“W.” Greek Tragicomedy

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.”