W. – 2008

Oliver Stone does a good job of bringing one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century to the big screen in this biopic of the life of George W. Bush. It’s interesting to see how things were portrayed behind the scenes when out of the public eye. Josh Brolin does a brilliant job of playing the man they called Dub-Ya, bringing the highs and lows of a career fraught with failings as well as personal achievements.

With W it has an equally accomplished cast, James Cromwell, Thandie Newton, Scott Glen and Richard Dreyfuss to name but a few. The film received some criticism for apparently being rushed out in time for the Presidential election and in a way the film does feel like it has been thrown together. But, that doesn’t detract from the storyline of a man desperate to win approval from his father and who had to make one of the biggest political decisions of the modern era.

It certainly doesn’t pack the same impact as JFK or World Trade Centre but it can stand alone in its own right.

View the trailer

Rating: (3/5)

Visit the IMDb page for W.

DVD Extras: The W. DVD comes with a few extras, the most worthwhile of which is the feature-length audio commentary by director Oliver Stone.

Blu-ray Extras: audio commentary with Stone; a Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Legacy featurette in high-definition; a chronological series of text documents detailing the film’s authenticity and creative license; HD trailers; 18 minutes of deleted scenes (in HD and exclusive to Blu-ray); and No Stranger to Controversy: Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush, an interview with Stone in HD and exclusive to Blu-ray.

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