W. was a critical portrayal of the Bush Jr. Presidency. The film, while not quite a polemic, took a harsh stance of the motivations behind the choices of our 43rd president. One should certainly take the message of this film with a grain of salt. Underneath the theme of this story are pillars of inaccuracy, assumptions and dramatizations. Perhaps what is most concerning about this film, is that it greatly oversimplifies the complexities of not just President Bush (43), but also those of the office he held. It is one thing to parody a presidency (as was done in Mike Nichol’s Primary Colors), and another to speculate “what might have happened” concerning a real one. The film did the Bush presidency (43) a great injustice in its portrayal of a simple-minded Texan who made choices based on his relationship with his father. The film leaves future generations to analyze a caricature of an administration that will bare great importance on our country’s history.
The information that supports the theme of the film provided in W. is extremely unreliable. Certainly we know that specific scenes in the movie were factual – they lent themselves to well known presidential gaffes and other public embarrassments, but to what extent can we infer the scenes concerning the personal lives of the Bush family? Coincidentally, these are the exact same scenes that matter most because they make essential claims about the relationship between President Bush (43) and his father Bush (41). These scenes are not reliably factual and are largely inferred by writer Stanly Weiser. Had the film not emphasized the relationship, dramatization/ creative inventions appertaining to it would not be so concerning.
One can certainly claim that George W Bush’s relationship with his father at least somewhat influenced many of his decisions. The question then remains however; to what extent? Did this relationship matter anymore than the relationships he had with his mother or siblings? The film spent a great time trying to convince its audience that Bush Jr. greatly struggled with his father through numerous scenes in which (from a viewer’s point of view) are questionable to say the very least. Without sound, sufficient evidence that Bush Jr. had the type of relationship conveyed in the film, it is hard to believe that he would make the huge life decisions he did all because of his dad.
Unlike many films that have documented presidential administrations, W. makes an ambitious and rather speculative claim. It makes the claim that many of the choices made by President George W. Bush were motivated by the troubled relationship he had with his father. This claim however is supported by scenes which do either one of two things. First, are the scenes that emphasize the relationship between Bush Jr. and Sr. Which as I stated, were largely speculative and most likely the result of artistic freedom. Another way the film emphasized President Bush’s (43) choices as father- related were the cabinet meeting scenes. In these scenes, members were largely characterized. Dick Cheney is a Machiavellian mastermind. Collin Powell is the opposing voice of experience and reason and Condoleezza Rice and Carl Rove are cartoons. These scenes generalized cabinet members in a way that greatly diminished their presence and influence on administrative decisions. In this sense, the film relies heavily on the shallow caricatures it presents as cabinet members in order to embellish the influence Bush’s personal feelings concerning his father and his father’s presidency had on public policy.
There are consequences to portraying a president and.or his cabinet in such a light. In twenty or thirty years, a classroom full of political science and/or communication students may watch W. with no first-hand recollection of the Bush Administration (43). If these students are to take the message of this film seriously, they would have to submit to the idea that Bush (43) was a simple man that made decisions based on simple motivations. They will misguidedly understand that this was a president whose cabinet was a group of cartoons with very little complexity of character. This film simplifies far too much of what was (like any administration) a complex organization.
Taking into account the vast oversimplifications made by the film, W. was very critical of President George W Bush for all the wrong reasons. The paradox of this is that those who would view the film as overtly sympathetic towards our 43rd president would likewise find that such sympathy was ill-founded – based on those same wrong reasons. Inaccuracies, dramatizations and assumptions in W. all attribute Bush’s (43) choices on the troubling relationship with his father. In doing so, it is sympathetic (barely) by humanizing the president. However, it is critical in that it portrays him as an incompetent and egotistical man incapable of acting beyond petty differences with his father and a sibling rivalry with his brother – Jeb Bush. Further, the film is criticizes the cabinet Bush (43) put into place. It is portrayed as a cabinet that could not adequately collaborate with the president in times that called for administrative action.
Struggle for the Presidency 