He put Nixon and JFK on screen. Now Oliver Stone has a living President in his sights. As the trailer for ‘W’ goes viral, Tim Walker says this biopic shouldn’t be misunderestimated.
From The Independent:
Is it a Saturday Night Live skit? Is it the Dead Ringers Christmas Special? No – it’s the teaser trailer for W (pronounced, of course, “Dubya”), Oliver Stone’s forthcoming film about the 43rd US President, George W Bush.
Stone is an obsessive chronicler of modern American history. In the past, he’s given us movies about presidents, including the life of one (Nixon), and the death of another (JFK). He’s done movies about US campaigns in El Salvador (Salvador) and Vietnam (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Heaven & Earth); movies about the rise of unscrupulous capitalists (Wall Street), and the fall of the Twin Towers (World Trade Center). But W is a departure, even for him. A biopic of a sitting President, due for release on the eve of the next election, its producers even intend to advertise right alongside TV broadcasts for John McCain’s campaign.
Stone has called the film “satire”, “magic realism biography”, but also “a fair, true portrait of the man”.
More here. And here’s the trailer: