Ballad of a thin man: Oliver Stone's 'W.'

 

The fox, philosophized the ancient Greek poet Archilochus, knows many things, while the hedgehog knows one big thing. Shakespeare was a fox, as were Montaigne, Balzac and Goethe. Plato, on the other hand, was a hedgehog. So were Dante, Proust and Nietzsche. George W. Bush is neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He is the dumbest president in American history. His views on the world marinated for years in a tumbler of Jack Daniels with a twist of family money and a chaser of half-ass born again Christianity. And then he got elected twice to the most important job in the world.

As if it were for eight years a foregone conclusion, America has on its hands in October, 2008 two disastrous wars, an economy in shambles, a congress bought and paid for by Wall Street, and now here we are, all alone with George W. Bush. He might be marginalized as a lame duck, but we're all right there with him.

Oliver Stone has re-teamed with the writer of his 1987 hit Wall Street for W., a biopic-slash-examination of the buildup to the Iraq War, and the results are much better than you would think. Stone was actually a freshman-year classmate of Bush's at Yale, but he left school in 1967 to join the Army and fight in Vietnam. Last week, Stone told Bill Maher that had Bush gone to Vietnam, he "probably would have died." This after all, is a man who nearly choked to death on a pretzel in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

Stone portrays Bush's early years in a sympathetic, almost endearing light. There is a scene from 1966, when fraternity pledge Bush impresses his Delta Kappa Epsilon brothers by having all of their nicknames committed to memory. This talent manifests itself later in the film (and in real life) when Bush refers to CIA head honcho George Tenet as "Brother George," political advisor Karl Rove as "Turd Blossom," and Vice President Dick Cheney as "Vice." Or, in yet-to-be-documented private moments, "Boss."

The scenes which show the late '70s and early '90s political neophyte version of Bush figuring out the hard knocks of American political life contain the best moments in the film. Beaten in his first election for a Texas congressional seat in 1978, Bush prophetically declares, "I will never be out-Texased or out-Christianed again." And of course there is the night that Bush's father lost the presidency to Bill Clinton. In a moment of anger, as his dejected father sits on a couch watching Clinton take the stage for his acceptance speech, George yells out "You should've finished the job, Poppy!" in reference to Saddam Hussein. It is obvious that these defeats shaped Bush as a politician and as a man.

It should be noted at this point that Josh Brolin's performance as George W. Bush is worth the price of admission. He slips into Saturday Night Live-type caricatures only twice, and necessarily so, during the 2003 State of the Union speech and the tragic moment in a 2004 press conference when Bush was asked about his mistakes. Apart from those two scenes, Brolin creates his own character, and it is really something to see.

The backyard barbecue scene where Bush is introduced to Laura Welch, who would become his wife, is a masterpiece of subtle charm. A private lunch discussion about torture policy with Richard Dreyfus's Cheney, while Brolin's mouth is full of bologna sandwich (bologna!), ranks right up there with Denzel Washington's most duplicitous scenes in Training Day. All of the performances in W. are spot-on, with the notable exception of Toby Young as Karl Rove, who is woefully miscast. For starters, Young's head is too small.

The most painful moments in the film concern the buildup to the war in Iraq. The differences about Iraq between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Dick Cheney are well-documented, most notably in Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book Hubris, but to see them acted out on film is like watching a ten-car-pileup unfold in slow motion. Powell, who is arguably the most tragic character in the film, does get his shots in, at one point calling Cheney, "Mr. Five Deferments" to his face. Rove inexplicably hovers in the background of the Situation Room during the pre-war meetings, prompting an exasperated Powell to finally ask, "What is he doing here?" Good question.

It is clear from these scenes that Dick Cheney's principal interest in the Middle East was not promoting democracy. It is not clear what Bush's principal interest is in the region. It may never be. Bush's detachment from reality concerning Iraq pays off later when he travels there to scream at Paul Bremer and Tommy Franks about the lack of post-war planning. "Who's in charge?!" Bush repeatedly yells. He is met with blank stares. Again... good question.

The most profound question that W. will leave you with is how did this happen? Why did we fall for this in 2000, and more incredibly, in 2004? Is the idiot George W. Bush really that great of a politician? Is Karl Rove really a genius? The answer to both questions is no. Respectively, 47.9% and 50.7% of American voters were just that stupid.

Bush and Rove did one hell of a job turning the American electorate into the political equivalent of the OJ Simpson jury. The first OJ jury, that is. The second jury though, the one in Las Vegas that just sent OJ's ass to prison? That political equivalent will head to the polls on November 4th with a chance to finally set things right.

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When I was in Iowa in January for the caucuses, I had the chance to talk with Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. She told me a story about a visit she made to the White House in 2004. In the midst of his run for the United States Senate, Barack Obama had just made a name for himself with a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention and Schakowsky was wearing an "Obama 2004" button to show her support.

On her way out of the White House, she stopped to shake Bush's hand when he pulled an alarmed double-take at her button, due to Obama's similarity in name to a certain world-famous terrorist.

"Obama?! Who's that?" he asked.

Schakowsky explained that Obama was running for an open senate seat in Illinois, and is a major political talent.

"Huh. I never heard of him," Bush said.

"Don't worry," Schakowsky answered. "You will."