W - Oliver Stone’s Return To Controversy

After shooting straight with the 9-11 centric film, World Trade Center, Oliver Stone returns to stirring the pot with his latest effort W. W is a look at George W Bush’s rise to the White House. Josh Brolin will play President George W. Bush and Elizabeth Banks will star as Laura Bush.

Stone’s films have often been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and historical inaccuracies. In particular, The film JFK was widely criticized in the media as being a mixture of truth and fiction. Stone published an annotated version of the screenplay, in which he cites references for his claims, shortly after the film’s release.

Stone has said he would do a fair examination of the life of one of the most controversial Presidents ever. The film will touch on his childhood, his relationship with his father, struggles with alcoholism, subsequent conversion to Christianity, his political career and presidency.

I’m an Oliver Stone fan as he has never shied away from difficult material or controversy. It’ll be interesting to see what direction he takes with the material or if he shoots straight and lets the ‘facts’ speak for themselves.

I feel that there is an agenda with this one, at least that’s the way the trailer leads me. Either way I am really looking forward to this film. His previous two presidential films, JFK & Nixon, garnered a total of 12 Oscar nominations. Can W replicate that success? It’s too early to tell but I for one won’t bet against it.

I’ve posted the trailer below. Best line from the trailier? “Who do you think you are? A Kennedy?” Casting James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush was an inspired move.