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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 5483
Released: February 10, 2009 |
| Our Price: $4.37 |
| Used Price: $1.44 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A chronicle on the life and presidency of george w. Bush. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/10/2009 Starring: Josh Brolin Run time: 129 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Oliver Stone
Description of W. (Widescreen):
Oliver Stone’s W. is similar to his other movies about American presidents (JFK, Nixon), which is to say these films are much more about Stone’s imagined versions of reported events than they are alleged reenactments. As such, W. is Stone’s case for what he sees as the absurdity of George W. Bush’s ascendance to the White House and especially the arrogant blunder of the Iraq War. Josh Brolin is very good as the miscreant son of George H. W. Bush (James Cromwell), Vice President to Ronald Reagan and 41st president of the United States. Adrift in a sea of booze and squandered opportunities, the younger Bush is largely driven by a need for his disapproving father’s love and respect, which never truly arrives. Becoming a hatchet man for Bush Sr.’s administration, “W” (as his wife, Laura--played by Elizabeth Banks--call him) meets Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and heads toward the Texas governorship, despite his father’s preference that the more golden son, Jeb, get all the family’s support in his Florida gubernatorial bid.
Told in broken chronology, W. focuses on Bush’s post-9/11 path to waging a “preventive war” in Iraq despite no hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction to justify it. The major players in W’s administration--Rove, Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright), Condoleeza Rice (Thandie Newton), and especially Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss)--all participate in closed meetings that look and sound like every investigative account by the New York Times or Bob Woodward about the administration’s inner workings leading up to the war. Much of this is quite fascinating if a little weird (Newton’s performance is indeed strange), but the drama is often powerful, particularly around Powell’s resistance to the rising tide for a supposedly slam-dunk war. A number of the film’s key performances, besides Brolin’s, are very strong, especially Cromwell, Jones, Wright, Dreyfuss and Bruce McGill as George Tenet. --Tom Keogh
Beyond W. on DVD
Family of Secrets the book | 
W. the Soundtrack | 
W. the Original Motion Picture Score |
Stills from W. (click for larger image)
W. (Widescreen) Reviews:
Brilliant Portrayal of The Former Presisdent. 
2009-10-30 - After having watched this film, I have concluded that it is not Anti-Bush nor is it Pro-Bush. The film depicted the former President as a very compassionate individual with the ability to connect to people all across the nation. Also, the film does display moments of where the Former President has his doubts and encounters situations that puts him in a position of uncertainty, such as the ongoing war with Iraq. Iraq was primarily the main focus of the film as it displays how the Bush Administration had dug themselves in a hole with false reports of WMDs being possessed in the middle-east and how they have managed to lose the public opinion on the the war itself. Overall, I've enjoyed this film as I have always been fascinated of just how the now-former-President, had ever came to be the President in the first place. Hindsight, sure has a way with a tragic comedy.
W the movie
2009-09-12 - The impression of George Bush is incredibly accurate. It is a mean but, I believe, accurate portrayal.
W. 
2009-09-11 - Could have chosen someone who favored W. Bush a lot better. Should have stuck to more historic facts. Almost tried to be a comedy, when I expected a true to life fact filled movie.
Operates Under The "Bush Is An Idiot" Pretense, But Still A Possible Scenario
2009-09-09 - When making a semi-biographical film, there really are two ways that one can go about the task. The first method would be to try to be as objective as possible in trying to present all sides of a person's life and public reception equally. Sadly, that method was most definitely not used by Oliver Stone in the making of "W".
Upon just a surface-level viewing of the film, one might think that, objectivity-wise, it isn't really too bad. George W. Bush is portrayed both at his worst (the college years) and at his best (the 9/11 response), including pretty much all his important life events in between. Yet, for viewers who did not feel that Mr. Bush was the root of all political evil while in office, they will be able to see the framework from which Stone is portraying our latest departed President.
Basically, the #1 problem inherent in "W" is that it clearly takes the stance that Bush is an idiot, no matter what the time period, situation, or office he holds. For example, instead of the strong leadership ability that was the Bush administration's "claim to fame", Stone projects G.W. as a stupid, bumbling idiot who was nothing more than a puppet of a few of his more superior cabinet members (such as Vice President Dick Cheney). Then there is also Stone's take on George W. Bush becoming a born-again Christian. Instead of perhaps even hinting at the fact that Bush might have made a sincere and heartfelt transformation towards God, Stone portrays the revelation as just emboldening Bush to keep blundering through life, as now he supposedly has God to back him up.
Unfortunately, those two examples do not stand alone...the entire film is just dripping with the "idiot Bush" mentality. It seems to be as if Stone's thought process behind the film was not "let's make a live-action biography of George W. Bush" so much as "let's show how idiotic Bush is and yet he stills becomes President".
Now, with that being said, the movie wasn't (by far) the worst that I have seen in terms of political favoritism/non-objectivity. Essentially, Stone just examines the life of George W. Bush through a single prism: that of a bumbling fool who somehow became President. Is that correct? Who's to say...it's just one possibility. I just wish that Stone would have widened his view a bit.
Interesting documentary 
2009-08-30 - It's basically sort of like a documentary based on former President Bush that I used to show all my friends to show them how our country changed so much over the 8 yrs he was president. It's very accurate in the many issues Bush was involved with, whether the decisions were good or bad (mostly bad in my opinion).
