Oliver Stone’s W. trailer review

George W Bush is such an easy target for a Hollywood biopic that it’s of little surprise that Oliver Stone’s W. is being released before the man’s even left the Oval Office.

It’s equally unsurprising that the second trailer for W. opts for wicked satirical humour to catch your attention, such is the President’s rich repository of comedic gaffes and howlers. When asked by a reporter, “Mr President, what place do you think you’ll have in history”, Bush, played expertly here by former Goonie Josh Brolin, replies “In history? In history we’ll all be dead”. Accompanied by a grunted guffaw, Brolin’s impersonation of Bush is absolutely spot on and very, very funny.

Unlike the earlier trailer for W. released a few weeks back, this one focuses as much on the Bush administration as it does the main man himself, with Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rove and Rice all present and correct. There’s little dialogue to be heard as this trailer is all about the background music. Used to great effect is Talking Heads’ Once In A Lifetime with the line ‘And you may ask yourself-well… how did I get here?’ taking centre stage. For this is what this trailer for W. suggests we’re going to get. A frank, witty but probably not all that illuminating portrait of how this guy from Texas came to be the most powerful man on the planet.

I say not illuminating because we all know so much about Bush already. However, if this is told in the same, satirical way as is suggested here, with glimpses of Bush’s relationships with George Bush senior (or Poppy as his named here), his wife, his administration and his actions leading up to the invasion in Iraq all up for debate, the result could be captivating.

It’s a wonderfully shot, excellently paced trailer – one of the best of the year in fact – with a great tagline, ‘Based on a true story’, at the end too. Genius.

See the trailer below…