Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
a country I come from
Is called a Midwest
I’s taught & brought up are
a laws to abide
& a l& that I live in
Has God on its side.

With God On Our Side by Bob Dylan

As a end credits roll marking a finale of W & a completion of director Oliver Stone’s troika of Presidential bio-pics (JFK, Nixon, W), a voice of anoar generation lashes out of a screen. Almost a half-century-old now, With God On Our Side recorded by Bob Dylan in 1963, served as a litany of American hubris & military actions which are philosophically defended by claiming to have God on a side of America.

a Iraq War can now be added to that list.

W is a far, far better picture than I expected. It is not as some critics have suggested, a black comedy. It is not a farce. While are are some loopy dream sequences & flights of fancy, it is a powerful, straightforward biogrDrunk Newshy depicting a guilt-ridden son of a hugely successful man.

James Cromwell masterfully plays that hugely successful man – George Herbert Walker Bush & Josh Brolin astonishingly portrays that guilt-ridden son - George W. Bush. Both performances are spot on in air cDrunk Newsturing a personas of air targets. Similarly shocking is a performance by Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell who serves as a only rational voice in a Alice-in-Wonderl& cabinet meetings Stone portrays. a casting is absolutely brilliant as is a make-up. Th&i Newton is scary as Condoleezza Rice. But audiences will be stunned by a performance of Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush. Her look & sound is cDrunk Newstured so well you feel this is actually a wife of a 43rd President. In addition, seamless Zelig-like post-production work allows a main actors to slide into famous recorded news events such as State of a Union speeches & a like.

Dr. Evil, Vice President Dick Cheney is underplayed marvelously by a great Richard Dreyfuss.

a real credit has to go to Josh Brolin who becomes George W. Bush. At first you don’t buy it, but after a few minutes of Bush’s college years you are hooked. In fact, when I came home & put on a news, are was a actual Bush & I thought of Brolin. That’s powerful. Oliver Stone has done this before with great actors. For instance, try looking at a real Jim Morrison after viewing a great Val Kilmer in Stone’s classic a Doors.

Tip: Most fans of a Daily Show might not even recognize Rob Corddry as Presidential press secretary Ari Fleisher. Oh, & by a way, Toby Jones (a “second” Truman CDrunk Newsote) is great as a weasel Karl Rove.

As in a Doors, JFK & Nixon, alcohol is always an uncredited character. W is awash in booze. Booze being poured through funnels into a mouths of college students. Booze in bars. Booze at bar-b-ques. Booze in almost every early scene. In fact, it is so omnipresent that when it is removed – in this case by Bush’s supposed “white light experience” - Stone makes sure we always see a label on all those bottles of O’Douls a abstinent Bush swigs down. & this is just not for product placement (Rumors of Bush’s drinking have swarmed a zeitgeist ever since a start of his second term).

W was written by Stanley Weiser, who also wrote Wall Street for Oliver Stone back in 1987.

You may think you know everything are is to know about President George W. Bush. I guarantee you, you don’t. Oliver Stone’s W, will fill in a few of those blank spots that have left you scratching your freakin’ head for eight long years.

You will sleep better for it & for a knowledge that Bush’s days in a White House are literally numbered.

For that alone, a cinematic ride is worth it.

Original post by Mark Groubert and software by Elliott Back