W. (film)
| W. | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Oliver Stone |
| Written by | Stanley Weiser |
| Produced by | Moritz Borman Jon Kilik Bill Block Oliver Stone |
| Starring | Josh Brolin Elizabeth Banks James Cromwell Ellen Burstyn Richard Dreyfuss Toby Jones Thandie Newton Jeffrey Wright Scott Glenn Bruce McGill Jennifer Sipes Noah Wyle Ioan Gruffudd |
| Distributed by | Lions Gate Entertainment |
Release date | October 17, 2008 |
Running time | 129 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$25.1 million |
| Box office | $19,282,093[1] |
W. (pronounced "dub-ya"[2]) is a 2008 biographical film based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. It was produced and directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stanley Weiser, and stars Josh Brolin as President Bush. Stone compares his goal for W. to the approach of The Queen (2006) and his own Nixon (1995). Filming began on May 12, 2008, in Louisiana and the film was released on October 17.[3] The Motion Picture Association of America rated the film PG-13 in the United States for "language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images."
Plot
Topics covered include:
- his relationship with his father
- his "wild days" as a student at Yale
- his alcohol abuse and his keeping this under control
- his lack of a career path
- his courtship with his future wife, the former Laura Welch
- move with his family to Washington, D.C. in 1988 to work on his father's campaign for the U.S. presidency
- winning the 1994 election for governor of Texas, while his brother Jeb loses the same for Florida, even though his father thought Jeb would be more suitable for such a post
- his Christian faith and being called by God to run for president
- winning the 2000 election for president
- 2003 invasion of Iraq (as opposed to his father's decision to dispense with this in the Gulf War)
- lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, although this was the argument for the invasion
Cast
- Josh Brolin as President George W. Bush: Christian Bale was originally cast by Stone and spent months researching the role, but he dropped out after he was not satisfied with the prosthetic makeup tests. Stone remarked, "Christian’s a very methodical actor and he has to have the makeup thing work for him."[4] With Brolin's casting at the "last minute",[4] he spent months working on Bush's distinctive vocal style, calling hotels in Texas and talking to the people at the front desk, listening to their accents. The actor has also watched video of Bush walking. Brolin said, "It changes over the years, how he walks in his 30s, how he walks in foreign lands, before 9/11 and afterward. People hold their emotions in their bodies. They can't fake it. Especially him."[5]
- Elizabeth Banks as first lady Laura Bush: Banks said she would not do an impression of the First Lady. "I just want to honor her voice, her stillness, and her hairstyle".[5]
- James Cromwell as former president George H. W. Bush
- Ellen Burstyn as former first lady Barbara Bush
- Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Dick Cheney: Stone was interested in Robert Duvall as Cheney, but he turned down the role.[6]
- Jeffrey Wright as U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell
- Scott Glenn as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
- Thandie Newton as U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
- Toby Jones as U.S. Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove
- Bruce McGill as CIA Director George Tenet
- Ioan Gruffudd as British Prime Minister Tony Blair
- Noah Wyle as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans
- Rob Corddry as U.S. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer
- Dennis Boutsikaris as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
- Stacy Keach as Earle Hudd, W.'s pastor and spiritual advisor
- Jason Ritter as Jeb Bush, W.'s highly succesful brother
- Jesse Bradford as Thatcher, a Yale college buddy of Bush
- Marley Shelton as Fran, one of W.'s girlfriends
Production
"I want a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It's like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I'll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from. It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be President of the United States, and his coming into his own with the stunning, preemptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors."
