Here we go again. Hollywood is doing their best to meddle in the 2008 election — and tinseltown is already all atwitter: “Although Oliver Stone’s biopic on George W. Bush won’t start filming until next week in Shreveport, Louisiana, Lionsgate has picked up the rights and already set a release date — October 17th, 2008. You heard me right — they’re releasing W just a few weeks before the election!” This will be the third election in a row that a highly charged political film was released right before the nation heads to the polls, so I guess we can call it a trend.
Personally, I couldn’t be more excited. With political films now quadrennially in vogue, perhaps my agent can get someone to take a meeting about my script, Wide Stances, Narrow Minds: The Larry Craig Story. But on another level, I’m excited because the only thing more entertaining than a Hollywood summer blockbuster is watching Hollywood flail around in the political arena.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ADVERTISEMENT
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Oliver Stone’s new Bush biopic, starring Barbra Streisand’s son-in-law in the title role, is certainly shaping up to be entertaining, though likely not in the way he intends. Stone, the noted paranoiac visionary behind
JFK and
Nixon, will take a stab at tarnishing the legacy of George W. Bush by rushing out a film while he’s still in office. Conceived as a mean-spirited parody, the film projects to be laughably predictable.
We’re only three pages into the script, as previewed by
Slate, when this scene introduces us to a young George W. Bush at Yale:
The script calls for young W. to pour “cheap vodka into a large garbage can” while a fellow pledge “mixes in orange juice.” Classy. Then W. “takes a snoot-full” (presumably of cocaine, though the script doesn’t specify) and sings the chorus of the Yale Whiffenpoof song: “We’re poor little lambs who have lost our way. Baa! Baa! Baa!”
How’s that for subtlety? Now, the extent of Bush’s youthful dalliances has been the subject of much speculation, but having Oliver Stone of all people sit in judgment of someone’s college drug use is a bit much. According to this book by Natural Born Killers producer-turned-liberal-blogger Jane Hamsher, Stone’s idea of “scouting locations” is scarfing hallucinogenic mushrooms and driving aimlessly around the desert — and that was when Stone was pushing 50.
But hey, we’re quoting selectively, right? Surely the script reflects the eventual growth and maturity of man who, whatever you think of his politics, got his act together well enough to become governor of Texas and eventually leader of the free world? Nope. Check out this sparkling dialogue on page 11 of the screenplay:
Bush: “We’ll move these terr’ists to Guantanemera.”
Cheney: “Guantanamo.”
Bush: “Right. [Pause] Vice, when we’re in meetings I want you to keep a lid on it. Keep your ego in check. Remember, I’m the president.”
Scintillating. With character insights like that, the audience will feel like a fly on the wall of the Oval Office. Considering how terrible the W script seems to be, I’m puzzled by the logic behind rushing the film out before Election Day. After all, Hollywood has a lousy track record at influencing voters.
In 2000, Gary Oldman, one of the stars of The Contender, alleged in Premiere magazine that studio execs were using the film to manipulate the upcoming election. Supposedly, it was rewritten and re-edited, “turning the political drama upside down to make it mesh with their pro–Al Gore agendas.” Oldman claimed that his character — a Republican Senator — emerged far less honorable and sympathetic than originally scripted and filmed. Producer Douglas Urbanski backed Oldman, lamenting that, apparently, “you can’t have a film with a Republican character . . . who is at all sympathetic.”
