A LIFE MISUNDERESTIMATED.
There are moments here where George W. Bush comes across as a bumbling fool… but this is also in many ways a gentle portrait of a simple man who unbelievably became leader of the free world. The movie jumps back and forth between the President’s preparations for going to war with Iraq and those times in the ’70s and ’80s when he partied too much, fought with his dad and eventually found Jesus. Josh Brolin is excellent, but Richard Dreyfuss so cold and evil as Cheney that he is hard to believe in and we never learn how the younger, liberal Laura could tolerate what her husband’s administration turned into.
2008-U.S. 131 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Oliver Stone. Screenplay: Stanley Weiser. Cast: Josh Brolin (George W. Bush), James Cromwell (George H.W. Bush), Elizabeth Banks (Laura Bush), Richard Dreyfuss, Jeffrey Wright, Thandiwe Newton… Toby Jones, Ellen Burstyn, Scott Glenn, Stacy Keach, Ioan Gruffudd, Noah Wyle, Colin Hanks.
Trivia: Christian Bale was allegedly considered for the part of Bush; Harrison Ford and Warren Beatty for his father; and Robert Duvall for Cheney.
Quote: “Who do you think you are… a Kennedy? You’re a Bush. Act like one.” (Cromwell to Brolin)
