W. (2008/I)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

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 | 2000s | USA | Oil

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)
Bush (Japan: English title) [en]
W. (Greece) [el]

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:

When reciting the names of the fraternity brothers during his hazing, The second and third surnames of people he names are "Hill" and "Hotchkiss." Both Oliver Stone and James Cromwell attended the Hill School, whose principal rival was Hotchkiss School.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The speech writers write W's 2002 State of the Union Address on Macintosh computers. From the Spotlight icon in the top right of the screen, the Macs are running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, released April 29, 2005.

Quotes:

Karl Rove: Here they come they'll be bringing the heat.
George W. Bush: I know, don't swing at anything I can't hit.
Reporter #1: Mr. Bush, Mr. Bush, you didn't talk much about education. What are your plans for reform?
George W. Bush: Well, uh, I'm gonna deregulate school districts so that teachers and administrators can, you know, can develop programs to best fit their kids
Reporter #2: Sir, are you proposing to measure student's progress?
George W. Bush: Oh, well, we need to make a wholesale effort against racial profiling, you know? Which is, uh, illiterate children. You need to be able to teach a child to read and then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Sunday AM: (#4.9)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Happy Birthday to You

Don't Misunderestimate this Film

Lefties expecting a hatchet-job will be as disappointed as Righties expecting a hatchet-job. Demonstrating decency and restraint far beyond what his subject is deserving of, Oliver Stone demonstrates rare wisdom and the hindsight of someone trying to understand this period of history from a standpoint of decades in the future. He creates a film that swings wildly between comedy and tragedy, tragi-comedy and comic tragedy in his portrait of a man who though born to privilege, needs to have greatness thrust upon him-and is not up to the task he seeks. It is , and I do not use this term lightly: Shakespearean.

Josh Brolin's Oscar-worthy performance manages two amazing feats: 1) He makes you forgot you are watching Josh Brolin as he portrays W. over a 40-year period and 2) He makes even a left-leaner like myself forget how much one may hate George W. Bush. I just wanted to yell at the screen ala Rocky Horror, "You seem to be a nice guy who enjoys people...stay with baseball!!!" All of the supporting cast of characters in the Bush Dynasty are handled with dignity and respect (particularly James Cromwell as Bush the First), and Stone is decent enough to leave the Bush Twins out of it. Jeffrey Wright might be up for a Best Supporting Actor nod for his thoughtful and restrained portrayal of Colin Powell.

I am racking my brain trying to remember when recent history was made into such a vital film; this is the antithesis to a quickie made-for-TV movie about Amy Fischer and the like.