Product Description
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A Yale graduate, a sometimes Texas oilman, a one-time drinker
and an Evangelical convert - George W. Bush was many things. But
at the end of the day, he became the least likely of all:
President of the United States. How did this improbable
character, long considered the black sheep of his esteemed
family, transform himself into the Leader of the Free World?
.com
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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 rtunities, the younger Bush is largely driven by a
need for his disapproving her’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 her’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 ( /dp/1596915579 )
W. the Soundtrack ( ../dp/B001G1L3LW )
W. the Original Motion Picture Score ( ../dp/B001M0NHLQ )
Stills from W. (click for larger image)
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