W. (2008/I)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

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]
W: Una película sobre G. Bush (Peru) [es]

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:

This movie was filmed sequentially. Josh Brolin lost a considerable amount of weight to play W. in his youth and had to quickly gain it back to play him middle-aged.

Goofs:

Factual errors: During the fraternity hazing, someone asks W. if he is a legacy. W. replies that his father and grandfather were Delta Kappas. W's grandfather, Prescott, was in Zeta Psi.

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 Will Ferrell: You're Welcome America - A Final Night with George W Bush (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Robin Hood

Once again W. dupes us.

The Whitehouse preached WMD's and the advertising for this movie preached an entertaining comedy about an underdog who lands the most important position in the world. Neither delivered.

Instead I got a movie about a guy who pines for his father's affection and becomes President, all the while never really getting said affection. There is no ARC in this flick, nothing is learned and many events of Bushy administration are skipped. All those great phrases on the teaser poster are ditched. How a guy does a 180 with his life and becomes President in 10 short years isn't here. Nothing is really here, not even an extreme left view that W. screwed us. Nothing. The movie is pointless.

So why make this flick? Oscars! That's it! Lets get some shiny statues for outstanding performances in another useless SLOW boring movie. It's sad, Tom Cruise should get an award for his performance in Tropic Thunder, but instead an actor from this flick will get that award, because this is a serious Stone vehicle.

Why a 1? Because it is a movie you will watch once, forget, and NEVER watch again.