Oliver Stone[7]
Director Oliver Stone was originally attached to direct Pinkville, a film about the Army's investigation of the My Lai Massacre, but development was canceled due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and actor Bruce Willis pulling out of the film three weeks before shooting was set to start.[5] As a result, United Artists shut the production down. Stone moved on to direct a film about the life and presidency of George W. Bush, shopping a script that had been written before the strike by Stanley Weiser, who had co-written Wall Street (1987) with Stone. Weiser and Stone read 17 books as part of their research for the script,[8] and worked on the project for a year before venturing to film Pinkville.[7] Stone has admitted that he and Weiser had to speculate on some dialogue: "You take all the facts and take the spirit of the scene and make it accurate to what you think happened".[5] W. is being financed independently, with Chinese, German, and Australian funds.[9] Lions Gate Entertainment is distributing the film.[5] Though Stone has criticized Bush for his administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq, the director said that he was not looking to make an "anti-Bush polemic." Stone compared his goal of the film to that of The Queen (2006), wanting to trace "seminal events in Bush's life." According to the director, "It's a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to Nixon (1995), to give a sense of what it's like to be in his skin. But if Nixon was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone."[7]
The film, originally titled Bush,[7] was re-titled W..[10] Filming began on May 12, 2008 in Shreveport, Louisiana,[3] and was still filming as of July 14, 2008.[11] The film was released on October 17, 2008, before the presidential election. [3] W. 's producers are reportedly running television spots for the film opposite Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain's ads this fall.[5]
On May 13, 2008 the New York Post published excerpts from an early draft of the script. The column, written by Cindy Adams, stated “Pro-Bushies will hate it, antis will love it.”[12]
Stone has described the structure of W. as a three-act film starting with Bush as a young man "with a missed life", followed by his transformation and "an assertion of will which was amazingly powerful" as he came out from his father's shadow, and finally his invasion of Iraq.[13]
News anchorwoman Anne Pressly of KATV 7 in Little Rock, Arkansas, played the role of journalist Ann Coulter in the film. On October 20, only three days after W. was released in theaters, she was found beaten and unconscious in her home. She died of her injuries five days later.[14]
Reception
W. has received mixed reviews from film critics.[15] As of October 19, 2008, Rotten Tomatoes reports that 54% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based upon a sample of 107, with an average score of 6.1/10.[16] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 58, based on 31 reviews.[15]
Giving the film four stars in his review Roger Ebert wrote that it was "fascinating" and praised all the actors, noting that Richard Dreyfuss, in particular, was "not so much a double as an embodiment" of Dick Cheney.[17] In contrast, Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post called the film "a rushed, wildly uneven, tonally jumbled caricature."[18] Film critic James Berardinelli negatively compared the film with Saturday Night Live skits, concluding that "None of them are as dead-on as Tina Fey as Sarah Palin."
The Bush administration has not officially commented on the film. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who is portrayed in the film, called the Oedipal rivalry as "high-grade, unadulterated hooey" and said that Stone's exploration of the family dynamic could have benefited from actual conversations with the Bush family.[19] Slate Magazine's Timothy Noah, however, noted that "most [of] the film's more ludicrous details" are directly taken from nonfiction sources, and argued that the film was too kind to Bush in omitting certain historically recorded dramatic events, most notably Bush's mocking of Karla Faye Tucker, a woman put to death during his tenure of the Texan governorship, to interviewer Tucker Carlson.[20]
The film opened #4 behind Max Payne, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and The Secret Life of Bees respectively with $10,505,668 from 2,030 theaters with a $5,175 average. [21]
References
- ^ "W. (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
- ^ "W. Poster". Internet Movie Poster Awards. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
- ^ a b c Fleming, Michael (2008-05-08). "Lionsgate books Oliver Stone's W". Variety. Retrieved 2008-05-09. Cite error: The named reference "fleming2" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b Larry Carroll (2008-10-15). "What Do Batman And George W. Bush Have In Common? Oliver Stone Explains…". MTV. Retrieved 2008-10-15.
- ^ a b c d e f Benjamin Svetkey (2008-05-07). "First Look: W., Oliver Stone's Bush Biopic". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-05-08. Cite error: The named reference "Svetkey" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Sperling, Nicole (March 26, 2008). "Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic coming together". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b c d Michael Fleming (2008-01-20). "Oliver Stone votes for 'Bush' project". Variety. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
- ^ Stephen Galloway, Matthew Belloni (2008-04-07). "Bush biographers mixed on script for Oliver Stone's W.". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
- ^ Schuker, Lauren. "A Film on Bush Finds Friends Abroad". Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2008
- ^ Fleming, Michael (March 26, 2008). "Oliver Stone casts parents of W". Variety. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Brolin, Wright arrested in pub fight". Variety. 2008-07-13. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
{{cite journal}}: More than one of|work=and|journal=specified (help) - ^ Cindy Adams (May 13, 2008). "Film Has A Few Words About Our President". New York Post. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
- ^ Mike Goodridge (May 30, 2008). "Interview: Oliver Stone". Screen Daily. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ CNN (October 26, 2008). "Intruder Beats TV News Anchor". CNN =. Retrieved 2008-10-30.
{{cite news}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ a b "W. (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "W. Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ Roger Ebert (2008-10-15). "W". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ Ann Hornaday (2008-10-17). "'W': Mission Not Accomplished". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "Jeb Bush calls 'W' movie 'Hooey'". Washington Times. Friday, October 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
"The Oedipal rivalry is high-grade, unadulterated hooey," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told The Washington Times.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Noah, Timothy (Friday, October 17, 2008). "Dubya, Stoned". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Weekend Box Office Results from 10/17 to 10/19". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-10-20.