Trailer Tuesday: W.

Considering I mentioned it yesterday, it made sense to feature director Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic, W. as this week's profiled trailer.

I don't think there can be any doubt about it: W. is going to be a very controversial film that divides a lot of people, from the press to reviewers to the casual movie goer and man on the street. I don't think you can have it any other way when you're dealing with such a divisive central figure... who in reality is still in the driver's seat of the most powerful nation in the world.


Come time for the film's release, I think it's going to be very difficult to judge W. purely on cinematic terms, and distance it from all the strong emotional reactions and allegations it's already generating.

Personally I'm curious about the film... For one thing I'm intrigued by the thought of seeing a very impressive A-list cast (that includes Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Thandie Newton, Ioan Gruffudd and Richard Dreyfuss) playing real life political newsmakers of the past decade or so.

I'm also curious as to the tone of the overall film. Oliver Stone is a director known for his strong views, but from the trailer it looks like he's portraying events pretty conservatively, with a touch of soap opera thrown in for good measure. After all, most of us know about Bush's boozy, rebellious youth. You have to wonder then if there's going to be any overt criticism or Michael Moore-style mockery of the president, or whether he's going to be portrayed more realistically as a highly flawed individual trying to escape the shadow of his father and make a success of his life.


Either way, W. is set for release in North America on 17 October. Even consulting the release schedule I managed to acquire via work last week, it's unclear when the film will be released locally.