...So Did Ya' Get The Memo?

After watching Josh Brolin portray the life of “Dubyah” for about two hours, I was surprisingly pleased with more than just Oliver Stone’s end of the work. Never did I expect to not only see such a human side depicted of the man questioned as the worst president in history, but to empathize with him left me interestingly shocked as well. Then again, Stone has a pretty good track record in engaging his audience to attempt to connect with his characters, who otherwise carry low public approval ratings – not to mention his initially awkward choice of actors who ultimately do a superb job in their roles (Who ever thought Anthony Hopkins would make a pretty decent Nixon??).

The film takes you back to Junior’s good old college days of hazing for DKE at Yale. The display of antics from his heavy drinking to his playboy ways is juxtaposed with Papa Bush’s incessant disapproval no matter what G-O tries to do to please him. Of course James Cromwell delivers a great role as Senior. Elizabeth Banks portrays the lovable, supportive Laura, which makes you kind of like her too – considering Junior took the spotlight for the past 8 years. She was pretty enigmatic to me up until I saw some of what she could be like in the first semi-biographical film about a sitting president. And I never have anything bad to say about Ellen Burstyn, way to go as Barb. Aside from his personal background, and after the movie starts to shift from his eastern elitist education and his numerous get-out-of-jail-free card moments with dad, into the presidency, the depictions become even more uncanny. Oh and in-between all that I learned a fun fact about our current president – who wished he was Willie Mays instead – having co-owned the Texas Rangers

I personally want to thank Richard Dreyfuss, Scott Glen and Thandie Newton (who is absolutely gorgeous) for making my night, though. The three reaffirmed my prior thoughts of Cheney as the true evil genius with his sidekick Rummy the lying scumbag and their blasé, yes-sir third component Condi following close behind. In all seriousness, while some might object to Thandie’s borderline SNL persona, I must say that after seeing Condi in person myself, Ms. Newton’s portrayal seemed pretty damn accurate to me – gave me a good laugh. I also knew I liked Colin Powell the most out of the bunch.

The film ultimately served as a very good civics lesson for viewers who were not completely aware of the inner workings of the Bush administration, up to this point. From Iraq, to the war on terror, to questions about torture techniques carried out by the U.S. government, and the subsequent economic crisis resulting from the horrendous choices of the administration, many people find themselves blaming Bush for those and other shortcomings America faced throughout the past 8 years. In doing so, however, they fail to realize the crucial role that his cabinet played in the outcome of it all – specifically the three stooges I mentioned before. Bush’s “hands-off” style in the deliberation of many issues surrounding the administration was clearly depicted in the film – showing a lot of the power being placed in the hands of Cheney instead. Throughout the film, there are a few different cases where Bush attempts to take back some of his power in an effort to regain accountability after battling with his own conscience, but in the end, he resorts to leaving the background work to Cheney while continuing to portray the image of the leader as opposed to the follower we all kind of knew he was.

One of my personal favs – not to ruin the film for anyone, although its pretty obvious to the whole world at this point – is when the president holds a meeting upon our ‘entrance’ into Iraq (to put it nicely), during which time WMDs still HAD NOT been found, and everybody in the room looks like they just got asked a pop quiz question about who’s idea it was to enter into the war in the first place. The childlike reaction of the cabinet was surreal, but more so, sickening. It was definitely an ‘ARE YOU FRIGGIN SERIOUS???’ moment for me if not everybody else in the theater. It was the moment of truth where accountability was completely thrown out the window while bureaucracy slowly crept in through the cracks in the floor. And we’re not even talking about a piece of legislation that got lost in translation, but a war. Everyone’s reaction was to point the finger at one committee and then throw the hot potato to the next one, after which point in time you ask yourself why the heck so many committees were involved in the first place in an executive decision that seemed like news to the president himself. I guess there was no need to debrief the man considered to be the head of state and the head of government, not to mention Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. armed forces for crying out loud – not even a memo on a post-it note, nothing. Again, for some odd reason, as a member of the audience you find yourself wanting to strangle someone other than Junior for “overlooking” the WMD situation. While we all know the end of the story, Stone gives it a twist with Junior in his empty baseball stadium, with no one to cheer, as he struggles to step out with dignity.

I can safely say I walked out of the theater not minding at all for paying an entire $9.50 to see two hours dedicated to “Dubyah” and the gang.

So, if you’re out and about, feeling jaded by all the media coverage of the 2008 election and in the mood to catch an interesting flick, give W. a second glance at the box office and find yourself reminiscing the oh-so yesterday Bush administration through the vision of an amazing cast and an amazing director.