Oliver Stone came back from Vietnam, he has said, "very mixed up, very alienated, very paranoid," and, for a quarter of a century, has been creating movies to make us all that way.
As George W. Bush ends his eight-year effort to do the same, the last thing we need is a Stone biopic to "explain" how and why he did it. Thanks, but no thanks.
With his "JFK," Stone managed to muddle the truth about Kennedy's assassination for several generations of Americans. Now, judging from reviews, he is wedging Bush into his one-size-fits-all autobiographical theme of a wastrel son with a hard-hearted father.
It will take a long time to recover from what George W. Bush did to the American psyche, but the worst place to start understanding it all is with an Oliver Stone hyped-up Dr. Phil's-eye view of it all.
Stone is reportedly working on a remake of the worst movie ever made, Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead," a project that seems much more suited to his talents.
“W” shows hefty filmmaker Oliver Stone returning to his genius roots after making the terrible, propagandist WORLD TRADE CENTER. There are endless reasons to criticize President George W. Bush on his policies and performance from a conservative or practical viewpoint. Those expecting a serious historical drama will be pleasantly disappointed, because W. is actually an insightful, punch-pulled effort that teaches truth, and profound insights into politics and history.
ReplyDeleteBasically, the movie opens in 2002 with an accurate look at a White House discussion concerning the President’s use of the term “Axis of Evil” in a major speech that year. The movie cuts back to his wild fraternity days in undergraduate college at Yale. From there, the movie takes Bush through conflicts with his father, who became the 41st president in 1989, his drinking, the meeting with Laura his future wife, his failed run for Congress, his commitment to Jesus Christ with a Texas pastor, the work he did on his father’s two campaigns for president, and his decision to run for governor of Texas. Interspersed with this biography are scenes featuring only a few of the tremendous mistakes Bush and his administration made in Iraq.
In almost every scene, the movie makes these historical events, and President Bush, look as bad and stupid as they possibly can. Of course, this is merely an accurate reflection of what actually happened! The performances of almost every one, especially Bush, Secretary of State Condi Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and General Tommy Franks, are performed like perfect imitations. Even some re-creations of Bush’s speeches look as sillier than they actually were! Of course, the movie had no source of “stirring parts” in any of Bush’s stumbled speeches, especially his early ones after 9/11. Nor does the movie mention how Bush’s support of greedy corporate interests turned the economy into utter shit after President Bill Clinton left America with a tremendous surplus; or Bush’s complete lack of success in crippling Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist group, Al Qaeda, anywhere in the world.
The movie contains one frightening scene where Bush gets help from a caring Christian pastor, presaging his transition from failed businessman and cocaine addict into a truly dangerous “fundie” President.
Finally, W. presents many insights into President Bush’s socio-political philosophy that arguably makes him the most politically schizophrenic conservative/liberal leaders in American history. Unfortunately the movie does not mention Bush’s connection to ENRON criminals, the Bush family connections with the Saudi-based Bin Laden family, Prescott Bush’s money-laundering for Nazi Germany, George W sitting like a fool while 9/11 rages in New York, or how Laura Bush killed a fellow student in a car crash in college.
Only an ignorant and hateful conservative and Evangelical Christian, or all the ignorant, uninformed American citizens who voted Bush-Cheney in 2004, would dislike this near-perfect insight into GW Bush’s life! Oliver Stone clearly wants the United States and its citizens to achieve victory in the November 2008 elections, and sweep away the Bush-Cheney years by refusing Old Man McCain the chance to ruin America with “four more years”.
Right-wing tyrants in the mass media, like us at MOVIEGUIDE, are pulling out all the stops to re-write history and pretend that George W Bush has not been a complete and unmitigated intellectual abortion. If the American people continue to accept this mindless, biased Republican party leadership so docilely, then we deserve another 9/11.
Dr. Ted Baehr
Christian Film & Television Commission
movie.guide@hotmail.com