W. just didn't do it for me.

[reprehensor]

Not every film that Stone directs or produces is great, and W. is proof of this dictum.

Technically, it's very well made. It ought to be. Stone has been at this long enough to iron out the kinks. The cinematography is nice and tight, and the structure of the storyline, with anecdotes that skip back and forth in time is contemporary and works well with the film's overall style.

However, professionalism is not a guarantor of a good or great film. 'Triumph of the Will' is also a technically well-drawn film, a propaganda film with a different intent, but for its day, a masterpiece of propaganda.

Now, W. is not propaganda... or is it? The bewildered protagonist portrayed by Josh Brolin is certainly enjoyable to watch, but the character's journey depicted on screen can give one the impression that, "Aw shucks, W. tried you know?"

He tried, and succeeded. He succeeded in convincing Stone that he is a genuine born-again Christian. Somehow, I don't buy it. It's more likely that George Walker Bush slips into the skin of the born-again as enthusiastically as Brolin slips into the skin of 'W'. It's an act.

Stone also fleshes out the wholesome relationship between Bush and long-suffering Laura. Aw, how cute. How repulsive. As I sat in the theater bathing in the pseudo-warmth of Bush-love, my eyes began to lose focus, I found myself gazing instead at the void beneath the screen as I struggled with an urge to bolt from the darkened theater as Bush cuddled with his Stepford love and prayed and prayed and prayed. Jesus Christ.

I don't need to be reminded that Bush is a human. I'm aware of this. Nonetheless, the jibbering little maniac playing President, an ideologically-driven frontman for the Military-Industrial-Complex, has driven the US into the ditch, and continues to plow along at full pace, taking out mailboxes and running over pedestrians and the film 'W' does exactly diddly-squat to affect the madman's momentum.

Why did I get the feeling that Stone was giving Bush a way out? Bush knew goddam well that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Scott Ritter knew. Hans Blix was proving it, but Stone lets his character pretend, with some conviction, that his compadres in his administration let him down.

Bullshit.

Oliver Stone, you tax me with your soft blows.

[stray cat]

1. I think the movie was geared to history overall and not to a political subgroup

but I suspect I would want a greater edge to it myself

[reprehensor]

6. Then why not a documentary?

Brolin's character evokes humor and depicts a clutz stumbling thorough Neocon foreign policy.

The Bush admin rolled out the Neocon worldview like licking an ice cream cone. Fascist-style. So if it's supposed to serve history, it serves history very poorly.

[rainy]

2. I agree. Stone left out important facts that would make Bush not so innocently

naive.

[rtassi]

3. Agreed ... n/t

[Mira]

4. K& R because I agree with most everything you say. I posted about

the demoralized and disturbed audience in the movie, but refrained from a review. I think that was because I sensed your review was on the way and would be better stated than I could have done.
Thanks and
:)

[Obamarama]

5. I didn't care for it either, and I went into it without any preconcieved ideas.

I'd read reviews both positive and negative about the movie, same as I do about any movie I'm about to go see. I usually end up thumbing my nose at the reviewers and either hate something they loved, or visca versa.

I thought it was neither an indictment nor a redemption of the boy-man that is GWB. What I really hated about the movie is that they took some of the verbal foibles that underscore how daft the man really is and place them, in the movie, into scenes far different than where the actual verbal gaffes took place.

For instance, the "can't get fooled again" comment was portrayed as happening during a lunch with cabinet members as opposed to a public speech where it really occurred. I follow the asshole's misdeeds pretty closely, so maybe the casual observer of politics wouldn't know what context in which some of the verbal gaffes originally occurred. Over all, I give it a C+.

I do have to say I was continually distracted by the portrayal of Condi Rice. The actress was HORRIBLE. Her character was SEVERELY overdrawn and over-acted. I'm certainly no fan of Condi Rice, but I recognize that she is an extremely intelligent and accomplished individual. Both the physical portrayal (she looked like a freakin' bobble head in every scene, or a parakeet craning its head to get a better look) and the portrayal of her psyche were seriously laughable, more akin to something you'd see in a Lifetime Network made for TV movie, not an Oliver Stone production. Blah.

[nam78_two]

7. That is the sense I get from reviews

Look it isn't some sort of explicit "pandering to liberals" to state that Bush has ruined practically everything he touched.
This fair and balanced crap is nonsense-if one side is twice as bad as the other, it is white-washing to be balanced there.
Fairness and balance are not simultaneously possible if reality is taken into account in situations that are not balanced.

[Supersedeas]

8. Stone threw Bushler a 'pity party' as a going away present.

We're supposed to feel sorry for lil' Bushie when his daddy doesn't congratulate him for celebrating with a teenager by getting drunk and wreck the car in the front year upon receiving word that he's gotten into Business School.

We're supposed to feel sorry for lil' Bushie for calling Poppy from jail.

We're supposed to feel sorry for lil' Bushie for he wins the gubernor race, but Poppy is said Jebbie didn't also win in Florida.

We're supposed to feel sorry for lil' Bushie when they didn't find weapons of mass destruction.

We're supposed to feel sorry for lil' Bushie when the family members of injuried soldiers aren't excited to see him and Laura.

We're supposed to feel sorry for lil' Bushie when Poppy loses to Clinton b/c Poppy wouldn't listen to lil' Bush.

Odd, Stone has three scenes where Stone's focuses the camera on election night results: lil' Bush's loss of his Congressional race (he was out Christian'ed and out Texan'ed), Poppy's victory over Dukakis, and Poppy's loss to Clinton.

Noticably absent from Stone's coverage of Dubya: his election of 2000 and his re-election of 2004. Pretty salient oversights if you ask me.

[reprehensor]

9. Yeah.

Just can't feel 'sorry' for the little silver-spoon sucking cretin.