this constantly. What Bush senior failed to see though was that W could get in touch with the common man yet hold onto the elitist ones with some very conflicting personality traits. He became a born again Christian as a way of coping with his substance abuse problems. Somehow he managed to blend being born again with being a guy who had been to all the right schools, joined all the right clubs and gravitated to all the right people for his time in history. His parents were repelled by some of his choices: his being born again set up their Episcopalian backs plus his use of the death penalty repeatedly as governor of Texas was not something they'd want sitting in their own personal biographies. Clearly, Phi Beta Kappa Jeb who behaved like a true Yale man was more the Bush son they liked to embrace. Yet the very way W talks in his down home voice, loves baseball and follows it religiously, is a guy anyone would "like to share a beer with" and is the life of the party at any frat party or down home barbeque--all of this serves W very, very well with the voters. In short, he is not off putting like the rest of the elitist Bushes. W seems to genuinely love his country and wants to restore it to bigness. He goes about this more like a guy who owns a baseball team than a President, which is actually what he did for a living and what he loved doing. Thus, by the end of the movie when he is in the outfield with his mitt, eternally ready to catch that long baseball hit, the look on his face is one of total all out bewilderment. He is also entirely alone out in the outfield. This is W by the end of his presidency in a nutshell.
Actually, W's underlings come off a lot worse than he does in this film. Right at the top of the heap of awfulness is Richard Dreyfus playing Cheney and, boy, does Dreyfus nail Cheney as a character.
I should have realized Oliver Stone could pull this off. Josh Brolin does a heck of a job as W. He has become an incredibly fine actor and I am looking forward to each and every performance of his. I liked this movie the first time but I thought it was terrific the second time. Oliver Stone rarely disappoints as a film director. A lot of people detest him but they fail to view him solely as a film director, rather than as an obnoxious personality in real life. He shoots himself in the foot every time he opens his mouth off set and would do himself a big favor if he stopped giving interviews. As a director, he is still one of our finest talents.
Movie Review: Hands Down, My Favorite Stone Movie!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
After all the rancor surrounding Dubys'a administration has somewhat subsided, this is actually a fitting "homage" to George W. Bush. While this is of course Stone's interpretation of the supposed machinations behind our entry into the War in Iraq as well as a rather candid look at the man behind the man, in all honesty, Stone's vision is not far off what I myself imagined.
For those looking for a scathing review of Dubya, you will be sorely disappointed. As a matter of fact, I felt a very strong sense of empathy for the ex-president after seeing this and coupled with how VERY classy I think he is behaving these days, regardless of what I thought of his decisions/actions while in the White House, Stone indeed makes him very human and quite frankly George should be rather proud of this depiction of him.
Stone tells the story in a sort of parallel chronology. He juxtaposes George's wild days with him in serious talks with his cabinet re the Iraq War. This works quite well because the contrasts are so stark: one moment we see a guy being dressed down by Daddy Dear for being a perpetual screw-up and then, with him, we are thrown in the midst of very serious talks with the likes of Karl Rove, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney.
The performances (..well,..except maybe one) are spellbinding. Josh Brolin is positively as Dubya, Richard Dreyfuss is positively sickening as Dick Cheney (flawless performance, however), Toby Jones works quite well as Karl Rove, James Cromwell paints a much tougher picture of George Sr than the general public has, Ellen Burstyn (who is ALWAYS fabulous) just WORKS Barbara Bush, Elizabeth Banks was just perfect as Laura, and last but hardly least, Jeffrey Wright is simply OFF THE CHAIN!! as Colin Powell.
Indeed the "weirdest" performance was that of Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice. Her performance was eerily reminiscent of a Saturday Night Live skit where Condoleeza was portrayed by none other than Janet Jackson (right after the Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction."). The end result being that even in the midst of some of the most serious conversations about the validity of engaging in a war with Irag, the other players came across most compelling, while Condoleeza Rice's depiction was entirely too comical. No matter WHAT she said, I burst into uncontrollable laughter. And to be fair to Thandie, a very decent actress, the Rice character was nowhere nearly as fleshed out as the others and sadly so. It would have indeed been interesting to get at least a GLIMPSE of just where her head was in the midst of the madness. This is also the most glaring omission and my loudest complaint because Stone missed a golden opportunity to include a feminine perspective that quite frankly was sorely needed.
Notwithstanding, this was an honest and VERY entertaining look at Dubya - The Man Who Would Be President. I hiiiiiiiiighly recommend!!!
Movie Review: BRILLIANT CHARACTER STUDY OF FATHER AND SON.
Summary: 5 Stars
This may not be the George Bush movie that one would expect from Oliver Stone but it is fascinating and compelling nonetheless. He places more focus on the person and less on the policies although they are covered to the degree that someone who hasn't picked up a paper in the last six years would get the drift of what was happening. For those of us who know the history all too well we see these policy meetings, such as they are, with the amount of gravitas that they deserve. For the political discussions Bush is way over his head and baffled and at times doesn't want to be bothered with details. This is accurate to the accounts that I've read about him as a president.
However, this film is much deeper than that, and is not about tearing apart his presidency as one might expect. This is more of a study of a morally flawed, and not particularly bright man who strives out of a necessity to prove his father, George H.W. (played by James Cromwell), wrong about his abilities as a person and his will to succeed. Stone has done a number of films with the father/son theme (Wall Street, Platoon, etc) but this one is different in that it more bluntly confronts the differences and the tensions between the two.
