10/17/08: "W." -- Neither Red Sox nor Diamondback Fan, a Man Without a Country
In honor of Alex or is it Adam: I had not meant to post this whole review over here, but here it is. My health has not been good, but I could not resist an invitation from Larry French, the distinguished San Francisco film scholar, moderator of Wellesnet.org, to attend a press screening of Oliver Stone's new film about the life of George W. Bush: "W." The film was prepared and shot hastily, with an excellent cast which includes Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Dreyfuss, Toby Jones, Thandie Newton, Bruce McGill, and Stacy Keach. Compared to JFK or especially NIXON, this Stone film is a disappointment. Still, it does present an empathetic sketch of an American President, who will be hung in effigy during months to come. A certain element of fairness to George W. Bush's psychology, despite the omissions, make the film worth seeing. Here is my review: After Oliver Stone made JFK (1991), a reasonable compilation of the alternative theories about who shot President John F. Kennedy (and why), critics on the Right and on the Left never let up on him. In a film like NIXON (1995), his best work, Stone struck a balance of technical brilliance and dramatic depth not possible in the earlier picture, but his enemies continued to question his dialogue and denigrate his occasional imaginative flight into surrealism. It has made him gun-shy, avoiding controversy, as he did in WORLD TRADE CENTER, and which is now quite evident in "W." [At this point, she was no doubt right!] And so, W. was condemned, as George W. Bush himself has been, without ever facing a court of its peers. Okay, what is W. like? Whereas NIXON was a portrait, W. is a sketch, necessitated by fate, timelines, budget restraints, and the fact that the end of George W. Bush is hidden in the dark cloud of our future as a nation. The picture came about because at Christmas 2007, as had become increasingly true in his later career, particularly since his anxiety-ridden ALEXANDER, the financing for PINKVILLE, his story of the Mei-lai Massacre, fell through. With his plans to make ESCOBAR, about the Columbian Drug King, and a planned remake of SON OF MORNING STAR, the Evan Connell biography of General George Armstrong Custer, going nowhere, Stone turned to a study of George Walker Bush, a target of opportunity, with screenwriter Stanley Weiser, who had co-writen WALL STREET, (1987) -- a Stone film being given more respect now in the increasingly desperate state of the American economy. “I felt if we didn’t do the Bush movie at that moment, it wouldn’t be made, not for a long time,” Stone explained in an interview. “Attention spans in this era, particularly as to history, seem to have the shelf life of a fruit fly. And there was still a long-shot chance of getting W. out before the election.”
Fans and critics alike attacked W. before anyone had ostensibly seen it. As a matter of fact, before a camera rolled, someone leaked an early screenplay draft, as someone else had in the case of JFK, over a decade earlier. British critics of the largely UK financed picture complained that Stone had lost his edge. White House Spokesperson Dana Perino said in a press briefing that Bush staffers had "much more important things to do than comment on this ridiculous movie."
[I assume that Stone means, sans fresh disasters, we may have to confront a campaign to excuse and forget George W. Bush, early next year. "Let's move on. Tomorrow is a new day." We may even hear sheepish Republicans whisper: "Bush wasn't all that bad. Evil Bill Clinton and his Magick Oval Sex Office were behind our precipitous decline as a nation."]
W. begins, thrives, and ends on George W. Bush's dream of being a baseball player, later, maybe even Baseball Commissioner. Instead, he had to settle for President of the United States, and Leader of the Free World, because his father was a bit too old fashioned and cautious to let the United States creep into an Empire in the Middle East after the Gulf War. George W. Bush (Josh Brolin), with the support of power-mad Project for a New American Century people, and jonesing old Cold Warriors, resolved to finish the the job for "Poppy" Bush, thus settling a love-hate relationship with his father which went back to his childhood.
That's W. in a nutshell.
You will find no 9/11, not much election chicanery, only one or two nuts and bolts of The Project for a New American Century, not a word about how, hatched by Ronald Reagan, the Deregulation Craze developed into the Gran Mal of today's Economic Madness under the sleepy eyes of our President's men.
Instead, you will learn that "Poppy" Bush (James Cromwell), 41st President of the United States, had wanted his elder son, Jeb (Jason Ritter), to become President. Barbara "Bear" Bush (Ellen Burstyn), doted on her younger son, "Junior"(Brolin), but thought it a huge stretch that he might ever even win the Governorship of Texas.
Thus, the schema of the Movie develops, starting with the first of several dream sequences with "Junior" in an immense empty stadium, having to do his own hitting and his own catching.
