Oliver Stone takes on W. George W. Bush. He pulls a few punches in this doc-drama about W’s life and rise to power. Namely I wanted to see things about his involvement in Skull and Bones during his Yale years. Both his father, George H. W. Bush and Grandfather, Prescott Bush, were members of Skull and Bones before during their Yale years as well. W only goes into his alcohol abuse and doesn’t touch any of his other drug problems. I also thought it could have used a few more Bushisms. W does go into some of his failures, but it doesn’t cover the Bush family ties to Oil and the Arabs. Olive Stone let me down on the sinister side of the Bushes I wanted to see.
George W. Bush starts off as a drunken college frat boy, his many failures (but not all of them), and helping his father win his run for the White House. He later goes on to run for Governor of Texas.
George W. Bush is jealous of his younger brother Jeb. It turns out he gets his bad temper from his innocent looking mother Barbara Bush, while Jeb Bush takes more after his father. GW has an acceptance issue with his distant father.
W shows George W Bush for the drunken idiot buffoon that he is. W has some funny true to history shots in it. I like the one that had of Karl Rove playing with his Blackberry. Product placements for Dr Pepper and Aquafina are in W.
There are a few low points in the movie, it showed W visiting the injured troops. W shows the low point of George W. Bush’s father losing his bid for reelection despite the fact that Desert Storm was a very quick and easy success. Olive Stone’s W does show the mistake that George H. W. Bush made, not going all the way to Baghdad and get Saddam the first go around. The saddest part is that George H. W. Bush is more upset about his son ruining the Bush family name than he is about W ruining the country.
W. - Worth Consuming 2008