Stone's W lacks dimension, depth of real-life Bush

By Jackie Ammons     11/6/08 6:00pm

With a timely release that coincided with the presidential campaign, director Oliver Stone presents his new political film, W, as a caricature of soon-to-be-former President George W. Bush. Through this caricature, Stone creates a unique hybrid film that successfully incorporates the characteristics of both a documentary and a drama so as to effectively reach beyond the limited audience of a traditional documentary by highlighting - or, rather, sensationalizing - the more scandalous events of Bush's life.W tells the story of the life of Bush (American Gangster's Josh Brolin) by mixing the events of his years in the presidency with events that occurred during his college days and his journey to the Texas governor's office. The audience sees a young Bush partying at Yale, dealing with strained relationships with his parents (Spider-Man 3's James Cromwell and The Stone Angel's Ellen Burstyn) and meeting his future wife, Laura (Lovely, Still's Elizabeth Banks).

Portrayals of Bush's cabinet members and advisers include Vice President Dick Cheney (Poseidon's Richard Dreyfuss), Colin Powell (Blackout's Jeffrey Wright), Karl Rove (The Mist's Toby Jones) and Condoleezza Rice (Run Fatboy Run's Thandie Newton). The depiction of real-life characters is the most important aspect of W, for it is the film's most interesting and greatest achievement. The main players not only look like their real-life counterparts, but also act like their public personas, as well. Dreyfuss plays a convincing Cheney and looks strikingly similar to the vice president. The same goes for Jones in his role as the calculating and quirky Rove and for Newton in her portrayal of the catering and somewhat nervous Rice.

The most provocative question surrounding W asks whether the film is with or without bias. While W attempts to keep partisanship out of the picture, such a feat seems almost impossible with the current political status of the nation. This bias is present in the film's saintlike portrayal of Powell - whose real-life counterpart recently endorsed Barack Obama - as he opposes the war in Iraq. Inspirational music plays whenever Powell speaks.

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Accordingly, audiences should not mistake W for an entirely accurate portrayal of Bush's life, but, rather, they should view it as a film created by Hollywood to make a profit. Thus, many of the interpretations of events in Bush's life are simply that: interpretations. For example, W depicts Bush's own Republican father, former President George Herbert Walker Bush, as privately disapproving of his son's decision to keep troops in Iraq. While this disapproval may be true, it has never been made public and is reflective only of the film's interpretation.

The main disappointment of W is its static portrayal of Bush. For the entirety of the film, W presents him as an ignorant, angry man who is overly war-hungry. This portrayal, while funny and well done by Brolin, allows little room for character development and leaves Bush's character rather flat. The fact that W failed to take the opportunity to portray a more interesting, multi-dimensional character is disappointing.

Despite W's one-dimensional portrayal of Bush, the film is ultimately interesting. It allows the audience a dramatized peek into Bush's frat-boy past, along with a presentation of a simplified, easy-to-understand version of his more current history. As a drama-documentary, W gets props for both educating on modern events while still remaining entertaining with its motivated character depictions. As a Hollywood movie, W is a solid film, but not a great one.

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