For our 300th’ post I thought we’d get back to basics with the most ‘W’ film you can get : ‘W.’.
This Oliver Stone bio-pic of the 43rd President of the United States was well observed and entertaining, but I doubt anyone watching it comes out knowing the protagonist any better.
The film employs a non-linear narrative with key moments in Bush’s life shown in flashback, with the year involved captioned to keep you right. We open in the White House as Bush and his cabinet of familiar faces discuss his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech. It’s 2002 and he’s plotting how to topple Saddam Hussein, and finish the job his father started in Gulf War One.
He railroads any objectors and finishes the meeting with a quick prayer. We are then transported back to 1966 with the young George applying to join a frat house. He does well in the company of the beery rabble rousers and we soon see him in jail following a football match fight whilst he’s at Yale. His dad, GB Senior, bails him out but he’s disappointed in him and it’s clear that his brother Jeb is the preferred offspring.
George stumbles through a variety of jobs, none of which he stays at for long. He has a drinking issue and is a disappointment to his Dad, James Cromwell, who is probably distracted with that troublesome pig. We jump back and forth with a present day Dick Cheney trying to get George to sign off on Guantanamo Bay torture with the bold George reminding him that ‘I’m the President’.
The path to the White House is however long with George losing his first bid for congress in 1977, but meeting his wife Laura (Elizabeth Banks) along the way. Fast forward to 1986 when George has a heart attack, gets sober and finds God. He also secures his Dad’s presidency when he runs a dirty tricks campaign for him against Dukakis. We then see George Jnr. as a baseball club owner before Desert Storm in 1991 and his Dad’s loss to Clinton in 1992.
He eventually becomes Texas Governor in 1994 and has a message from God that he should run for President in 1999. We know that he gets the big job but what will his legacy be and will he finally please his old man?
I’d seen this film near to its release but it was a lot better the second time around with the benefit of history and hindsight. Firstly the cast was great with Josh Brolin excelling as the flawed George. At the time Bush was a figure of fun but they did well to focus on the man rather than on the comedians’ take. Clearly you don’t get to lead the free world by being an idiot, but they did temper this by pushing the legacy aspect with his Dad offering no end of help.
Bush’s advisers were all familiar faces with Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney and Toby Jones as Karl Rove doing good work. Thandie Newton was less convincing as Condolezza Rice, with her performance looking more like a caricature.
Obviously a lot of what was said was behind closed doors and had to be speculated, but it seemed a balanced approach with only a couple of scenes inserted to make George look stupid, such as his hospital visit to injured troops where he handed out t-shirts to the maimed.
It was strange that the pivotal moment of his presidency, the 9/11 attacks, didn’t get more focus but it may have been too raw at the time of the 2008 production. Maybe they thought the fallout and legacy of Bush Senior was the story and to be fair it did make for an interesting narrative.
Overall I think this was a worthwhile and interesting bio-pic that did well to show the man rather than offer a commentary on his actions. Like the man the film had its flaws, but overall it was interesting and entertaining.
Best Bit : Oval Office Discussions ‘W’ Rating 19/23
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