Watching a political drama isn’t my idea of a fun Sunday morning, but I tromped myself over to the theater because I’d heard that “W.” was supposed to be controversial, and I love the smell of controversy in the morning. The movie, directed by Oliver Stone (“The Doors,” “Any Given Sunday”), follows the main events of President George W. Bush’s life leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
The opening scene of the movie set the tone for the entire movie. It started with Bush standing in the middle of an empty baseball stadium listening to thunderous applause.
Then suddenly the movie cuts to Bush sitting in his office listening to what is supposedly the beginning stage of justifying the war in Iraq. The whole idea that the president was daydreaming during a meeting as important as that is disturbing.
The acting was remarkable. Josh Brolin as President Bush was scarily accurate. One odd thing that I noticed was that he was almost constantly eating or drinking something. I don’t know if this was done to make the character look slightly less civilized than the other characters or just because Stone liked to shoot food scenes. Whatever the reason, I feel that Brolin must have had to watch his weight from consuming all of that food take after take.
The people in his cabinet were also well acted. The only problem with the cast I had was Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice. At points her voice was too nasally for me to pay attention to the lines she was trying to deliver. Toby Jones’ portrayal of Karl Rove was also strangely believable. At times during the movie, I felt almost as if I was a fly on the wall during a cabinet meeting.
The movie went back and forth between Bush’s past and the planning phases of the invasion of Iraq in 2002. Visions of his adolescence portray his father as being constantly disappointed and favoring his younger brother. Bush is shown living a pretty careless existence until he decides he wants to show his family he is capable of doing well.
At times I felt that Bush was portrayed as a scared little boy, constantly fighting to be accepted by his father, no matter the cost. It seemed to me that part of the reasoning for the push to invade Iraq was based on more personal reasons than the security of citizens.
Dick Cheney was portrayed as the warmonger, and Colin Powell was shown as basically the one voice of reason against the war.
I kept in mind that this was a movie, not a documentary; so many of the events were probably not completely factual. I did recognize that a few famous “Bushisms” made their way into the movie.
The music gave a deceptively cheerful note to montages of war and conversations concerning the invasion. “Robin Hood” by Dick James was played many times throughout the movie when Bush was talking about the reasons to invade.
It was like the filmmakers were trying to accentuate the idea that Bush thought he was doing what he thought was best, but really he was setting himself up to look like a fool.
I figured I’d walk out of the theater thinking one of two things: either I would feel sympathetic toward the president, or I would be completely disgusted by him. I wound up feeling neither.
As a political statement, it didn’t really make me change my perspective on anything. As a movie it was fine, I wouldn’t watch it again, but I do respect that it was a well-made movie and will probably earn Brolin a nomination or two.