Review of W. (2008) by Adam W — 06 Aug 2009

Anchored by an excellent performance by Josh Brolin, "W." isn't quite the film you expect it to be - particularly coming from Oliver Stone.

Having already covered the 20th Centuries most loved (JFK) and hated (Nixon) Presidents, you might expect Stone to mount an out and out attack on Bush, in the year he left office, with the same twitchy conspiracy-theorists mania as he did them.

Conversely, this is Stones most Conservative looking film of his President Trilogy. This is no criticism - its a fantastically well made film, great looking and utilises Stones eye for lighting and interesting framing in short bursts. What we don't get are the multiple stocks, camera speeds and jump-cut editing that we've become accustomed to.

This "simpler" approach is in keeping with Stone's treatment of W.

As with "Nixon", Stone can never be accused of sand-bagging his muses. In "Nixon" he aknowledged his intelligence, political skill and his vulnerability which put his criminal activity in context - rather than just beating a dead horse.

So here, despite the wealth of ammunition at his disposal, Stone allows W. to hang himself - as he did in reality - through his own words and actions. As such we are given a surprisingly sympathetic view of a man that is nothing more than an illeducated, alcoholic rich kid with daddy issues, who pursued politics and religion as a means to gain paternal affection and nearly destroyed a country and endangered the world in the process. You don't really need to try to make a guy with that resume look bad?!

Toward the end of the film Stone does allow himself to sink his conspiracy theorist teeth into the Iraq war, WMDs and oil in a war room scene that can only be speculation and assumption, inwhich he has Cheney allude to the fact that "he" is the real President and explicitly state thaht the war was based soley on gaining oil distribution and that the occupation was designed to have no end. Its powerfull stuff, very Oliver Stone and you want, and believe it to be true.

What with it being a very recent set of events it does initially jar seeing some of the actors portraying certain well known figures - Thandie Newton has taken a lot of flak, but I thought she had Rice down pat.

Brolin aside (who is just fantastic), Dreyfuss is also a standout as the evil fuckwit - Dick Cheney, and Jeffrey Wright as the moral, if weak, Colin Powell.

Not as grand a cinematic experience as "JFK" or "Nixon" but deserves its place next to them.