That’s my advice to anyone who sees a film or one-sided documentary supposedly truthfully based on a historical subject or real-life person.
That was my advice to anyone after witnessing the negative reactions audience members exhibited about President Bush after seeing Michael Moore’s one-sided Bush bashing documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” back in 2004, which I call nothing more than a tragic comedy.
That is my advice now upon learning Oscar winning director Oliver Stone’s plans to make an upcoming film about our current president titled “W.” (2008), which starts shooting late this month for a possible release this fall; just in time for the 2008 presidential election.
I could not believe how stupid and gullible people could be, in particular, the ones in high school and college who I heard saying how they will never vote Republican again as a result of what they learned from Moore’s so-called documentary.
It will probably be those same “skulls full of mush” who probably embrace the idea of Hollywood going on yet another Bush bashing tirade with Stone leading the way.
Several questions raced through my mind after hearing about Stone’s project. The first is, “Who would see it?” We have had “Dubya” for eight years in the White House. Do we need a three-hour plus movie recounting all the untruths that went on during his presidency with what might as well be called “The Gospel According to Oliver Stone?”
I should scratch that question off. I already know who will see the film. The very same people who I have heard for eight years say they hate Bush but cannot so much as to list a single reason as to why. I have no doubt it is those same people who cannot recount a single thing Democratic presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama achieved as senator. All they can say is “I want Hillary for president because she is a woman and it’s time for a woman president” and “I want Obama in the White House because I want change.”
While I do agree that something needed to be done about former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, I don’t believe Gulf War II had anything to do with 9/11 nor do I believe the Bush administration had an exit strategy on how to get us out of Iraq. I still to an extent believe this war is all about oil, much like the first Gulf War.
That is, however, more reasons than what I have heard from Bush-bashers.
Stone claims his movie, which stars Josh Brolin in the title role as “Dubya” will be a fair and balanced portrait. Given his track record of previous controversies that have won critical acclaim (“JFK” (1991), “Nixon” (1995), “World Trade Center” - 2006), however, I believe that about as much as I believe Hillary Clinton’s claim she heard gunshots being aimed at her while on a trip in Bosnia back in 2000 or Barack Obama say that he not once heard his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, utter racist comments and damning America over the past 20 years.
In the description of Stone’s film found in an article in Entertainment Weekly, ''W.” is the improbable story of a man who went to the White House despite getting fewer votes than his opponent; who became commander-in-chief despite having avoided military combat himself; and who became the least popular president ever elected to a second term. “W.” will shock and surprise you and leave you questioning everything you believe to be true.''
It has already been proven more than once that Bush did in fact win in 2000.
If Hollywood cared to tell the story truthfully, no one would see it and it would get very few endorsements from critics. A few films have in fact, flopped at the box office because they attempted to get the story right such as “Tora, Tora, Tora” (1970) about the attack on Pearl Harbor and most recently the remake of “The Alamo” (2004), which had no sense of Texas patriotism that John Wayne’s 1960 epic had.
If people wanted to get the story on how it really happened, they would read the book.
They’d much rather believe the first officer of the Titanic, William Murdoch, responsible for the disaster accepted a bribe and shot and killed a couple of passengers trying to get into a lifeboat before turning the gun on himself as the ship sank in James Cameron’s Oscar winning 1997 movie, as opposed to what was written in the history books. He went down with the ship. The only reason Hollywood chose to tell a lie in this case was because it made for better drama no matter how that person’s family might feel as to how he was being portrayed on the big screen.
It will be the same reaction when “W.” is released next year. They will accept the viewpoints of a radical movie director over the countless articles and books that have already been written about President George W. Bush and his presidency.
Movies are made to entertain and that includes those based on historical subjects. I hope that Stone’s “W.” will get people inspired to read a book on the subject to get the real story as opposed to accepting what they are seeing on the big screen as the real thing.
©4/15/08
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