Review of W. (2008) by Felicia S — 10 Aug 2009

Stone probably alienated 50% of the US population from this movie, who I'm sure would almost hands down dislike it. It's just that biased. The other 50% won't necessarily love it, though, if only because it's an imperfect movie.

But then again, Bush was, to put it mildly, an imperfect president. The ending, especially, is very rushed, and it all just seems as if it were hastily edited. But in response to those who think that the movie comes off as too cartoonish, well.

..is it really too much of a stretch to make GWB and his administration into caricature? It should be facetious even to suggest as much, but unfortunately "caricature" is pretty much right on target.

For many viewers, this movie is probably fairly boring, because, after all, many of those same viewers lived through, witnessed and expected all the politically transparent nonsense of the GWB years, and so another [re]telling of GW might just seem like overkill.

But I wonder if this would be an even better movie for the next generation or two who will eventually want to know if there's any truth to all the cynical stories they will have heard about the 43rd president of the United States.

Those same future viewers might not be as able to pick up on the distinction between the George W. Bush of reality and the movie's parody version of him -- but then again, neither might we be able to do so now.