W

A very, very, good film - not a slam, but an exposé, a character study of a simple man desperately seeking to escape the shadow of his father and brother.

Oliver Stone has not produced a parody of Bush, but a film that reveals the insanity of those around him: Rove, Cheney (nailed by Richard Dreyfuss), Rumsfeld and a ship of fools, intent on American Empire.

Josh Brolin as W clearly captures the man who believes he can do no wrong, yet without the malicious, malevolent, spirit of those advising and using him. W is tragically innocent - a Billy-Budd like character who has no sense of the harm he's doing. Buttressed by prayer and the strange sense of "being anointed," Bush lumbers into the White House intent on finishing his Daddy's war.

Colin Powell is portrayed, rightly so, as the only voice of sanity in the White House Asylum. Condoleezza Rice (Thandie Newton) comes off as a total sycophant, the world's biggest suck-up.

Aside from the message, I thought the film well done with plenty of character development - H Bush, a man of some dignity, who despises what was happening to the Republican Party with the likes of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, but who, in the end, chose his election over ethics which makes him, in my opinion, worse than the son who has neither his father's intellect nor character. If H sells everything, W has nothing to sell. James Cromwell portrays H powerfully well as we watch his character ebb away under the corrosive advice of Karl Rove and his growing sense of disappointment in his son's militarism.

Dreyfuss is an incredible Cheney, Ellen Burstyn gives feeling and power to Barbara Bush, with a huge cast fleshing out the story. Special mention of Stacy Keach and his portrayal of Rev. Earle Hudd who captures the southern ethos without making Hudd into a fool. Here as well, Stone rightly stayed away from what could have been an SNL moment. Hudd, and many like him, are not evil men, but only lost in the thick air of Texas and the thrill of victory.

A film this "large" might have ended in a muddle, but it "stays the course" and delivers the message.

The ending is profound ... a close up on W's eyes, scared, confused, bewildered - looking for the ball.

Someone said, a film made either too early or not soon enough. But it couldn't have been made any sooner for the story it tells - so many Americans bought the Reagan/Bush world and believed in it fervently; they wouldn't have been ready to hear the truth, but they are now.

Long after the election, this film will retain it's value, because we will all be years in picking up the pieces left behind by Bush.

Stone makes a genuine contribution to America's changing political climate.