Movie Review: W.

First of all I'd like to thank Ted and Toni for their insightful comments to my previous post. Since this upcoming election carries a lot of importance, my interest in politics has piqued so my blog entry might reflect on that. I'd like to apologize first if this is not your favorite topic or my views seems completely naive to you.

W. is a very interesting film about how our current president George W. Bush (Dubya) goes from frat house to white house, I was reminded by the people seating next to me that a film has never been made about a president while he is still in office. I first thought its intention is to sway voters one way or another before the election, but I concluded that while the intention might be to remind people that the Bush legacy is indeed a failure, the perceived rush to the theaters might just be to gain maximum revenue while politics are hot and maybe to qualify for a few Oscar nominations before the year ends as well.

In this film, Dubya is not portrayed as the babbling idiot who schemes for war and who destroys everything great about America, at least it is not emphasized in the film. Instead, everyone in the Bush cabinet are seen as real people. Dubya is the antihero who is warm and charming, he has amazing people skills but doesn't seem to be able to excel in anything. Coming from a lineage of politicians, Dubya is seen by his father as the inferior one comparing to his brother Jeb. After a few failed career attempts, Dubya went to Washington to help his father's presidential election campaign and went on to run for office on his own in Texas and eventually became the president of the United States. (I'm still a bit stumped on how easy it seems for anyone to be a politician.)

We all know that story pretty well, there's a symbolic scene where W. lead his inner circle into an excursion in his ranch, everyone looked very uncomfortable and he came to find out that he missed a turn a while ago but was sure how to get back on track.

But then the scenes of Iraqi war planning are separated with scenes of a young man trying hard to gain approval from an uncommunicative father; It was never his father's intention for him to run for office, after all Jeb is the smart and competent one. Dubya grow up knowing that he'll never be the son that his father wants him to be, and yet with deep convictions that god himself communicated his will to him (?) and convinced by his colleagues that it is the right thing to do, he went into Iraq set to complete his father's legacy and at the same time trying to be his own man.

Oliver Stone delivered a touching film, Josh Brolin, James Cromwell and Jeffrey Wright were especially exceptional in the film. Regardless of what you think of George W. Bush, you can't help but take empathy with the person you see on screen. It might just be the perfect farewell present for Dubya as he's going out of office. "B"