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W. (DVD)

by Erin Free | August 17, 2009 11:24

When it was first announced that ageing enfant terrible Oliver Stone was making a biopic about George W. Bush, that most maligned of American Presidents, the response was similar to the one that greeted the director's previous film, World Trade Center: what the hell would he do with such volatile material? Would this be the most controversial film of his controversial career? Would he use this subject matter to proverbially blare his own horn, and step up onto the soap box? In both cases, the answer is a resounding no. In tackling such recent, ripped-from-the-headlines, obviously divisive material, Stone seems to have almost shut himself out of the game. Because of the enormity of the subject matter, Stone almost appears to be a little bowed, as if he intentionally doesn't want to do what everyone thinks he'll do: namely, go to town on the material. Sure, it might not be a wild piece of filmmaking, but what other filmmaker would even go near this material, especially while it's still tingling in most viewers' minds? It may not burn with a singular passion like Oliver Stone's best films (Salvador, Platoon, Natural Born Killers), but W. remains a funny, fast paced and highly enjoyable experience.

 

At the film's centre is the brilliant Josh Brolin, who really gets under President Bush's skin, first as a hard drinking, carefree college boy, through to his religious conversion, and onto his Presidency, where he stalks The White House like the new sheriff in town. Brolin finds all of the humour, uncertainty and occasional idiocy of this complex man, who's portrayed as something of a desperate dreamer, always struggling to find his niche. Interestingly, the now-hot actor (No Country For Old Men) wasn't initially too keen on the role. "‘What part of the word ‘no' don't you understand?,' he asked when Stone kept pursuing him for the part. Despite the reticence, Brolin really nails it. W's competitive, love-hate relationship with his father, George Bush Sr. (James Cromwell), provides the real grist of the film. Stone's depiction of the US political scene, meanwhile, is expectedly corrosive, with nepotism, self aggrandisement and avarice well and truly driving proceedings. The film is not, however, the savage attack that it could have been. Sensibly eschewing parody, Stone instead finds the humour in the story naturally, giving the film a patina of wry laughs, instead of resorting to ridicule. George W. Bush did (and famously said) a lot of very silly things, and to avoid his malapropisms would be missing out on a very important part of his story, and personaility. 

 

Tonally, W. is a little adrift, and the performances range from the excellent (Richard Dreyfuss as a Machiavellian Dick Cheney, Jeffrey Wright as lone-voice-of-reason Colin Powell, Scott Glenn as the reserved Donald Rumsfeld, Toby Jones as a puckish Karl Rove) to the flat-out bizarre (Thandie Newton's extreme, twitchy take on Condoleezza Rice is jarring, to say the least). More character piece than the expected tragedy or parody, W. is surprisingly good fun, and rates as one of Oliver Stone's least explosive but most easily enjoyable films.

 

As with most Stone titles, the DVD package is a solid one. The centrepiece, as usual, is the director's candid, honest, constantly self-evaluating audio commentary. Stone talks openly about his aims for the film, and also his stance on President Bush and his role in American history. His comments here are far more scathing than most of what happens in the film. Stone is equally punchy in "No Stranger To Controversy: Oliver Stone's George W. Bush", a fascinating fifteen-minute making-of featurette directed by his son, Sean Stone. "I think he was a man of very little intellectual curiosity," Oliver Stone says of George W. Bush, before labelling him a "salesman" and a "terrible CEO". Josh Brolin and co-writer Stanley Weiser are also interviewed, and both prove highly articulate, eloquent and funny. A second fifteen-minute featurette, "Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Legacy", features a number of largely leftist commentators, academics and ex-politicians holding forth on the damage wrought by George W. Bush on the American psyche. There is also a collection of wholly worthwhile deleted scenes, the most notable featuring Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) as Arthur Blessitt, a hippy, cross-carrying (literally!) preacher who helps convince Bush to live a cleaner, healthier, more spiritual life. There's also an excellent extended scene with British PM Tony Blair (Ioan Gruffudd), who connects with Bush over their religious interests. Alternatively, there are a few wisely omitted ones. These hint at a possibly stranger, far more satirical movie, with George W. Bush hounded by an apparition of Saddam Hussein, who blows cigar smoke in his face, calls him a loser, and bellows, "You should have invaded Hong Kong!" Another ill advised scene features a cowboy-hat-clad Bush riding a magic carpet over Baghdad with dreams of bombing it back to The Stone Age. "I personally like it, but I'm a bit erratic," says Stone in his commentary over the scene.

 

Intelligent and entertaining, W. is another strong work from one of America's most consistently brave filmmakers.