Mooooooooovies! And Braaaaaaaaains!
I attended a small staff meeting yesterday, and as we were walking to the meeting room my fellow teachers were all talking excitedly about seeing Passchendaele, which went into wide release last night here in Canada. Some of their children were also going as part of high school history/social studies class trips. scarfe and I went to the Local Giant Multiplex to see another film, and there was a huge line for Passchendaele and the place was crowded. There were a lot of young people there (though they looked old enough to handle the film's graphic violence) as well as a lot of older Canadians, and a few soldiers in uniform. I think the movie will probably open big, at least here in Ontario. There's already been a huge advertising push building up over the past few weeks: a lot of local papers and TV newscasts have offered (positive) reviews alongside feature stories, and Famous Players (one of Canada's largest theatrical chains) has been screening the trailer before most American films for months. The interest from the education sector alone would probably ensure a healthy box office through the first few weeks, what with all those high school and university students being made to attend a screening. I have a feeling that this is probably going to be one of the highest-grossing domestic films here in Canuckistan, but what that means for a wider global release is anyone's guess. I do hope it screens in America, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how it does domestically.
meresy and I are going to catch Passchendaele again tonight when I visit her, so scarfe and I saw W. instead. We had a good dinner first, and then wandered around Party Central looking at Halloween costumes. My Boy is helping to run a Zombie Walk that benefits a local foodbank ("Walk with the dead to feed the living!") and while he's got his costume together, I'm still hunting for mine. I've been looking at a few of the Zombie Walk websites (like the big zombie walk in New Zealand) but scarfe keeps telling me that my zombie costume is a very personal thing, and I shouldn't try to copy someone else. Apparently I need to tap into the undead inside me and select my costume based on what best captures Undead Nos. I said, "Zombie Southern Belle!" or "hot Zombie nurse!" but he didn't think I was taking the whole thing very seriously. My problem is that it'll be chilly in late October, so I've been trying to find a costume that'll let me stay warm and won't require a lot of makeup. We thought about dressing me up as a zombie bag lady pushing around a shopping cart full of dismembered limbs, but that seems kind of....gross. (I know, I know - I'm looking for a zombie costume. Gross is part of the deal!) I'm hoping inspiration will strike sometime in the next week or so. Anyone have any costume ideas?
After we'd killed time and scarfe had found a gelatin mold that will allow him to make a full-sized human brain out of Jello, we went to see W. W. was, as countless critics have already noted, much more sympathetic and even-handed than one would expect from an Oliver Stone biography of a sitting president he despises. I loved both JFK and Nixon, and W. is a fitting addition to the trilogy of Stone's political portraits (and it does help, I think, if you read W. in comparison with the earlier films). Whereas JFK was all about the massive deluge of information surrounding the Kennedy assignation, and Nixon was a film about paranoia and the constant anxiety of surveillance, W. is a film about isolation. Most of the movie's key scenes take place in darkened war rooms and the close confines of the Oval Office, where the same key characters appear to tell Bush exactly what he needs to hear. Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) hover in the shadows, Condoleezza Rice (Thandie Newton) offers thumbs-up and pats on the back, and Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) and Gen. Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) give Bush advice. There is little input from the wider world. Ari Fleischer, the first-term press secretary, appears every so often to remind Bush and Co. that their words do carry weight in the public sphere, but he seems more like a yapping dog that can easily be ignored. Confusion and ineptitude reign, but Stone and his screenplay writer Stanley Weiser suggest that Bush's inability to do the job he was (sort of) elected to do is more of a tragic lack of the ability to think in complex terms rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead. George W. Bush is simply not smart enough for Machiavellian manipulation, argues the film, although it's hinted that his closest advisors certainly are.
