W. (I) (2008)

A chronicle of the life and presidency of George W. Bush.

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writer:

Stanley Weiser

Stars:

Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Ioan Gruffudd

1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Brolin	...	George W. Bush
Colin Hanks	...	Speechwriter #1, Mike
Toby Jones	...	Karl Rove
Dennis Boutsikaris	...	Paul Wolfowitz
Jeffrey Wright	...	Colin Powell
Thandie Newton	...	Condoleezza Rice
Scott Glenn	...	Donald Rumsfeld
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Dick Cheney
Bruce McGill	...	George Tenet
Wes Chatham	...	Fraternity Enforcer
Jesse Bradford	...	Fraternity President
Sean Stone	...	Fraternity Pledge #1
Ben Mayer	...	Fraternity Pledge #2
James Cromwell	...	George H.W. Bush
Juan Gabriel Pareja	...	Oil Worker

Storyline

Oliver Stone's biographical take on the life of George W. Bush, one of the most controversial presidents in USA history, chronicling from his wild and carefree days in college, to his military service, to his governorship of Texas and role in the oil business, his 2000 candidacy for president, his first turbulent four years, and his 2004 re-election campaign.

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Plot Keywords:

president | texas | oil | college | 2000s | 

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Taglines:

Get Ready

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images

Details

Official Sites:

Lions Gate Entertainment [United States]

Country:

USA Australia Hong Kong Switzerland China

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

17 October 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bush

Filming Locations:

Millennium Studios- 300 Douglas Street, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$10,505,668 (USA) (17 October 2008)

Gross:

$25,517,500 (USA) (28 November 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lionsgate, QED International, Omnilab Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the scene in which Bush is seen flying a naval jet on board the Aircraft Carrier, the show that broadcasts his incident is a political commentary program titled "Spin-Ball" which received both a Conservative and Liberal prospective. The show is actually a 'spoof' of the two highly rated and well known political commentary programs, The O'Reilly Factor (1996) on Fox News (hosted by Bill O'Reilly, known for his 'No Spin Zone" which broadcasts a more conservative viewpoint); and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews (1997), which demonstrates a more liberal viewpoint. In particular, it is a spoof of Chris Matthews' and Ann Coulter's coverage of the aircraft landing, in which the two commentators focused on Bush's appearance.

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Goofs

In the second scene, in the Oval Office, Toby Jones's character refers to "Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor," meaning FDR, but he pronounces "Roosevelt" with the "oo" sound as in "kangaroo." Theodor Roosevelt used that pronunciation, but his distant cousin, FDR, came from a branch of the family that pronounced the last name's o's as in "rose."

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Quotes

George W. Bush: [Looks around the countryside] I think we missed the side road!

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Crazy Credits

At the very end of the credits, you see a Christian cross with a period. It morphs into the W-period logo of the movie.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Suckula (2015)

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Soundtracks

News Theme
Written and Produced by Otis Conner
Courtesy of The Otis Conner Companies

User Reviews

typical Stone

I hesitated to leave a review at first, because it might make certain people curious to watch that show, which is not what I would like you to do. Oliver Stone doesn't deserve making any more money by you renting his movie. I am not an American and I also never was a fan of Bush, jr. or senior. But I rented that movie because of some of the misleading comments on IMDb, which shows how gullible I can be, I know. I lived for 30 years in Europe and now reside in Canada, and you can take my word for it when I state the fact that most people outside of the U.S. think the Americans as an arrogant and ignorant bunch of bible wielding Joe six-packs. And many of the comments on this forum only prove it. George W. is not a moron, that's just how he came across. He graduated from Yale and passed the exam to get into Harvard Business, so how stupid can he possibly be. But Mr. Stone portrays him as such, because he is riding the anti-Bush wave. He is cashing in on the fact, that many people have a low opinion about their former president and he is using Michael- Moore- tactics by aiming low. And be it as it may, my main criticism with this movie is: would Oliver also make a movie about Mr. Clinton and portray him as a lying, cheating, warmongering, cunning, unethical and greedy non-individual? Of course not, so where is the artistic integrity? Because Clinton belongs to a group of politicians Oliver Stone obviously relates to. And if this political colouring leaks through a movie, the director is bad. I don't care what Stone votes when the elections come, so why does he need to tell me. Mr. Stone should concentrate on making documentaries, but he is not of the caliber of a Werner Herzog; Hell, they are not even in the same league. Stone is like Moore, with maybe a tad more talent. But the talent is waning. And I follow up with an apology to anybody who feels offended by certain comments I made, I am not anti-American. To conclude my opinion about Oliver Stone: he is a very biased film maker that lacks the skill of a Tom Tykwer, Martin Scorcese, Coppola or even Sam Peckingpah. And when it comes to bias, I have similar issues with Lars von Trier, who started out as a promising talent and now only demonstrates what a racist he really is. And "emotions" like that are better kept in and not transmitted onto the screen. Whatever happened with the director that made a movie like U-Turn?