W.: Bush's Brain
Oliver Stone assigns motive to Dubya's M.O., but who cares?
Released early in the 1992 campaign, JFK did its modest part to destabilize the first Bush’s Republican nation and contribute to Bill Clinton’s Kennedy-identified juggernaut. To the degree that W. is able to make itself present in the hurly-burly of the election’s final weeks, it should prove mildly helpful to the Democrats. Cable news won’t be able to resist the movie’s most outrageous scenes, and such blatant Bush bludgeoning should compel a few Republican pols and right-wing pundits to rise to their maligned leader’s defense.
Many more people will see W.’s choice moments as de facto campaign ads on TV or YouTube than will ever sit through the movie. W. may be opening at a good time, but it doesn’t exactly promise one. Stone omits the stolen 2000 election, stops short of the 2004 campaign and spares us the second term, but this is still a painful movie to endure. I blame history more than Stone for that — it’s a shame that when the filmmaker contemplated the nature of imperial hubris four years ago, the gods decreed he should unleash Alexander rather than this. Back then, W. might actually have made a difference.
W. | Directed by OLIVER STONE | Written by STANLEY WEISER | Produced by BILL BLOCK, MORITZ BORMAN, PAUL HANSOM and ERIC KOPELOFF | Released by Lionsgate | Citywide
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