It's a non-linear experience, as one should expect of a Stone film by now. It wades in the less known waters of Bush's life as a younger man who was a party guy, getting into trouble, and being a failure at everything he tried his hand at, all of which was set up for him by his powerful father.
Josh Brolin does a fantastic job portraying the younger Bush as one who doesn't necessarily care about success quite as much as he cares about proving his father wrong by succeeding. Pretty much everything he does is against his father's wishes as he thinks that if G.W. goes into politics that he will ruin it for Jeb who is the favored son.
We know most of the history but Stone presents it all in a compelling way that made me feel as if I were in the briefing rooms with the staff as they later gave Bush information and poor suggestions. Jeffrey Wright does a fantastic job as Colin Powell who seems to be the lone voice in the room against preemptive strikes. The rest of the cast is no less brilliant and it is interesting, to say the least, to see Toby Jones play Karl Rove. The rest of the casting is equally brilliant: Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss), Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn), and Condolizza Rice played by Thandie Newton are all impressive and lend more command and fortitude to the film.
If you think this is a hit piece on the Bush presidency, it is not and you should watch it. It is Oliver Stone's impressions of the man, his life, and his relationships that just happen to have the backdrop of the most powerful political family in the country.
I give it all 5 stars and will watch it again.
Kevin W. Mattingly
Harrisburg Times.
Movie Review: The Dubya disaster
Summary: 5 Stars
George W. Bush is a man who was unqualified for every single job he's ever held. This would not be such a big deal if his chosen profession were as a shoe salesman or a bartender, but the job he hoodwinked people into thinking he could handle was none-other than President of the United States of America.
This is an inquisitive film which delves into his hellraising days at Yale (where he seemingly did everything BUT study) on up through to his ascension to governor & eventually president. I knew about his "issues" with trying to out-do dear-old-dad as prez, but I was unaware about the familial jealousies he had regarding his brother Jeb. Without holding a palavar on Dubya, Oliver Stone has done an impressive job in this film of psycho-analyzing what is perhaps the least intellectual president this country has ever seen.
The casting of the film was quite good, featuring James Brolin as Dubya and Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney. Dreyfuss carries an uncanny resemblance to the former VP, and they both capture the mannerisms of their characters nicely. Elizabeth Banks is a top notch actress, but her portrayal of Laura Bush was not ditzy enough for my liking. This is not a knock on Banks, but is rather a knock on the writers of the film. If the film were truly accurate, Laura Bush would have been depicted as being as clueless as Dubya more than 1/2 the time.
There are Conservatives who will scream that this movie is a hatchet-job. They can scream all they want, but they still can't change history. That the incursion into Iraq was a debacle is as clear as our involvement in Vietnam. The movie doesn't even go into Dubya's blunders in Katrina or his de-regulation & out-sourcing initiatives which led to the economic crisis that we now find ourselves in. If anything, the film actually makes us a little bit sympathetic to a man who got in WAY over his head.
As a Liberal, I can admit that Jimmy Carter was not a good president. It amazes me that there are still(!) so many Conservatives out there who want to defend Dubya's reputation at all costs. Sadly for all of us, the Bush administration was the most incompetent administration since that of Herbert Hoover, and the most corrupt administration since that of Richard Nixon. George W. Bush was the most ineffective leader of any American president since Franklin Pierce. This film tells the story of Dubya. It's not pretty, but it's accurate.
Movie Review: The Life of W
Summary: 5 Stars
Oliver Stone's latest film, W. is one that will, not surprisingly, attract a lot of controversy. How you feel about it will likely depend on your political views. Me, well, I'm a total flaming liberal, and I found the movie... enjoyable. Great, but not perfect.
The movie might as well be called "George W Lives in His Daddy's Shadow", since most of the movie centers around the feelings of inadequacy that young W feels. We see him going through hazing at his fraternity, running for office in Texas (and having the Democratic candidate to him what he would go on to do to others so very well), and eventually see him getting to the White House.
One at the White House much of the story centers around the lead up to the Iraq War. We get glimpses back to the early 1990's showing why the first President Bush didn't go all the way to Baghdad, we see George Tennant (played by the wonderful Bruce McGill, who could also play a dandy Bill Richardson), trying to explain, repeatedly, that there's no evidence of nukes in Iraq, and we see Cheney's master plan for the USA to control as much of the world's oil as we can.
Josh Brolin is really excellent as W. He doesn't have the look, but rather like Anthony Hopkins in one of Oliver Stone's other, better films, Nixon, he does capture the body language and the voice of Bush 43. Other notable performances are Jeffery Wright as Colin Powell, Richard Dreyfus as Dick Cheney and, in one of his better performances, James Cromwell as Bush 41.
The movie lags at parts and frankly I would've liked to have seen more about Bush as President than Bush as booze-hound or Bush as born again Christian. Still and all, it was a decent enough film and worth seeing, if for no other reason than my favorite line from the film where Bush Sr tells W something along the lines of, "You can't spend your life drinking, partying and chasing women! You're not a Kennedy, for God's sake!"
And he's right. George W Bush is many, many things, but he's certainly no Kennedy.