all the news that print will fit.
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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Sunday, October 19, 2008 I went and watched the new Oliver Stone film, W., tonight with various teacher friends. Despite the fact that it became another in an increasing list of films with fantastic songs in the trailer that don't show up in the movie itself (Pineapple Express and "Paper Planes"; W. and "Once in a Lifetime"), I was all in all interested in it. The rather lackluster reviews had lowered my expectations and I think that helped. Josh Brolin plays W. Bush at a halfway point somewhere between honest portrayal of an undoubtedly complex human and a caricature. I was worried that the film would be more to the latter than the former and it at least seemed to show some restraint, other than a purposeful recontexualizing of some of Bush's most famous verbal flubs for pure comedic/dramatic(?) effect. I don't doubt that there is a lot going on inside the man who has come to represent, for me, the most hideous parts of the last eight years in American history. I do doubt that this film really gets to any substantive analysis of its subject. As the Onion AV Club said in its review, "Stone paddles down the giant river of Bush's life without exploring any of the tributaries; he passes by two or three dozen better movies along the way." The film's most interesting scenes come in the meetings with Bush and his cohorts (here - then Secretary of State Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfwitz, George Tenet, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove) in the lead up to the Iraq invasion. Especially good is Powell's attempt to restrain the building attempt to invade. That he is ultimately overpowered and convinced to go along positions him as a Starbuck-type character - a man who knows better the morality of what his leader is proposing, but whose devotion to duty ultimately forces him to tamp down his own feelings and be swept along to bitter results. He is a sympathetic character, but only to the extent that you agree with his feelings - understanding his decision to step back involves a different set of analyzation. -- I will be, again, trying to write more here. As even my music writing has moved almost exclusively from my radio blog over to Aquarium Drunkard (with the exception of the podcast write up and occasional Friday column), I feel the need to do personal, for-me writing again. Or maybe that's just tonight and the reflective mood I'm in following this film. We'll see. posted by J. Neas | 10/19/2008 02:25:00 AM
Comments:
Josh Brolin did a convincing Dubya, though he reminded me a lot of his cowboy character from No Country for Old Men... over all, i don't doubt that 'W.' will have the effect Oliver Stone desired
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# posted by
 : 5:58 PM, October 24, 2008 |
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