Review of Oliver Stone's movie, "W."
I watched Oliver Stone’s latest movie. It talks about the rise of George W.Bush JR, it is the first movie about still acting president in the White House. It is not the best of Mr. Stone’s movies but it is a well made movie, with a screen play based on several books on the life of the Bush family, and on what the ex-team of resigned officials in the Bush administration.
The main story of the movie is simple: Bush JR lives under his big dad’s shadow, he always tries to make him proud, so he ends up destroying the whole world without pleasing his old man.
Bush Jr in the movie is very simple man. He is a sport-loving cowboy with an alcohol problem. You may even feel sorry for him, he’s trying to act like he understands what he is doing, especially when he takes on politics, but it is very obvious that the character in the movie is not very smart when it comes to politics and leadership. So he relies on the the influence of a very selfish entourage from advisers, of course with Carl Fenny, Condeleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and good old Chenny. We see why things turned out like they did, and why many of the wrong decisions were taken, but he is also a man with deadly ambition and unrealistic beliefs in his own limits.
The glory of the movie is in the acting, the cast was great, but you had to admire Josh Brolin in adopting all the moves, acts and voice of W. Bush. Of course Richard Dryfous was amusing in his role as Dick Chenny, you can feel he had captured the dark side of the character.
But as an Iraqi still living in Baghdad, and had been forced to be their in reality when all the hell of war we see on the screen happened in real life, to have friends and loved ones who their lifes and their way of living effected entirely by this war, you have to feel a little bitter, because they are saying in this movie that all this war and destruction happened because papa Bush was little hard on baby Bush.
That he came because as he thought democracy can spread by creative chaos, that the decision of war on Iraq was taken because (no Sadam try to kill my papa) and boy Bush wanted to kick that dictator on the back.
It is amazing how small you feel when your all life is changed by few men eating lunch, or walking in a garden. There is a scene when Bush walks with his advisers in his ranch discussing the plan to invade Iraq and find that they lost the way back, do you believe that there is more than 500 thousands Iraqi person died and 2 millions IDPs and 5 million refuges all over the world because of this war that started with a plan this man agree on it while he did not know his way back home! Or that we were invaded to search for mass destruction weapons to see a meeting in Baghdad with Bush trying to find who is searching for the weapons and his advisers all throwing the task on each other cause they forget to search for them!
But you feel the worst when you watch the 12 minutes scene in the war room, with all the big war makers are arguing with Colin Powell to make him agree on invading Iraq. Richard Dryfus stands as VP Chenny and gives a speech that strip the administration of all it masks, they had to control all the energy sources and between Iraq and Iran there is a lack of oil they need to drain, and they will give us what they think we need, it was so cruel it was so hard and believe me it cuts in the heart of any Iraqi citizen who had any dignity to the bones. We want democracy and we deserve freedom, but those people were greedy with a capital dollar bills into their eyes, it is one thing to read about it or to know it in your mind but to see it even as acting it burns into your soul, those people in this war room are cowboys planning a shoot down in the little boarder town, and they are trying to find moral reasons to rob the town bank.
W.Bush’s days are over, as he says I do not know may place in history cause in history we’re all goanna die. That is right so we will not focus on the past, we will remember, learn from the mistakes but as Iraqis we should also move on. There is a new president, a nice man who calls for change, and we need to make a stand, take things by our hands, it is very hard to do this today in Iraq, but not a mission impossible, we can do it if we had faith.
As a foe, W.Bush the best thing that describe him is what Laura Bush said to him in the movie on their first date,
(we Mr.Bush, you are the devil, a white devil)
Join the Conversation
Wameeth:
I’m an American living in Colorado and I haven’t seen the movie yet. Somehow, I can’t bring myself to sit through that in-depth a look at George W., even if it is with actors and a screenplay.
So, first, thanks for such an in depth and honest review of the movie and how it made you feel. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be in your shoes. I’ve become really interested in what youth in the Middle East have to say about America, Americans and our relationship to one another. So, I’m really happy to have found this site. (If you have any others to recommend, please do.)
Second, I wanted to let you know that a lot of my friends, family and other people I talked to were really horrified by what was happening during Bush’s administration. There were lots of Americans who felt the same way. We knew that he was bumbling around, ill informed, and probably on a vendetta for his dad. We talked about how the WMD search was such a joke and that he was just making excuses to go after oil. It was horrifying to watch and we talked about it all the time in just utter disgust and outrage. We protested and wrote to our Congressmen and gave money to the Democratic party and tried to get Bush out of office in 2004. And we are SO happy to have Obama coming in.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you. If you can stomach it, you should watch Fahrenheit 9/11. It’s more on the same theme, but a documentary. It’s hard to take, though. I cried alot when I watched it.
Best,
Caroline
Wameeth:
Thank you for providing a detailed and impressively clear-minded review of a movie I had not heard of prior to reading your post, and consequently, for having added another movie to my “must see” list. I don’t watch any TV so I am never informed of new releases. But it’s coincidental, that you mentioned the part of the movie that made you feel like your life is so small at times, because that is a theme I was actually mulling over a few times throughout the day. What is civilization if nothing but the freedom from others, and yet here we are, subjected to the whims of imbecile men with little meaningful alteration in paradigm from centuries ago, as far as the outcome effect on the individual is concerned. I imagine I have a somewhat similar shared feeling that you expressed, though obviously drastically different in many respects, but similar in that only one man, just a single individual, could have so many times brought me right up to the edge of disowning my country.
I am naturally inclined towards skepticism with my government, but in spite of it, I sincerely hope Obama will make life for you and everyone else in Iraq much better, and Afghanistan for that matter too. And lastly, as another American, I would just like to second everything Caroline said.
All the best to you,
Andrew
To clarify, I wasn’t implying Bush made you feel like disowning your country,as it might have seemed like I was saying that, but that the commonality of the feeling was derived from both our lives being inexplicably and profoundly affected at the whim of an arbitrary individual making decisions in some unimportant location.
Dear friends
thanx for your comment , of course me and many people in iraq belive that most of the world including american did not wanted the war ,thanx for your options and ,i had seen ferhinet 9/11 ,it was very hard on me especaily the parts on iraq ,my our action as youth can help to bring peace to our lives
Wameeth,
Thank you for writing your thoughts about the movie w. It is Oliver Stone’s exploration of what he thinks may have happened, but it touches close by how things may have been one thinks.
Yes, I would like to say that while some of us did think that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, like were used, according to news reports, against Kurds and against Iranians, still, I strongly wondered at the wisdom of this whole operation, and the thing is that for so many Iraqis who lost their lives or who were injured and all, that was not something that was desired. It did no good to try to email the white house. As a republican party member, I did say what I thought to those who were involved, but that did not do much. Many things have happened which were not the desire of Americans, and my heart does ache for Iraqis as well as for our own who were wounded or lost Not for Saddam or for his sons, whom it seems were wicked, but for so many of you folks.