W. - A misunderstood life
W. - A misunderstood life (Original title: W. ) is a US American film biography by Oliver Stone from 2008 , which has the life story of the 43rd President of the United States , George W. Bush , on the subject. After Nixon (1995) and JFK - Tatort Dallas (1991) Stones, the film is already the third film about a US president.
It was released in US theaters on October 17, 2008. Although it was initially said that it would be released in German-speaking cinemas in spring 2009, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on January 20, 2009 .
action
The year is 2002. After the September 11, 2001 attacks , President Bush and his cabinet members are preparing to wage war against Iraq and Afghanistan . The so-called axis of evil must feel the retribution of the USA - but a reason for a war is not found. Bush fears failure and remembers his life.
Flashbacks tell of the young W. who once had to ask his father, the Texas Congressman George Bush, for bail from a prison cell. W. has always been a friend of alcohol and girls. His father reminds him again and again that, unlike his brother Jeb, he was a disappointment for the Bush dynasty. Nevertheless, the father patronizes the son.
Despite all this, his professional career seems to fail again and again, for example when he runs for a seat in Congress for the 19th constituency of Texas, but has to admit defeat to the Democrat Kent Hance . Bush can hardly cope with the defeat and would rather not return to politics; he becomes a co-owner of a baseball team. He meets the young Laura Welch , whom he marries and with whom he has two daughters.
The father, now US Vice President, asks his son to support him in the 1988 election campaign for president. After winning the campaign, however, Bush Jr. fears disappearing again into oblivion, since no son of a US president has ever stepped out of the shadow of his father. Laura reminds him in vain of John Quincy Adams . Bush senior led the United States in 1991 at the head of a grand coalition in a war against Iraq, but on the advice of Dick Cheney and Colin Powell , he shrank from overthrowing Saddam Hussein for good.
In November 1992 he was defeated by the Democrat Bill Clinton in the presidential election . Bush Jr. wants to eradicate this disgrace and applies for the office of governor of Texas, although his parents do not trust him to do so. However, W. experienced a change as early as 1986 - he is a "born again Christian" and has stopped drinking. He lets himself be coached for the election campaign by Karl Rove , whom he only calls his "genius", becomes governor in 1994, thus gaining the respect of his father for the first time and can also outdo his brother Jeb Bush , whose attempt to become governor of Florida initially fails. In a conversation with his religious mentor, the preacher Earle Hudd , W. informed him that God had given him the assignment to seek the office of US president. He was chosen for this. In fact, he beats Democrat Al Gore in the November 2000 election .
Bush's cabinet, especially Vice-President Dick Cheney , claimed in 2002 that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. There is no evidence of this and the CIA warns. Documents that Saddam Hussein is producing weapons in secret facilities are skillfully manipulated and presented to the United Nations. There is no exit scenario from Iraq; Cheney tells the cabinet that they intend to stay there. In a secret meeting with his staff, Cheney makes it clear that the US really wants to have influence over the oil reserves in Iraq, and that after the fall of Iraq, Iran will also be brought under US control.
Nothing stands in the way of an American world domination, an "empire". Without a UN mandate and with the help of the coalition of the willing , the US started a war in Iraq in 2003. After Bush publicly announced the victory on an aircraft carrier and received applause, the film outlines the dramatic deterioration of the situation in Iraq in the following months with real news images.
The film ends with the press conference in 2004 at which Bush reacted helplessly and helplessly to the global public when asked by a journalist what “his greatest mistakes were after September 11th and what lessons he learned from them”. Bush, stammering in surprise, has no words and finally admits indirectly that he made mistakes in implementing the Iraq war. Although he did not disappoint his father and brought to an end what he did not manage in the First Gulf War - to overthrow Saddam Hussein - Bush is not sure of his father's recognition until the end, at least in the film excerpt.
The last scene shows the president's dream: he thinks he can catch a crucial ball in baseball, but it has suddenly disappeared and Bush is desperately searching the empty sky.
background
W. is one of the fastest made films by Oliver Stone. The script was written in autumn 2007. Funders were already found in January 2008. The shooting then took place between May and July 2008 in and around Shreveport ( Louisiana instead). With a budget of "only" 30 million US dollars, the film was produced by the Canadian company Lions Gate Entertainment at a relatively low cost compared to other Hollywood productions .
Oliver Stone's first choice for the lead role was initially Christian Bale . According to the filmmaker, however, Bale dropped out of the project after the first, very tough preliminary tests. Robert Duvall was originally intended for the role of US Vice President Dick Cheney, but he canceled shortly before filming began.
synchronization
The film was dubbed by the then Berliner Synchron GmbH . The dialogue book was written by Erik Paulsen , who was also responsible for directing the dialogue .
Reviews
Roger Ebert described the film as "fascinating" and, in view of the extensive literature on Bush, also considered it authentic. He also attested to the authenticity of the theatrical representations, in particular Dick Cheney was practically embodied by Richard Dreyfuss .
Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post , however, saw the film as hastily and unevenly staged, Stone had lost sight of the person as a whole. In doing so, she also raised the question of why an audience should want to watch a film when it is still a part of itself and will remain after Bush's departure.
Andrea Köhler described the film in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as a “slapstick marathon” and as “only moderately funny and [...] tends to be trivialized”.
As expected, the film aroused criticism in the environment of George W. Bush. His brother Jeb Bush denied the idea that Bush's striving for power was guided by the desire to emerge from the shadow of his father as "high-grade, unadulterated hooey" ("high-grade nonsense in its purest form"). He criticized that the makers of the film had insufficiently researched and, for example, had not made contact with him.
Web links
- W. - A misunderstood life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official Website (English Language)
- W. - A Misunderstood Life at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- "Bush is coming back" ( Memento from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Interview with Oliver Stone at Spiegel Online, October 2, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ variety.com: Brolin, Wright arrested in pub fight ( Memento from February 5, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Paul Heath: Stone says Christian Bale was originally Bush in 'W' , The Hollywood News. September 22, 2008. Archived from the original on January 23, 2009.
- ↑ synchronkartei.de: W. - A misunderstood life. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Review by Roger Ebert from October 15, 2008 , last accessed October 20, 2008 (English)
- ↑ Review by Ann Hornaday on washingtonpost.com from October 17, 2008 , last accessed October 20, 2008 (English)
- ↑ Slapstick marathon instead of accounting (news, NZZ Online)
- ↑ Washington Times on October 17, 2008: Jeb Bush calls 'W' movie 'Hooey'