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The DVD Administration of Oliver Stone’s W.
by Reg Seeton
 After eight years of the Bush presidency, any movie about the life of George W. Bush was bound to spark a firestorm of some kind. I love Oliver Stone's fearlessness when he tackles sensitive subject matter but after enduring the soap opera of the 2008 election there was no way I was going to spend two-hours in a movie theater watching a film about the life of President George W. Bush. Not because it was Bush, it was just too much of everything. It was kind of like George Bush Sr. (or Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Light, you choose) when he made his famous "No new taxes" speech. For me it was, "No new political movies!" But now that the election has been decided and Oliver Stone's biopic W. has landed on DVD, I've had time to collect my thoughts.
What's interesting about W. is that Stone's take on the life of George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) doesn't unfold in the way that you might think given all of the controversy and criticism surrounding the Bush administration. Of course the drama within the exploration is accompanied by ridicule, Stone doesn't take an full-on attack dog approach with W. but rather lays out a journey of life events that show a man often more affected by those around him than from his own scope and understanding of certain events. In favor of drama, though, Stone takes a fairly balanced approach when telling the life of W. in non-linear segments instead of appealing directly to a populist herd mentality ... although the very existence and timing of this movie speaks more to that than anything else. In fact, if you walk into W. expecting the movie to fuel any preconceived feelings that you may have about the real W., don't be surprised if you end up empathizing with the guy on a human level.
 Although the entire film leaves you to make up your own mind, as it dances between Bush's boozing days and the run up to the Iraq war, Stone portrays Bush as a free-spirited partier born into wealth and privilege who seeks the approval of his father on an often misdirected journey through life as he finally enters the political arena. Given the many images we've seen of Bush's bout with the bottle, plus a visual blend of segments from the man's life, the non-linear imagery of W. also reveals a young man maturing into an adult who wants to be accepted by his dad. It's an aspect of the film (and the man) that most men will identify with. In order to change his life and confront his problems, W. turns to religion, which paves the way for direction and a life with purpose.
However, when the future president gets on the straight and narrow and steps into a life of politics, we soon see that Bush Jr. is surrounded by much craftier, intellectually savvy figures that are able to help but also influence the Texan in ways he doesn't immediately recognize. And while we see many conversations that fill in the blanks of Bush's life and staff meetings with various members of his administration, the movie also punctuates how some people are born politicians while others can only learn to play the game. Much of what you see in W. is very similar to the widely seen "fool me once" video clip where the President closes with, "Fool me ... we can't get fooled again." But how he gets to that point in his life and why the clip garnered so my laughs is the core of W.
 Although the Bush's inner circle is long and strong in the acting department - Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss), Karl Rove (Toby Jones), Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn), Condoleeza Rice (Thandie Newton) and the other already much-too-talked-about real life players - it's casting that helps to give the film a cartoon-like quality. Since the Bush administration is so visually fresh in the minds of everyone, the cast looks more like they belong on SNL than the White House. And with the addition of former Jon Stewart funny man Rob Corddry in the role of White House press secretary, Ari Fleisher, it's hard not to see some type of intent underneath the surface. If the image of Fleisher was Philip Seymour Hoffman and not Corddry, there's a good chance you might feel something different. It's the subtleties that also speak volumes.
But where W. departs from the film to send a clear message is the special features of the DVD. There's no hiding what the film stands for when you see a docu-segment called "Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Presidency." And since Oliver Stone's thoughts usually make for some of the best, most engaging commentaries out there, this one makes for time well spent, even if you're not on his political side. Then again, the commentary may very well make you leap from the coach and fire the disc out the window. Either way, in terms of commentary tracks, it's filled with a lot of information about the making of the movie and Stone's take on the Bush Presidency.
So, what do I think? Actually, I'm indifferent. It's not a bad film, but it's not Oliver Stone's best either. After seeing the mainstream media transform into a one-sided beast, I don't look at anything in the same light anymore, including movies. Like Oliver Stone has said himself, what you see is what you get. And W. is an unauthorized biography in the same vein as the many Kitty Kelly books that sparked second-hand controversy in the '80s and '90s.
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