New Poster and Photos from Oliver Stone's 'W.'

We weren't big fans of the first trailer for Oliver Stone's W., and the reason was simple. Stone likes to paint himself as something of an intellectual chronicler of our times, someone after the truth, and in those two minutes, his new biopic of President Bush looked like it was ripped from the pages of Globe Magazine instead of U.S. News & World Report. Believe me, I'm not defending Bush here in the slightest, but I wonder what good a movie that shows him as a screw-up really is. Don't need a movie to show me that. I've heard him talk plenty of times. So, I guess I was disappointed that Stone appeared to be going for the easiest source of blood he could find rather than digging for something more substantive. Both posters kind of hint at the "Our President, The Boob" undertone, as well. The first one, a list of some of Bush's more memorable verbal gaffes, was original, as is this one, which we scoured at Ain't It Cool News. In fact, you can get a much larger copy of this poster than you could ever use over there. As movie posters, they're both great. However, I still get the sneaking feeling that this is a point and laugh affair rather than a more in-depth look at some very important years in American politics, democracy, and diplomacy. Perhaps that's just the angle the marketing is taking and the movie will be something else entirely. Perhaps... Likewise, these new production photos from IMDB don't exactly scream "detente," either.

W. opens October 17th.

Comments

[Will]

I like Oliver Stone's take on a lot of things, even if his views don't always match my own. His historical take has always come with enough distance in the mirror to leave the collective memory just hazy enough to believe his sometimes fabricated truths.

But this is cinema, and we are allowed a few small fictions here and there.

For as much trouble as Ollie has gotten himself into over the years, he has put together some very watchable movies (JFK, Talk Radio and Platoon being some of my favorites) and it could be argued that he helped launch the career of a then unknown Quentin Tarantino (who's name I saw onscreen for the first time during the credits for Natural Born Killers, long before I had even heard of Resevoir Dogs).

And World Trade Center arguably made too soon after the terrible attacks of 2001 was so well made and acted that it became the gateway to mainstream legitimacy that A Straight Story was for David Lynch, and a sign that like Robert Altman, he might be getting better with age rather than fading away.

I haven't seen W. yet, and I'm not sure that I want to. It smells like maybe the Democratic National Committee financed it, and the release date and director sort of confirm that suspicion. You kind of wonder if Senator Obama is going to make a cameo!

The world has been through alot under W.'s leadership, and I guess that it's easy to take pot shots at a lame duck president. But two months before he leaves office seems a little soon to take a serious look at the man, no matter how we feel, and no matter what the truth is.

And for Oliver Stone, after the success of World Trade Center, I guess I expected something a little more interesting than this.

Okay...I'll get off my podium now and go back to watching Everyone Loves Raymond. G'Night!

[Harry N. House]

Looks like a lost episode of "That's My Bush". This will send Josh Brolin right back to the B-list he came from!

[Brandon]

I could just see this movie causing problems in the media over the election. Republicans will want it delayed for sure. Democrats will use it to their advantage.

I have to agree with Will, and say this is obviously a political agenda and everyone must question the actual value that can be obtained from such a film. I would expect most decent film makers to release films when people aren't in office no matter how much they hate them.

Speaking of that, does Bush have to approve of this biopic? I would assume anyone could sue if anything were false or exaggerated in such movies.

Not sticking up for Bush, I wouldn't have had a problem if they made a biopic about Clinton and his little scandal while he was in office.

There lies the problem, Oliver is liberal.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe Oliver realized how much W has overcomed in his life to get to where he is. The biggest problem is we will never know how much better off we could of been or how much worse.. and there can always be worse.

[Lengthy Johnson]

There is also the chance that the film will increase the respect and sympathy for "W" if it portrays him as a fairly regular human being.

It's hard to tell where the focus will be. From the cast you could gather that the white house years should be a big part of it, but who knows.

In any case I agree that it would be better to leave the election to the candidates.

The release date may be a commercial reality rather than a political one. After the election everyone should be intrerested in the new president not the previous one and interest in the movie would be limited.

The images we see so far seem to be peculiarly devoid of poignancy. A bit plain, so to say.

[Yentil]

I'm so proud of my son-in-law!