Posts tagged Oliver Stone
“W.” Greek Tragicomedy
Oct 24th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
Greek Tragicomedy
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
W. is an outstanding film by Oliver Stone that should be seen by everyone regardless of political affiliation or how you did or didn’t vote in any election.
And I don’t mean because of its subject matter, which is a dramatization of the adult life of President George W. Bush. I mean because of the outstanding performances of the actors.
Josh Brolin has a lock on an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of “Bush 43,” if not on the award itself. Richard Dreyfuss could easily get one for his portrayal of Dick Cheney. Elizabeth Banks is tremendous as Laura Bush, and the list just goes on and on, including Toby Jones as Karl Rove, the advisor who sits on Bush’s shoulder and tells him what to do.
Just don’t expect a hatchet job, which would be too easy, given the subject matter and the emotions caused by the years of the Bush Administration.
Instead, expect a well-made film about a fascinating person who didn’t exactly have greatness thrust upon him so much as grabbing greatness with his own two hands and wrapping it around his weak, undeserving shoulders.
The film begins in 2002 as President Bush and his advisors struggle to come up with his notorious “Axis of Evil” phrase. Then it shifts back to 1966, and we watch “George College” at his drunken fraternity pledge week impress the brothers with his ability to name the active members and give them clever nicknames.
The story then continues to shift back and forth between Bush’s presidency and his younger years of trying to find a career for himself and pleasing his father, a theme that runs throughout the film.
When George meets Laura for the first time, he tells her, “Call me anything but ‘Junior.'”
There are obvious strains between George and his father, whom George calls “Poppy.”
There is nothing new to be learned, and the only scenes of fancifulness are a few showing that George would rather have had a career in baseball than in politics. Also, there is the strong implication that George’s drinking problem had a lot to do with shaping him and preventing him from succeeding at anything.
So, think of the film as a tremendous dramatization of someone we have already come to know and love or hate.
W. is the stuff of Greek tragicomedy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
W. – Movie Trailer
Oct 17th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
Josh Brolin stars as George W. Bush in this Oliver Stone biopic that traces the head of state’s rise to power from a privileged alcoholic to a born-again Christian whose belief in religious destiny helped move him to the top ranks of political power. Co-written by Stanley G. Weiser, Bush is produced by fellow Stone collaborators Moritz Borman and Jon Kilik, with Elizabeth Banks co-starring as the first lady, James Cromwell as the elder President Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush and Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Dick Cheney.
“Nixon, The Election Years” Haunted by Ghosts
Aug 28th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
Haunted by Ghosts
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
NIXON: THE ELECTION YEAR EDITION is the recently released video of the 1995 acclaimed film biography by Oliver Stone of the first President to resign from office, and it should serve as a warning to all Presidents current and future.
In the words of the accompanying press release, this film “is a spellbinding examination of the man who became known as America’s ‘imperial president.’ Nixon’s ruthless ambition puts him at the pinnacle of American politics, until he begins a disastrous attempt to wrest control of the nation away from the Congress and the courts. As a small group of political zealots seek to concentrate the power and prestige of the United States in the hands of one man, his personal demons drive him to undermine his legacy with political ‘dirty tricks’ and a conspiracy to cover them up.”
In that case, this film should also serve as a warning to all American citizens, current and future, because a case can be made that what Nixon did with his presidency is happening again. Just substitute the words “incurious indifference” for “ruthless ambition.”
Anthony Hopkins plays Nixon and leads a stellar cast including Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, E.G. Marshall, David Paymer, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Sorvino, Mary Steenburgen, and James Woods as the major players in the downfall of the President, with Larry Hagman, Madeline Kahn, and Michael Chiklis showing up as minor players, among many others.
The story begins in 1972 with the infamous Watergate break-in and then moves into Nixon’s past to show what demons drove this complicated man. After Nixon loses the presidential election in 1960 to John Kennedy, he says to his wife, Pat, “I can take the insults, I can take the name-calling, but I can’t take the losing.”
The film also goes back into Nixon’s childhood and shows how certain events could have shaped his future and might have turned into obsessions.
It can be heavy-handed in some of its implications, but the parallels with today’s Bush Administration are striking and staggering.
As always, Stone uses innovative editing and filmmaking techniques, and this DVD edition is an extended director’s cut with 28 additional minutes and five bonus features.
NIXON: THE ELECTION YEAR EDITION shows him haunted by ghosts, some real and some imagined, and we owe it to ourselves to see it again.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”