George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States of America, is also a man, a regular guy who happened to be born into the prestigious Bush family with a chip on his shoulder and a silver spoon in his mouth. Living in the shadow of his father and trying to keep up with his brother Jeb, he struggles for approval from his family. This movie tells his story in Oliver Stone style. From his less than exemplary youth to his determination to make it in the family business of politics, this film covers the highlights of his life and gives the viewer an interesting perspective on this man we call the President. Leave it to Oliver Stone to direct the first film ever made about a President who is still in office. You can’t criticize the freshness of the subject matter. Nor can you criticize the stellar cast and the make up job to help make each of them look like their counterparts. It is really quite amazing how well cast each of them were and how well they looked and sounded like the person they were playing: Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, James Cromwell as George Bush, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld, Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair, Jeffrey Wright as General Colin Powell, and Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice to name a few. The performance that stands out, fittingly, is that of Josh Brolin as W. The golden glow of an Oscar trophy might be shining upon Josh with this performance. Yeah, I’ll go that far.
Asian Journalist: Mr. President, what place do you think you will have in history?
George W. Bush: History? In history we’ll all be dead!
That may be true but this film will help keep the history of George W. very much alive. He is just a good ol’ boy from Texas who went to Yale, was a heavy drinker, and was not very successful at holding a job for a long period of time. His seemingly aimless life started to come into focus after he married Laura, got involved in politics, and had a religious awakening. He had always been a God-fearing man but he needed to get jolted to straighten out his drinking problem and pull his life together. As a result of all that, his political career took off and the rest, well, is history. This motion picture takes you up to the first days of the Iraqi war. No matter what your opinion is of President Bush you have to admit that the plate he has been dealt has not been an easy one by far. Many a President or President hopeful might have dealt with 9/11, the war on terror, our economic crisis, and all the other prevalent issues in a better way than he has, but I strongly believe that many a President or President hopeful might have dealt with all this in much worse fashion than he has as well. This movie will show you a George W. Bush who is just a man, a cowboy from Texas, who becomes the President and in the midst of all the controversy thrust his way, has the best of intentions and tries to make the right decisions for the people of this country. Each of us has the right to agree or disagree with what he has done as President of the U.S.; this film simply gives you a little more insight on the man.
I try not to get political in my reviews but it’s kind of hard not to with a movie like this one. I’m not much of a fan of political movies anyway unless it’s more historical in nature. For example, I think the movie Thirteen Days is an incredible piece of work, and it focused more on the events and a little less on the President. This movie was well done and better than I expected though, but then again I expected to be bored to the point of falling asleep. In reality, I don’t recall even yawning once. What can you say about Oliver Stone other than another fine job by a successful veteran director. He is taking a gamble with a motion picture of this nature as far as box office pull is concerned, but I really doubt that box office success is one of his top priorities when he directs a movie like this. If you enjoy politics or political movies or even if you’re just curious, watching this movie might not be a bad choice.
Review By Cine Marcos