Are boy bands the new Obama Girl? White women, Boybama’s “Battleground For Your Heart” is for you.
Writer Adam “the greatest press critic” Chodikoff of the Daily Show is spotlighted on WWDmedia.
Reflections on Oliver Stone’s ‘W.’. Includes spoilers.
Sad and surprisingly accurate, ‘W.’ by Oliver Stone explores the internal struggle of George W. Bush Jr.’s random quest to find importance, his place in the world, and earn the respect of his father.
The film begins with W. standing center field in an empty Texas Rangers stadium, staring up at the lights. Donned in a baseball uniform, the crack of a baseball sends him reeling back to the outer wall where he triumphantly reaches out to mitt the ball. 
Bookended with a similar shot at the film’s denouement, Stone’s initial allusion shows the limited reasoning and focus of W.’s mind, and his ideas of victory. The center fielder stands in a large swath of space for all to see (yet the stadium is empty in W.’s case)… He wears the uniform of his purpose, understands the rules of the game, and has a simple goal: to catch the ball and throw it back. Like a dog. Fetch and retrieve. Simple. Predictable. Easy to fathom glory and appreciation.
Centered on W.’s decision to invade Iraq, the film is dotted with sometimes awkwardly timed flashbacks to yesteryear, delving into W.’s university days, binge drinking, jobs leveraged by his father, and the looming shadow of his father’s constant disappointment in W.’s lack of achievement; something that haunts W. up to and beyond his decision to run for governor of Texas.
W.’s gubernatorial run irks his family, as his older brother Jeb is simultaneously running for governor of Florida, and who the elder Bush believes is better suited and qualified for a life of significance.
Seemingly born into the wrong family, W. undergoes a conversion of spirit through his embrace of Alcohol Anonymous-style Christianity, replacing his youthful debauchery with religion (a more noxious substance).
Called by God to run for the presidency, W. achieves his objective yet fails to garner his father’s respect that he desperately seeks, as W.’s decisions demonstrate he lacks his father’s wisdom, especially in his decision to invade Iraq. So easily swayed by the self-serving and ideologically-driven advisors surrounding him, W. plays the fool, believing in his position as ‘the decider’, yet too dense to understand the forces at work around him. Or for that matter, the consequences of his own use of force.
Like Lennie of Mice and Men, W. is too obtuse to recognize the extent, implications, and consequences of his power and actions. Just as Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife while trying to stroke her hair, in his choice to invade Iraq, W. becomes Lennie, an obtuse man of grand stature who only wants to do good, but who is too intellectually limited to understand the reality of his actions, the forces that guided his trajectory, and the reasons why he is hated.
Channeling the comedic genius of Tina Fey’s mockery of Sarah Palin by quoting her word for word (Palin’s answer to Katie Couric’s interview question about her asserted foreign policy credentials concerning Alaska’s geographical proximity to Russia), actor Josh Broslin who plays W. nails President Bush’s famed failed answer on what his greatest mistakes have been as president and what he has learned from them.
Being unable to summon even one mistake of his presidency, W. is at his most revealing, as the simple limitations of his intellect and lack of a reflective life come roaring to the surface. While many of the White House inner circle are portrayed as caricatures, W. demonstrates that in many ways he actually is one, a man born into a circumstance that goes against and above his grain, a politically-minded family that he eventually succumbs to and thrives in for all the wrong reasons.
With a notable portrayals of Dick Cheney by Richard Dreyfus and George H. W. Bush by James Cromwell, ’W.’ takes an especially sympathetic look at Gen. Colin Powell’s fall from grace. The caricatures of White House advisors portends a frightening peek into how history will judge the Bush administration, from the weaselly Karl Rove to a smug Condoleezza Rice.
In the end ‘W.’ displays George W. Bush as a limited mind elevated into a position of power through the circumstances of his birth into the Bush family, his failure at finding his own path, and an internal struggle to do good in his father’s eyes.
As the movie closes, W. finds himself back in center field, this time in his presidential suit, staring once again up at the lights, waiting to play out his preconditioned role as ball catcher. As the crack of baseball hit roars in his ears, he stares up at the lights in anticipation, yet the ball never appears and he is left in confusion.
W. finds himself out of his league, ostensibly confused by his own obliviousness to the complicity of the world he has positioned himself in as leader, a world now in havoc by his own hand. Like Lennie, W. not only fails to comprehend the consequences of his actions, he lacks the depth and ability to be truly remorseful.
W. sought his father’s respect through political achievements, and in earning the presidency, W. mimics Lennie, the character with the greatest physical strength in the novel. Yet that strength for Lennie and position of power for W. did not earn either a sense of respect, as both characters’ intellectual handicaps undercut their ideals of goodness, leaving both ironically powerless and disrespected in the end.
Images: http://www.natparty.com/w.jpg, http://www.cinemaisdope.com/news/films/w/w_oliver_stone_2008_1.jpg, http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200707/r159769_583213.jpg, http://cache.gawker.com/assets/stills/W_Trailer.flv.jpg, http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/899/899749/w-oliver-stones-bush-biopic-20080818020904239_640w.jpg, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/08/img/w_movie_onpage.jpg, http://www.aolcdn.com/aolnews_photos/0e/04/20080522140009990001
Funny video compilation of late night talk show takes on the second presidential debate. O’Brian’s is the best.
Joe Biden is amazing. If you’re looking for a real laugh from a real person, look no further.
…And some people actually thought Palin actually won the debate. These just keep getting better.
Colbert’s mission to infuse himself into every possible nook in Americana takes another giant leap.
McCain chooses a VP perfect for Saturday Night Live mockery. Tina Fey won’t be out of work till Nov.
I cried as I watched his presidential acceptance speech too, being fortunate enough to keep my eye hairs.
Billboard for the Daily Show outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport welcomes the arrival of the GOP.
