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Spoiler Points for W. (2008) [PG-13] 131 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $14.25
DVD Release Date: Unscheduled (please check back)
Spoiler Points for Oliver Stone's W.
If halfway through Oliver Stone's W. you forgot where you were and what you were doing but knew for one thing that you had a hankering for some Freedom Fries so you left the theatre only to realize later you walked out on your $10 movie ticket, well, then this spoiler is for you!
• GWB (Josh Brolin) stands on the pitcher's mound and imagines himself as President.
• Fast forwards to him in the Oval Office with his advisors leading the discussion—or so he thinks—that creates the notion of the Axis of Evil.
• 1966 when GWB was a frat boy at Yale during the Delta Kappa pledge week. He gets arrested for hanging on the goal posts after a defeat of Princeton. His father bails him out, of course.
• He has a terrible time keeping a job during summers and eventually pops the question to a girl named Suzy.
• 1971 and GWB arrives at his father's office to revisit his failed life so far. George H. W. Bush aka Poppy (James Cromwell) says to him "Who do you think you are, a Kennedy. You're a Bush now act like one." Then Poppy vows to clean up his mess and the rumors that Suzy claims to be pregnant. He's very disappointed with his son.
• Back to the future, W. has breakfast with Cheney (Richard Dreyfus) who after the success of the war in Afghanistan. There he plants the idea of the President have unlimited Constitutional power during a time of war and presents him with an executive order regarding the use of extreme methods of interrogation on prisoners of war. W. shows some concern for the document and states that the US does not use torture. When Cheney shows him that the document is shorter than three pages, he's fine with it. But he does remind Cheney that he's the President.
• Back in time, W. is driving drunk with Jeb (Jason Ritter). They plow into the front yard. Poppy has it out with him as does his mother, Barbara (Ellen Burstyn). Jeb calms them by telling his parents they were out celebrating his admission in to Harvard Business School. Poppy later tells Barbara that he already knew as he'd pulled strings to get him in.
• 1977 W. is playing poker with pals and announces to them that he plans to run for Congress for the 19th District in Texas. He meets Laura (Elizabeth Banks) at a Bar-b-que. He doesn't hope up well at the debate against his opponent. He's got too much fluff and not enough substance. He keeps claiming that he can learn stuff and memorize answers to questions.
• 1988 Poppy calls W. and asks him to help run his campaign—Jeb is too busy. He goes for a run and has an anxiety attack. His pastor Earl walks him through his path to sobriety and being a born again Christian. Poppy wins his election, and W. realizes he's got to get out of Poppy's shadow. Karl Rove tells him he's got to go out and do something on his own.
• Future—meeting with Senior staff to decide on war w/ Iraq. [This scene is probably highly controversial as it makes it look like Rumsfeld is the biggest advocate for war followed by Cheney. Colin Powell is made to appear against it going so far as to point out that a pre-emptive war would change the face of international relations forever. Cheney mentions that we have 5% of the world's population but use 25% of the energy with two oceans separating us from the world's largest sources of it. Colin asks what's the exit strategy and Cheney replies that there is no exit strategy. He goes on to suggest that Iran must be conquered as well. Bush then closes out the meeting with a group prayer—too bad God didn't intervene huh?]
• 1990 W. takes Poppy on tour of the Texas Rangers baseball stadium. After losing his run for Congress and working to get his act together, he buys the Texas Rangers and runs the team. Poppy actually seems proud of him for once. Still, Poppy is pre-occupied with being the president and Operation Desert Storm. While it was a huge success in liberating Kuwait, the mission failed to remove Saddam from power. W. wants his father to go for the whole tamale so to speak, but he shows restraint. Then he promptly loses his second bid for the presidency to Bill Clinton. Barbara Bush blames the media for the loss and repeats over and over "The better man didn't win." W. blames his father's unwillingness to remove Saddam. This causes him to decide that he's going to run for Governor of Texas even though is brother is running for re-election in Florida. Barbara tells him he won't win. Poppy begs him to hold off so as not to detract from Jeb's campaign. W. has a bad press experience, but Karl Rove trains him. [Josh Brolin's W. accent is truly perfect.]
• W. wins as Governor of Texas, but Jeb Bush loses. Poppy comes to W. inauguration and gives him his grandfather's cuff links.
• W. calls Reverend Earl to his office to tell him that he believes God has commanded him to run for President.
• 2003 The British government is attributed with information that Iraq has been trying to purchase yellow cake from Niger. GWB gives speech on the need for war in Iraq to Congress. He says his infamous "Either you are with us in the war on terror or you're against us" line. Poppy is really worried about GWB and all the sabre rattling. He gets a message to his son via Brent Snowcroft publishing a story about the ills of war. Condoleezza Rice vows to make Snowcroft a person non grata. Tony Blair (Ioan Gruffudd) wishes that W. would wait and give some more time to the process. GWB says he intents to go to war in March regardless because delaying would make fighting the desert conditions too inhospitable for the troops.
• He throws a tantrum when the French President won't get on board with his plan.
• Colin Powell gives his speech to the UN which persuades everyone to believe that a war is necessary to take away the WMDs from Iraq. The "Shock and Awe" war begins with the incredibly sad demolition of Iraqi history. Unfortunately, there are no WMDs found and no one on the senior staff is taking the responsibility to find them. Eventually, they have to admit there are no WMDs and, worse, some people begin to admit that there was never any really solid evidence that there were WMDs in Iraq. Rumsfeld has to take the fall.
• W. holds a press conference to announce the hand over of power to the Iraqi people as intended to be 30 June 2004. At the conference he's asked to state what mistakes he's made. He gets flustered and eventually walks off.
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