Josh Brolin did an uncanny job at embodying Bush, who comes off in the film like a dumb hunk with profound daddy issues. He's driven not so much by ambition or ideological zeal, but by the desperate need for the approval of a higher power. (George Sr., in this case, and perhaps God, although for Bush the two seem as interchangeable as snowmobile parts). The rest of the performances were strong. I worried going in that the whole film would play like a bad SNL skit, but everyone from Brolin (who had the toughest job, I think, and carried it off admirably) to Richard Dreyfuss to Ellen Burstyn and Elizabeth Banks (Barbara and Laura Bush, respectively) capture their characters with some well-chosen mannerisms rather than over-the-top impressionism. The presentation of George Bush Sr. (James Cromwell) surprised me: he's very far from a Dana Carvey skit, and he (along with Wright's Colin Powell) form an odd kind of moral centre in the film. They are the experienced and cautious statesmen who take their responsibilities seriously and worry about the historical judgements that might be levied against them should they behave recklessly. W. himself, and most of his Oval Office team, seem interested only in the short-term results of their decisions.
There's a secondary narrative at work that looks at the psychology of Bush and the simplistic binary thinking that allowed him to survive politically and ascend to the highest office in the world. He's a simple man living in extraordinarily complex times, the film suggests, and it was his black-and-white, us-versus-them mentality that holds both the secret of his appeal and the seeds of his fall from grace. (The soundtrack's use of simplistic, almost cartoony Yale fight songs and black hats/white hats Gene Autry cowboy ballads effectively sets up Bush's world view - he sees the world in very simple damned-or-saved terms even before he becomes a born-again Christian). W. is filled with scenes of Bush sacking out in front of Sports Center with pretzels and beer, or romping with his dogs. It's clear he's a "regular guy" and, while the film stays away from any of the electoral controversies of 2000 and his landslide re-election in 2004, Stone suggests that this is what a large number of Americans want in a candidate: someone they can have a beer with. Why else would a man like this become President?
Bush's alcoholism, fecklessness and total inability to achieve anything based on his own merits is delved into, but the film doesn't point fingers at the public who elected (and then re-elected) this boob. In fact, the film doesn't mention the American people much at all. There are scenes of worldwide protest against the Iraq War ("a bunch of Lefties," Bush says dismissively, and that's the extent of his commentary on Left vs. Right politics) and the administration's difficulty in gaining international support for the Iraq war is recounted, but we're given no sense of how Bush feels towards his own people, or they to him. That felt like a strategic decision on Stone's part. Most of the audience for this kind of film are probably left-leaning Democrats, although I think the film is factual and balanced enough to appeal to everyone but the extreme conservative Christian base of the GOP. But Stone probably didn't think he had anything to gain by rehashing the old Florida election controversy or assigning blame to the very people who already know what a trainwreck the Bush years have been.
Anyway. Wow. I've rambled on. You get the point. W. is a good movie and you should go see it, but don't expect the film to provide a cheap laugh or any easy answers. And don't expect to walk out feeling angry, even though a little anger would probably be good right now.
meresy and I are going to catch Passchendaele again tonight when I visit her, so scarfe and I saw W. instead. We had a good dinner first, and then wandered around Party Central looking at Halloween costumes. My Boy is helping to run a Zombie Walk that benefits a local foodbank ("Walk with the dead to feed the living!") and while he's got his costume together, I'm still hunting for mine. I've been looking at a few of the Zombie Walk websites (like the big zombie walk in New Zealand) but scarfe keeps telling me that my zombie costume is a very personal thing, and I shouldn't try to copy someone else. Apparently I need to tap into the undead inside me and select my costume based on what best captures Undead Nos. I said, "Zombie Southern Belle!" or "hot Zombie nurse!" but he didn't think I was taking the whole thing very seriously. My problem is that it'll be chilly in late October, so I've been trying to find a costume that'll let me stay warm and won't require a lot of makeup. We thought about dressing me up as a zombie bag lady pushing around a shopping cart full of dismembered limbs, but that seems kind of....gross. (I know, I know - I'm looking for a zombie costume. Gross is part of the deal!) I'm hoping inspiration will strike sometime in the next week or so. Anyone have any costume ideas?