We switch to scenes of "Junior," 43d President of the United States working with his staff and the Cabinet on the perfect catch phrase ("Axis of Evil") to justify preemptive war (later) on as many as 60 souvereign nations. These scenes, dotted with both passionate and obsequious exchanges between "Junior's" appointees, are the psychological bitter fruit of conflicts which began back into the President's youth.
We see the admiring Political advisor Karl Rove (Toby Jones), the phlegmatic CIA Chief George Tenent (Bruce McGill) -- most of all, the bitter relationship between Secretary of State Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) and Vice President Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) -- mixed with the don't-rock-the-boat National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice (Thandie Newton), the quiet manipulation of Project for a New American Century Architect Paul Wolfowitz (Dennis Boutsikaris), and the almost crack-brained enthusiasm of old Cold Warrior Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn).
The sneak preview I attended had a great number of snickers and guffaws over the occasional stupidities of the President and His Men, but one scene stopped the pop corn's rattle. The Cabinet is being briefed, at the behest of the President, on the motivation for, logistics and dangers of, invading Iraq. Secretary Powell and Vice President Cheney have been whispering profanities at one another, but the President has the magic words, "Freedom and Democracy around the World!" Chaney stands before a huge electronic map of the Middle East, pulsing with lights -- terrorist groups here, Coalition of the Willing forces there, our Military Invasion Staff on an interactive flat panel TV to one side. An incredulous Powell asks Cheney what the exit strategy will be.
Cheney turns from a gigantic red image of Iran, the next target to come, and gives the group his dead-fish smile: "There will be no exit. We stay."
No snickers erupted after that line.
Moving in a reverse parallel course, we flash back and forward among these scenes to "Junior's" wildly drunken youth, his conflicts with his father, some of his many failures to find adequate work, his meeting with wife-to-be Laura (Elizabeth Banks), his quixotical but eventually life-saving decision to dedicate himself to evangelical Christianity (one more degree of separation from his father).
Shortly after losing his first bid for public office, "Junior" declares: "There’s no way I’ll ever be out-Texased or out-Christianed again.”
And he never is, building his "ranch" at Crawford, and starting on his way toward being born again, in the hands of devout preacher (Stacy Keach).
That's pretty much it.
If you go to W. expecting dazzling editing, though there is some (especially mixing actors playing Saddam Hussein or Vladimir Putin with archive footage, or shots of Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain intercut as Josh Brolin's W. addresses them in a Joint Session of Congress), you will be disappointed. If you go, hoping for the entangling relationship of the Bush Family with Nazism, which is hinted at, you will be dismayed. And if you go, desiring a whitewash of the worst President of the United States ever, you will be enraged.
But if you go to W., without very great expectations, seeking the story of a troubled young man, the scion of a bifurcated "Yankee-Cowboy" family, who finds love and acceptance from the woman he married, and peace in his Christianity -- while he lets the World go to Hell -- you may count W. a decent enough two hours in the theater.
A very competent, strongly British cast is in support.
In less than a year, Director Oliver Stone managed to bring "W." into theaters, before the 2008 Election. For that, he deserves congratulations.
And so we bid farewell to the 43rd President of the United States until such time, years from now, when our pot-like rowboats are greeted by him on the shores of his hundred thousand acre estate in Paraquay.
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A Few of My Other of My Favorite Reviews Reflecting on this General Subject:
OUR LADY OF OUR ASSASSINS
http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1109717/content_40908590724
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THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1003884/content_45186256516
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THE BANK
http://www.epinions.com/review/The_Bank/content_75625893508
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JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE
http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1128039/content_80194932356
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: None of the Above
Viewing Method: Press Screening
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Abdelwahab Hammoudi says:
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
"THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE is a history lesson, but it is interesting to view the film as a kind of psychodrama which shows that nearly 150 years ago, the murderous clash of religions, cultures, ambitions, arrogance and greed were causing the same problems in the same places as they are today.
Similar issues, similar results perhaps, somewhat different players."
You are right.This shows that movies are a serious thing and filmmakers our modern thinkers and philosophers.
I wish to see more of your film analysis here on red room.
Regards
Alex Fraser says:
Be My Guest, Hammoudi:
You will find nearly two dozen of my reviews among my Red Room articles.
I have several hundred more at Epinions.com, plus a thousand comments at Wellesnet.org, under the avatar of "Glenn Anders."
I plan to add more, from time to time, to this Red Room group.
Thank you for your affirmation.
Alex
Macresarf1 -- Glenn Anders -- Alex Fraser