Sunday, July 26, 2009

W.- A Review


Last night my hubby and I watched W.- the film by Oliver Stone about George W. Bush. I don't know if any of you saw it, but I thought I would give a quick review in case anybody was curious.

I actually didn't want to watch this movie. It's pretty obvious I do not like Bush at all, but I didn't want to watch a movie that bashed him and made him look like some sort of monster. I am very skeptical of movies like this because how can anyone know the intimate conversations he had with Cheney, or Laura, or anybody else? So I came into the movie with very low expectations- and I will say, in the end, I was pleasantly surprised as this movie did exceed those low expectations.

The movie focused on the Iraq War and Bush's relationship with his father. The movie was incredibly well researched- and they give you the research notes, annotations, etc. with the DVD. You see a human side of Bush and his administration. You see that mistakes were made (in particular WMD's- or lack thereof), and that Bush seems genuinely distraught that he made those mistakes. I think that regardless of political persuasion, if one came into the movie with an open mind they could learn a few things about Bush that they didn't know before. However, I think it would make most people angry in some way. For my husband and me, we were angry with Cheney (again) and Bush (again) for the way 9/11 and Iraq were handled, and I imagine conservatives would be angry that it shows Bush as a real person who did some things wrong and not a hero that many wish he was (don't be offended, the same can be said of Obama and liberals).

The acting in the movie was OK, but I have to say the character of Condaleeza Rice drove me nuts- I hated the way she talked and how she enabled Bush. I don't know much about her in real life, but my hubs said he thought she was just as annoying in real life, so maybe she is- I don't know.

Overall, I would give the movie a 3 out of 5.

5 comments:

Mandy said...

I haven't seen it and haven't really had the desire to see it, but I am glad you enjoyed it more than you thought you would.

I'm also glad they did research on it and didn't just come up with things out of thin air. I don't like movies like that.

srbushman said...

It's nice to know that he was portrayed at least as a human, not as Satan's mentally challlenged step son. It is important to be reminded that they are human. (like when I watched the Brian Williams behind the scenes White House interviews.)

L said...

I've wanted to watch this too, but ah, precious sleep. Not only do I know listen to NPR more than ever, I fall asleep during movies. Welcome old age. Wonderful.
Glad it wasn't so bad.

Peter said...

Who said he was his stepson?

Honestly, I don't want to spend the time to see it because I can't think of anything interesting about him. If I could see why Tony Blair and Colin Powell made deals with the devil, that I would watch.

L said...

Hee-hee