Feb. 22, 2009 - W.

I admit I didn't like George Bush at the end. Generally speaking I've been against war since I realized the greater threat was 'friendly fire' and 'war for profit' became a thing of the present. That said, I've liked him since he's been gone and felt the same about the older Bush, Reagan, and Clinton. I'm really happy about Obama but the way these American 'Golden Bough' presidency's go I'll probably get tired of him and likely only like him again after some other guy gets in. I felt the same for Troudeau, though I didn't care much for Chretien. Mulroney had me at the start and I've liked Harper some. I'm politically gullible and hoping for change and improvement. I've been disappointed alot but the wars themselves just seem to get sleazier.

Now Oliver Stone has made a film about George W. Bush and I found George more endearing in the movie than I'd mostly found him in life. Oliver Stone was a Vietnam Bronze Medal and Purple Heart winner who volunteered for combat duty in the infantry in Vietnam. I've loved his academy award winning movies Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. Scarface and Natural Born Killers were also brilliant.

The portrayal of George W. has it's flaws but I really appreciated his love for his wife and family, for the American people and the depth of his Christian faith. It wasn't sinister and it really could have been sinister. There are definitely those who believe the American White House has long been under the control of aliens, the same ones who abducted Elvis. Their ideas are at least as convincing as Bush's WMD inventions. The film's explanation for the whole WMD scenario was itself worth the price of admission.

Stone's portrayal of Bush was very human. I liked that. In the end it was 'friendly fire' that got Bush too.

My Dad phoned to tell me that Obama had been visitting in Ottawa. That was real neighbourly of him. The Stone film didn't mention Canada at all. We just have humbly take it for granted when Americans refer to a higher power they're thinking in part of Canada. It's not like they ever go out of their way to admit their inferiority. Bush was as American as Stone in that regard. If the movie's a bit condescending at times, obviously Stone's lifelong struggle with drugs would be sufficient to explain his envy for a man who'd put alcohol long behind him for the sake of his family and country. There was a bit too much psychological reductionism with regard to the Bush family who are one of the truly great families of history. W. by Oliver Stone would be a great film if only because of the subject matter. As it is Stone's a great filmmaker, too.