Stone's 'W' Reveals The Child Within a President

When reviewing a film, the general consensus is that one should approach with no preconceived notions whatsoever. However, it soon became all too clear to me that with Oliver Stone’s ‘W,’ a film concerning President George W. Bush, this was never going to be a possibility. First off, the film has permeated the media, from the commercials (at first I thought I was watching a clever campaign ad), to the posters peppering the District. I honestly can’t think of the last time I saw a bus that didn’t have a picture of a daydreaming Josh Brolin as the titular president on the side.

In addition to the overexposure, how best to assess such a divisive figure, a man whose devotees hold him in the highest esteem, and whose critics curse his very name to the deepest pits of Hell?

But enough about Oliver Stone.

I mention Stone early in this review, since the last few weeks have seen him appearing in a number of media outlets promoting the film, insisting it would not be an attack job on Bush. Rather, Stone claimed it would be an unbiased attempt to get inside the mind of our 43rd president, a statement seemingly ripe for jokes about either man.

The film follows two timelines: the first tracing Bush’s rise from drunken Yale student to a governor launching his first presidential campaign; and the second examining the year leading up to the Iraq War.

The narrative of Bush’s rise presents him as almost an American hero of sorts, a ne’er-do-well who cleans up his act, finds God, marries a great woman, and follows his father into the family business of politics. The dream sequences reveal that, in a very Charles Foster Kane way, he’d rather just play baseball.

The Bush we meet in the scenes of the movie wants to make something of himself, but must struggle with numerous flaws, chief among them his crippling desire to please George H. W. Bush, known as “Poppy” in the film. Although not resembling the former president physically, James Cromwell plays Poppy Bush with the dignified detachment of a man intelligent enough to achieve success in the first Iraq War, but with too much old-world pride to truly connect with his son.

But the flashbacks belong to Brolin. Brolin’s Bush is a fiery and impulsive man who does what he thinks he ought to in any given situation, with little room for meditation. Interestingly, Stone rarely has the Bush character come across as unintelligent, but his impulsive streak oftentimes leads him to get in his own way. He does what he feels he must and doesn’t care if you love him or hate him. Much is also made of Bush’s Texas roots, as Bush represents in some ways the famous duality of the West, equal parts John Wayne and Jesse James.

Having made such efforts to paint a picture of the character’s personality, the portion of the film detailing the run up to Iraq suffers from a distinct lack of subtlety. We know from the flashbacks that Bush has a dangerous impulsive streak; did scenes of he and his advisers planning for war really need to be scored with a mocking song about Robin Hood leading his Merry Men into battle? His "daddy issues" are addressed quite sufficiently; do we really need a dream sequence of him and Poppy having a fist fight in the Oval Office? And one bit of context that should have been addressed but is glaringly missing are the events of 9/11, since the popularity Bush enjoyed following the attacks made everything else possible.

Bush’s subordinates also come across as over-the-top versions of the stereotypes we already have of them; Karl Rove (Toby Jones) is a lurking troll with the president’s ear, Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) the dignified soldier who martyrs himself for the cause, Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) the exasperated chicken-hawk, and Condoleezza Rice (Thandie Newton) a bizarre parody of the actual figure.

Ironically, it is the restrained performance of Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney that stands as the most memorable of Bush’s advisers. Dreyfuss doesn’t strive for imitation, but is adept at capturing the subtle genius of Cheney. In an early scene, you hardly know he’s in the room, until he manages to hijack an entire debate to his point of view, by uttering just a few words.

Throughout the film, Brolin works hard to make Bush feel like the Bush we’ve come to know these past eight years. Unfortunately, this leaves some ambiguity as to what his final motivations are for invading Iraq, since the real Bush certainly didn’t consult on the film. Stone floats several theories (religious conscience, daddy issues, Cheney), but none really stands out as the real reason, perhaps in the interest of appearing ‘unbiased.’

Maybe Stone is correct to leave them ambiguous. As both ‘W’ and recent history demonstrate, no mere film can hope to come close to capturing the full complexity of George W. Bush.

'W.' Trailer