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An Excellent Contemporary History, 7 November 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom


*** This review may contain spoilers ***


Director Oliver Stone is a very fine writer, producer and director with a formidable body of work behind him.Like many, I approached this film anticipating a cruel, forensic destruction of the subject, how wrong I was.Instead we get a light, sympathetic and largely objective snapshot of a President more ridiculed than most.

Wisely, Stone tells the story by vignette.On release, neither W's Presidency, nor the Iraq war,were over.So we have the contemporary decision to invade Iraq playing against the story of his formative years.Brolin is superb as W, surpassed only by a truly sinister and hawkish Richard Dreyfuss as hawk Dick Cheney.The 126 minute running time both flies by, and scarcely scratches the surface of the full story, but succeeds nonetheless in its episodic form.

The sibling rivalry with his brother, and his ongoing efforts both to please his father and sustain the Bush dynasty are fairly represented. To outsiders, how W became President is a bit of a mystery . But here his Everyman qualities shine through in a pretty populist way.The film closes with an abject performance by him at a Press Conference, but do not be fooled.This is not about W the buffoon.It is about the chaos, craziness and tragedy of the Iraq war, achingly counterpointed by his visit to visit injured soldiers.His awkwardness, is our awkwardness.

Thandie Newton is a suitably sassy Condoleeza Rice (who will be delighted that she was played by someone 20 years her junior) and a fairly convincing body double.Ignore those dissatisfied by James Cromwells lack of physical similarity to Bush senior, this isn't a fancy dress party. Cromwells reserved, dry, angular portrayal of a man from another era plays well.

The oval office cabinet meetings and W's strolls in the outdoors with his team trying to keep up in his wake are the best scenes.The flaws are structural, the film"ends" when the story is incomplete, how W got re elected, or elected is ignored.Critics will say that Stone, as a peer of Bush has "gone native" in this portrayal of the man. I think Stone is saying something more subtle than that - "a country gets the man it deserves". Before you mock the man look at yourselves first. In an era when film makers gorge on popcorn blockbusters and cops and robbers stories, Stone has made a film about "today", and deserves credit for a fine effort.