After we'd killed time and scarfe had found a gelatin mold that will allow him to make a full-sized human brain out of Jello, we went to see W. W. was, as countless critics have already noted, much more sympathetic and even-handed than one would expect from an Oliver Stone biography of a sitting president he despises. I loved both JFK and Nixon, and W. is a fitting addition to the trilogy of Stone's political portraits (and it does help, I think, if you read W. in comparison with the earlier films). Whereas JFK was all about the massive deluge of information surrounding the Kennedy assignation, and Nixon was a film about paranoia and the constant anxiety of surveillance, W. is a film about isolation. Most of the movie's key scenes take place in darkened war rooms and the close confines of the Oval Office, where the same key characters appear to tell Bush exactly what he needs to hear. Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) hover in the shadows, Condoleezza Rice (Thandie Newton) offers thumbs-up and pats on the back, and Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) and Gen. Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright) give Bush advice. There is little input from the wider world. Ari Fleischer, the first-term press secretary, appears every so often to remind Bush and Co. that their words do carry weight in the public sphere, but he seems more like a yapping dog that can easily be ignored. Confusion and ineptitude reign, but Stone and his screenplay writer Stanley Weiser suggest that Bush's inability to do the job he was (sort of) elected to do is more of a tragic lack of the ability to think in complex terms rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead. George W. Bush is simply not smart enough for Machiavellian manipulation, argues the film, although it's hinted that his closest advisors certainly are.
Josh Brolin did an uncanny job at embodying Bush, who comes off in the film like a dumb hunk with profound daddy issues. He's driven not so much by ambition or ideological zeal, but by the desperate need for the approval of a higher power. (George Sr., in this case, and perhaps God, although for Bush the two seem as interchangeable as snowmobile parts). The rest of the performances were strong. I worried going in that the whole film would play like a bad SNL skit, but everyone from Brolin (who had the toughest job, I think, and carried it off admirably) to Richard Dreyfuss to Ellen Burstyn and Elizabeth Banks (Barbara and Laura Bush, respectively) capture their characters with some well-chosen mannerisms rather than over-the-top impressionism. The presentation of George Bush Sr. (James Cromwell) surprised me: he's very far from a Dana Carvey skit, and he (along with Wright's Colin Powell) form an odd kind of moral centre in the film. They are the experienced and cautious statesmen who take their responsibilities seriously and worry about the historical judgements that might be levied against them should they behave recklessly. W. himself, and most of his Oval Office team, seem interested only in the short-term results of their decisions.
There's a secondary narrative at work that looks at the psychology of Bush and the simplistic binary thinking that allowed him to survive politically and ascend to the highest office in the world. He's a simple man living in extraordinarily complex times, the film suggests, and it was his black-and-white, us-versus-them mentality that holds both the secret of his appeal and the seeds of his fall from grace. (The soundtrack's use of simplistic, almost cartoony Yale fight songs and black hats/white hats Gene Autry cowboy ballads effectively sets up Bush's world view - he sees the world in very simple damned-or-saved terms even before he becomes a born-again Christian). W. is filled with scenes of Bush sacking out in front of Sports Center with pretzels and beer, or romping with his dogs. It's clear he's a "regular guy" and, while the film stays away from any of the electoral controversies of 2000 and his landslide re-election in 2004, Stone suggests that this is what a large number of Americans want in a candidate: someone they can have a beer with. Why else would a man like this become President?
Bush's alcoholism, fecklessness and total inability to achieve anything based on his own merits is delved into, but the film doesn't point fingers at the public who elected (and then re-elected) this boob. In fact, the film doesn't mention the American people much at all. There are scenes of worldwide protest against the Iraq War ("a bunch of Lefties," Bush says dismissively, and that's the extent of his commentary on Left vs. Right politics) and the administration's difficulty in gaining international support for the Iraq war is recounted, but we're given no sense of how Bush feels towards his own people, or they to him. That felt like a strategic decision on Stone's part. Most of the audience for this kind of film are probably left-leaning Democrats, although I think the film is factual and balanced enough to appeal to everyone but the extreme conservative Christian base of the GOP. But Stone probably didn't think he had anything to gain by rehashing the old Florida election controversy or assigning blame to the very people who already know what a trainwreck the Bush years have been.
Anyway. Wow. I've rambled on. You get the point. W. is a good movie and you should go see it, but don't expect the film to provide a cheap laugh or any easy answers. And don't expect to walk out feeling angry, even though a little anger would probably be good right now.