W: Stupid, Boring (the movie, that is)
I saw “W” and Dan McCarthy is basically right; it’s “like sitting through a not-very-funny, two-hour-long ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch without Tina Fey.” Everything (and everyone) was pretty cartoonish, and all the standard anti-Bush bullet points were dutifully checked off: waterboarding, check. “Is our children learning,” check. Yellowcake, check. Cheney’s lust for oil and Empire, check. “Misunderestimated,” check.
It’s not even that I couldn’t ever buy, even if only in a suspension-of-disbelief way, the movie’s basic premise, that W was driven to become president to prove himself to Bush Sr, and that the Iraq War fiasco was a product of his complicated relationship with Bush Sr. as well as the machinations of evil neocons. It’s just that this particular movie is clumsy, plodding, dumb, and boring.
The vibe from the audience in the theater was a little weird. The film tries to humanize Bush and get the audience to empathize with him to some extent. But most in the audience seemed to be pretty amped up for lots of anti-Bush red meat which the movie failed to deliver consistently, leading to some loud, almost forced laughter and jeers in parts that were supposed to be dramatic rather than satirical, like the scene with W’s near-fistfight with Dad. I guess loud laughter at inappropriate moments in movies is kind of a pet peeve of mine, but I didn’t mind too much this time because the movie itself wasn’t exactly holding me spellbound.
One thing that struck me is that just like in real life, Colin Powell got off real easy in this movie. He was portrayed as the voice of reason, courage, and sanity among all the warmongering and recklessness of the Cheney-led neocons, but his ultimate decision to stick it out and back the Administration, right through to his famous presentation to the U.N. Security Council, is glossed over without much examination. But, of course, he was the only one in the Administration who was positioned to end up looking good no matter what the outcome of the war. Not an accident!
Here’s the Southern Avenger’s take.
P.S. this is the banner from whitehouse.gov’s 2003 Web package of Powell’s presentation. Prophetic, right?
November 4th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Thanks for sitting through this so I don’t have to. You have confirmed my suspicions.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am
You know, what really got me about this (before the lady behind me got mad that I told her to be quiet) was that I was completely uninterested in it, starting at about minute four. I thought the movie would have held my attention at least as long as Hellboy II did, but no. Hellboy II > W
November 5th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I detect a subtle put-down of Hellboy II in your comment. That was a great movie!