W.

Mistakes Plague W.

In the final scene of Oliver Stone’s film W., which provides a superficial look into the life of former President George W. Bush, the announcers of the baseball game report that the Texas Longhorns lead by one, when in fact the Miami Hurricanes are scoring. This scene sums up the entire film: a mistake. W. fails to convey any sort of meaningful information.

The script is written by Stanley Weiser and follows the life of the former president from his alcoholic college frat days through the first term of his presidency. The problems of the film arise early and often, with poor editing and a lack of cohesiveness in the transition of scenes. The editing failure is most apparent in the baseball scenes that are periodically inserted breaking up the flow of the story. Editing flaws also become evident during the State of the Union address, as the people in attendance are panned and live footage of the event appears to show such political leaders as Hilary Rodham Clinton, and John Kerry. The idea of using the actual footage is overshadowed by the poor technique of switching back to the film footage of the speech. The major error of the production comes to light after the first 30 minutes, when it becomes apparent that there is no end in sight.

Although the technical aspects of the motion picture are transparent and flimsy, the acting out does all the rest of the film, but still fails to hold the film above water. Josh Brolin plays George W. Bush, and along with the rest of the cast, he provides a comical view of the former president’s transition from raging alcoholic to born again Christian politician. Broslin is joined on the set by Elisabeth Banks and Richard Dreyfuss playing Laura Bush and Dick Cheney respectively and as a whole do a good job of entering the life of the people they are portraying, they fully embrace their characters.

The acting is accompanied by a script, comical in the use of Bushisms, and somber in the use of prayer and religious preaching. The script does nothing to explain the use of the baseball scenes inserted into seemingly random scenes. The motif of baseball is not the only thing lacking clarity however. The entire production is lacking in a point of view, the production has no direction, adding to the growing number of problems. If the point of the movie was to provide information as to the historical life of the 43rd President of the United States, then it should have been written as a documentary, but, alas, it is written as a dramatic interpretation of the life of George Bush Jr. but without providing any context as to why it was written.

The cast of W. deserves credit for making the picture a step above a total disaster. Even though the acting can make or break a show, ultimately it comes down to the reasons behind a film, the context or story it is trying to tell.