First Hit: This could have been more hard hitting on the worst ever president to have lived in the White House during my lifetime. However, it did have some interesting and shining poignant moments.
With my own personal dislike of our President George W. Bush, I was hoping for something more devastating.
With that aside, W. seemed, at times, a fair representation of some of The President’s frustration of growing up the son of a powerful politico and his gullibility to listen to some of the people he surrounded himself with.
The film intersperses the years leading up to his decision to invade Iraq including snippets of his college hell raising days, his quitting numerous jobs, his less than honest and stellar military service, his meeting of Laura (played by Elizabeth Banks), and other events; most of them being seen as failures by his father.
Oliver Stone, the director, surrounds The President (played by Josh Brolin) with strong actors playing the parts of the cabinet. Richard Dreyfuss plays Dick Cheney, Scott Glenn plays Donald Rumsfeld, Toby Jones, plays Karl Rove, Thandie Newton plays Condoleezza Rice and Jeffrey Wright plays General Colin Powell. There are numerous characters in this film but the interchange between the aforementioned was the most interesting to me. Rove acted as a puppet master, Cheney was the bully, Rumsfeld was off the wall, Rice was silly and meaningless, and Powell as someone reluctant to go against the hard edge bully. Bush comes off as believing he actually knew something but because God wanted him to be President he is simply “The Decider”.
Brolin does an excellent job of capturing many of The President’s mannerisms and ways of speaking. Dreyfus “gets” Cheney and links the public views with the behind the scenes reality of him. Jones captures Rove well and as the non-assuming puppet master and intellectual. Newton plays Rice as a twit which is far different than the public Rice we’re given. Wright plays Powell with less assurance than the public Powell. Stone doesn’t go over the top like he has in other films but I would have like more understanding of how The President got his calling and how he felt he was doing God’s work.
Overall: This was a really good film although not a great film. I enjoyed watching it and it brought together many salient aspects as to why The President acts the way he does. In some ways it left me with the feeling that maybe each President needs to go through a psychological profile before he can serve the country; W. would have failed the profile.