W. (2008/I)

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writer (WGA):

Stanley Weiser (written by)

Release Date:

17 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Get Ready

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

George W. Bush | President | College | USA | 2000s

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Josh Brolin	...	George W. Bush
Colin Hanks	...	Speechwriter #1
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

Also Known As:

Bush (USA) (working title)
Oliver Stone's W. (Germany) (TV title)
W. - Ein missverstandenes Leben (Germany) (DVD title)

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

129 min

Country:

USA | Hong Kong | Germany | UK | Australia

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44818) | UK:15 | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Portugal:M/12 | Ireland:PG | Finland:K-7 | Australia:M | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Argentina:13 | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | Germany:12 | Brazil:14 | Hong Kong:IIA | Singapore:NC-16 | Mexico:B

Filming Locations:

Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Emperor Motion Pictures

Trivia:

Ellen Burstyn and Jeffrey Wright share the same birthday. The two are never in the same scene together.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the scene with the speech writers in June 2003, prior to going to war with Iraq, the PC in the background shows a Windows Vista desktop. Vista was released in January 2007.

Quotes:

Reporter #2: How do you plan to change the school finance formula?
George W. Bush: I for one will not stand for the subsidization of failure. How do you know if you measure up if you have a system that simply
[sic]
George W. Bush: suckles them through.
Reporter #2: What about our failed schools? Do you think the state needs to take them over?
George W. Bush: More government's not the answer. We must have the attitude that every child in America, regardless where raised can learn. Rarely is the question asked is their children learning.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Josh Brolin/Adele (#34.5)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

TV Tag B

Reduntant and therefore disappointing

I used to be an Oliver Stone fan. But after Natural Born Killers I read in an interview that he had doubts about continuing his directing career. "I don't think I have another good movie in me".

Well, I still think that he does, but W. isn't it. The reason I like and watch Oliver Stone films is that he has a strong opinion about a subject. One that isn't mainstream, but expresses it in such a way, that he wins his audience and therefore can change popular opinion. The best examples for this are Platoon and JFK.

The life and times of George W. Bush offer enough subject matter to make a powerful, semi-documentary film with hard hitting political and religious views that would sturr up popular belief. Examples: axes-of-evil, God is on the side of good (The US of A), W.'s history of failed business, tale-chasing and alcohol abuse. Add the wheeling and dealing by the Bush-dynasty and you would think it's dynamite stuff.

But it's not. The script is superficial. Tame at best. Anyone who reads the Sundaypaper and watches the nine-o-clock news could have written this movie. It has the character motivation of a soap-opera. Another thing that disappointed me was the lack of insight into the kitchen of the (right-wing) Bush-Administration, more over: the infiltration of the Hawks in the White House. It comes close for a few minutes when Cheney explaines why Iraq is important and should be invaded, But it's not enough (we already knew this!!) because the rest of the movie Brolin walks around clueless and oblivious. Just like W. He really isn't interesting enough to watch for 2+ hours. At least, not in the way it has been constructed by Stone.

This film doesn't add anything new or reveal any new insights. The movie is based on research done by outsiders. Not one insider contributed to this film, and if they did: they were W. supporters because we as viewers stay behind like W. was the full 8 years: clueless.