But with Bush dispatched to
history's dustbin and his henchmen rapidly becoming a bad dream, this
film feels like a much more reasonable take on the man that so recently
inspired so much hate and anger.
That's not to say this is a glowing portrait by any means...
Josh
Brolin as George W Bush gives an amazing performance throughout the
three stages of W's life this in which this film focuses on: His hard-drinking days as a Texas layabout and disappointment to his father (James Cromwell) His newly sober, newly religious days in th late 80s where he's slight less of a disappointment to his father The
days post 9/11 where Bush and his team of henchmen plan out the
invasion of Iraq simply because it's what they want to do.
The
pre-presidential days are informative and mostly straight-forward, with
the only real insight being that W really wanted his dad's love.
It
is the post 9/11 scenes that really bring this film to life, as an
all-star cast (Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney; Scott Glenn as Rumsfeld;
Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell; Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice)
turns this into a mix of a Dr Strangelove black comedy and one of those re-enactments looking inside Hitler's inner circle that SBS are always showing.
It's not enough to make this a great film, or even an memorable one, but it does send the occasional chill down the spine.
DVD Special Features with Sean Lynch
Quite a bit on offer here, which is surprising considering the movie
did so very poorly across the globe. Although, is it really a surprise
folk didn't want to waste their hard earned watching a movie about a
President (who at the time of it's release) had his lowest opinion
polls in history?
Included here is the usual Commentaries with
director Oliver Stone, plus a bunch of featurettes including "Dangerous
Dynasty: The Bush Presidency", "No Stranger to Controversy: Oliver
Stone's George W. Bush", as well as several Deleted Scenes and
Filmmakers' Research and Annotations Guide.
Conclusion:
Movie 60% Extras: 60%
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