Oliver Stone’s new film W will begin filming any day soon in Louisiana and the cast list is now becoming well publicized. It will be Stone’s third film about a US president – he has previously helmed JFK and the biopic Nixon that starred Anthony Hopkins.
Stone is an interesting film maker and it is always interesting to see what he does with his material. There are some really fantastic movies amongst his back catalogue (Wall Street, Salvador and Platoon come to mind which were all released between 1986 and 1987) and whilst I am less impressed by some of his later work it is usually worth watching.
Usually I try to keep an open mind on film projects but I have a problem with this one. It feels too soon.
We are told that this will not be an anti-Bush polemic. This certainly seems to clash with the description of the Bush in the movie as being ‘a foul-mouthed, dried-out drunk with a baseball obsession and a difficult relationship with his father’.
It is not the take on Bush that is a problem for me but whether there is much value to trying to deconstruct the life and achievements of a man, not only whilst he’s still alive but when he is still in office.
Much of our understanding of politicians is based on the longer term consequences of their actions, hence why reputations adjust after time. A strong American example of this is President Truman whose opinion poll ratings fell to incredible lows in his second term and yet fifty years later he tends to be listed amongst the best Presidents America had to offer.
Bush is unlikely to be re-evaluated as quickly, if at all, although there is an interesting comparison between the two Presidents that is waiting to be written. The point is that a biopic produced in the dying days of his Presidency cannot realistically aim to be the “fair, true portrait of the man” that Stone claims it will be if we are still being directly affected by the decisions he is taking.
Stone’s Nixon is a breathtaking work that looks, perhaps not dispassionately at the disgraced President’s life but certainly with a degree of clarity brought on by the passage of time. I am sure that there will be merit in W – after all, I am a fan of Stone’s work. It is just a shame that there is this rush to re-evaluate and analyze so quickly after the event.
W will be released in cinemas in America before Bush leaves office next January and stars Josh Brolin as George W Bush, Elizabeth Banks as his wife Laura, James Cromwell as George H W Bush, Thandie Newton as Condi Rice, Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair and Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush.
An intriguing review of the script as it was last Fall can be found at Rope of Silicon and is well worth a read.
