Currently all talk Stateside is of Obama, McCain and a certain ‘hockey-Mom’, leading up to the general election on November 4, but this month Oliver Stone will take the focus back a little. He’s curious about George W. Bush.
He may not be on television as much, but he’s still the most powerful man in the world. In W, this years acting revelation, Josh Brolin – No Country For Old Men and Planet Terror (a long way from The Goonies) - stars with an uncanny resemblance as Mr Bush with Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice and other look-alike cameos to help chronicle the life of one of America’s most controversial leaders.
That all sounds well and good, but is cinema turning into next day documentary? With the film released on October 17, mere weeks before Republicans try to pretend Bush never happened and start over, it’s a hot topic to say the least.
Oliver Stone is no stranger to controversy after directing Born on the 4th of July and JFK, two of the greatest political pictures of all time. The only problem is his sentiments have recently got in the way of his movies. The only redeeming feature of World Trade Centre is Nicholas Cage stuck under a rock for 100 minutes, a wasted chance at a genuinely moving historic film and lacking the subtlety that Paul Greengrass fashioned United 93 with. Perhaps a subject that Stone delved into too soon and parallels are there if W turns out more hype than hit.
Last year Robert Redford screened his own two-cents on the war in the Middle East with Lions For Lambs. Politically charged, it was the most sensitive film Redford had been on since All The Presidents Men. Whilst promoting it Redford spoke about his open disapproval of the Bush administration: “King Midas had the golden touch; everything he touched turned to gold. Everything Bush touches, turns to shit.”
Ideologies swung all sorts of ways last year – other war themed films were tinted with either republican star striped pride, like The Kingdom, or a liberal sense of guilt in The Valley of Elah and Redacted.
In the early part of the Vietnam War Green Berets was filmed and part funded by the US government. Starring John Wayne it was a propaganda machine for the war on communism. When post-Vietnam films were released, addressing the Veteran in 1978 (Coming Home, The Deer Hunter), they were masterful and mindful as they at least had a gap of time for public feeling to settle down. Even the Gulf War waited till 1999 before Three Kings and not much happened in the war or the film.
Post-millennium, we have been treated to an army of politically motivated films, released quicker than Bill Clinton’s belt has been on issues in the Oval office. Modern conflicts abroad, or rather the ‘War on Terror’ (the working title of Die Hard 5), are giving birth to films left and right (wing).
This is old news. Bush has already been a film star, in Fahrenheit 9-11, just one of a new-wave of Hollywood doc-popcorn movements. Later this year even Michael Moore is being shown up in An American Carol, where an Anti-American film maker is out to cancel 4th of July but is visited by three ghosts who will try and change his mind.
Before you think it is Bill Murray-esque like Scrooge, try Bill O’Reilly – the most right wing news presenter the USA has, he plays a ghost in the film. With a decent budget it wouldn’t be a surprise if it were the White House’s funded retaliation to W and any other films taking cheap shots at a cheap term by G.W.B.
The money is on W being a solid film, mixing comedy and drama, with George Juniors drinking problem and arguments with George Senior. However, when major motion pictures are released with an instant agenda, it begs the question; how soon do these films need to be made? Troops are still stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan – and Lewinsky’s barely out from under the desk.
