Saw W tonight.

I think I hate Bush so much that it is hard to be entertained by him on a huge screen.

We had free passes and I am glad we didn't have to pay for it.

DH gives it a 6 out of 10. I am thinking maybe a 5.

The scenes about planning for war were infuriating.

Has anyone else seen it?

He twists some things around timewise. But yes, there are a lot of scenes of them all sitting around a table planning a war and the players are very realistic, from what I know of them. The Collin Powell stuff is especially chilling.

Chicago Suburbs

I actually enjoyed it, even though it did infuriate me. I thought the casting was excellent, with the exception of Thandie Newton as Condi. Before she opened her mouth, she visually looked right, but the minute she started talking, something was off. She sounded forced and like she was going to cry all the time. And what was up with her mouth? Sounded like she couldn't talk right because she had Botox treatments or something.

Unfortunately, my friend and I wound up in the second row, so everything was HUGH and our necks hurt by the end of the movie.

I liked the Condi character. But I understand what you mean by her speech.

DH and I spent much of the drive home comparing W to Farenheit 911. We were also infuriated after seeing it for the first time but we thought it was wonderful and wanted to go back the next day and see it again. Not so with W.

Richard Dreyfuss was great but wasn't in the story enough. Karl Rove gave me the creeps but also wasn't on screen enough.

other than Condi. I thought the portrayals were very well done.

We went to dinner and thought getting there a half hour before showtime would be fine, but to get a decent seat we should have gotten there earlier.

They made everyone go through a metal detector and searched bags for cell phones.

(and we had left our phones in our cars) and there was definitely no metal detector.

why did you describe them as 'infuriating'?

I guess I found it hard to be entertained by it.

Were people throwing things at the screen?

Did anyone scream out anything?

Man, I would be very conflicted, because even if something was funny--look
where we are today, and it's really not that funny.

I'll see it though.

where I saw it. Everyone clapped when they showed Clinton beating Poppy in '92.

Maybe that was why I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Maybe.

For now, he's not entertaining. And Stone shouldn't have wasted his time and money. The GOP will only use the movie to ratchet up the "librul media" game.

This is a classic example of "too soon".

My husband said he thinks this is the first time a movie has ever been made about a sitting president. It makes a great statement for that reason. And for the uninformed, it's good the story is getting out.

who are going to try to spin the B*sh presidency in to a success.

anything pertaining to george. I am done with him.

Maybe because I have been there and I recognized a lot of familiar faces. Plus I thought it did a great job of painting a picture of Crawford and its people.

But yeah. I am done with george too. I just want him to go away.

I thought it was really well done and I enjoyed it a lot.

I'll wait for the DVD


I'll be watching Religulous!!!

It was awesome and maddening (at Bush) at the same time.

The past 8 years have been such a hell that I'm not ready to go sit through a movie to re-live it all
over again.

(I'm waiting for Roger Ebert's review as I always do as well).

I’m on record of feeling that George W Bush is definitely the worst President of my 36 year life time and arguably the worst in American History. On a personal level, I hate the guy. He may be “Born Again,” but in his eyes I still see the coke-snorting alcoholic Frat Rat that he was in his youth. I hold the Presidency as a place for intelligent, wise and thoughtful folks. Going with your gut bullshit isn’t how to govern or lead this country, much less the world.

That said, George Dubya Bush fascinates me… It is astonishing to imagine that a man that failed at every business he ever attempted, that was a do nothing Governor, that admits to not liking to read… that a man like that could become President, not only that… but a President over a dramatically important sector of American History. A nation in crisis led by a “C” student.

That said, I’ve met W twice, once at a function at the Governor’s Mansion here in Austin, Texas and once while I was being interviewed about Star Wars on a program, that he was also a guest on… again while he was Governor. I didn’t have any Christopher Walken “The Ice Is Gonna Break!” moments. But instead, I couldn’t help but actually feel the man had a “redneck charisma.”

The years I spent in North Texas – dealing with Oil men, rounding up cattle, raising Quarter Horses – and coming from a family that made its money in Oil, Land & Cattle – and constantly being pressured to go into the “family business” I got who George appealed to, at least in Texas. I was just surprised how much further that “redneck charisma” took him. I always thought he’d be perceived as too hick. Kinda how everyone is reacting to Palin these days.

Also of personal note, my father worked in the Texas Republican Party in the late Sixties – working with the George H.W. Bush’s campaigns and even trying to get him on Nixon’s ticket way back when. For those that know my father, the idea that he was Republican is like trying to convince most people these days that Bush was a coke snorting, womanizing heavy drinker. It was just a different era. But I grew up my entire life hearing stories about what a fuck up George H. W. Bush’s son was. How he was an embarrassment to his father in the late sixties and early seventies.

So I walked into Oliver Stone’s W with a lot of Bush baggage. It was something I’ve been dying to see, but having now seen it, I can say with absolute certainty that I didn’t know what Oliver Stone was up to.

W is not DR STRANGELOVE. This isn’t a biting satire ridiculing a man. This isn’t a film about Liberal Revenge – with a mind set to smear the man as a hick Chauncey Gardner. W. isn’t about the Bush Presidency, at its soul, the film is about why a man that started off life wanting to be anything but his father, not only followed his footsteps into the White House, but got the second term his father didn’t. It’s a film about the fire that drives the Bush engine.

And that is an incredibly compelling question. Why would Bush do the things he has done?

There is a moment where you see W wake up. When you realize that he will not let Jeb take his place, when he is completely disgusted by his Father’s loss to Clinton – and the Bush we know today was born.

This film is extraordinary. Compelling from the first frames to the last. In terms of a portrait of a man who became President, it is arguably the best film made. I love Ford’s YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, but this is frankly, just a more compelling story. It has more genuine laughs and emotional beats. Lincoln is obviously a larger life, but here… Brolin’s BUSH does get the excuse to do so much nuance with the character. Through Brolin’s performance, I get why the folks around him admire W.

(Much more)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/38726

in case you want to see the real him.

dp

Tina Fey in a W/Palin sketch. :-)

horror?

Hopefully in 10 years or so we can file it under comedy. The wounds haven't healed yet.

It has a bit of all three genres.

I planned to buy Woodward's last book, but couldn't bring myself to actually go get it. My whole being wants to forget Shrub ever existed.

So many really good books about this criminal administration, but just can't stomach them. At least not yet. My gag reflex is sensitive.

No interest.

I hate to read articles about the guy let alone sit through 2 hours of his life story, no matter how critical it is.

I plan on seeing it Friday.

But yeah, it seems to end about then.

I'm honestly not all that amped about seeing it either. I'd rather go see Religulous again.

It is a biography but also paints him as the failed man we know him to be.