Is Josh Brolin changing his tune slightly about Oliver Stone’s Dubya-biopic, “W”?
Stone once called it, a “fair, true portrait of the man,” and Josh Brolin was initially against the idea and said no to the part. “When Oliver asked me, I said, ‘Are you crazy? Why would I want to do this with my little moment in my career?’ ” Brolin told the L.A. Times earlier this year, but when read the script, he changed his mind. “It was very different than what I thought it would be, which was a far-left hammering of the president.”
In fact, in the same interview Brolin went out of his way to say why both sides of the fence could relate and enjoy the film. “Republicans can look at it and say, ‘This is why I like this guy’ It’s not a political movie. It’s a biography. People will remember that this guy is human, when we are always [outside of the movie] dehumanizing him, calling him an idiot, a puppet, a failed president. We want to know in the movie: How does a guy grow up and become the person that he did?”
However, Brolin talked to New York magazine this week and was a little bit harsher with his words towards Bush.
“We don’t have [drill him for way he ran his administration], it’s all out there. We concentrate on the compelling nature of someone who has no real deep interest in or training for the presidency, but who did it twice.”
Many journos and bloggers have read the script (including us) and it’s not an entirely unsympathetic portrait of the President and his cronies, but it does make Bush seem like a guy who gets aggravated by any presidential duties take him away from watching sports, clowning around or playing with his dogs. But all media and bloggers should note: the script we’ve all read went through two rewrites after it first leaked in April and before it started shooting in late May according to EW.
And it might not be entirely different from what was originally written according to some of the suggestions Brolin makes to NY mag.
‘This is an amazingly compelling story about a guy who was flailing. He was a mouse in a labyrinth, just lost, looking for that cheese and not finding it. And then he became president of the United States.”
Doesn’t quite sound like a totally fair portrayal does it?
In early interviews, Brolin seemed to have a lot of empathy for the President, but maybe now that he’s done playing the role, he’s done being a politician about how he truly feels. About one scene in the script/movie where the Commander-In-Chief chokes on a pretzel, Brolin isn’t exactly kind. “It’s funny, but it’s pathetic and sad, too. You’re laughing but cringing. It’s like Tarantino—like watching a ‘W.’ version of ‘Pulp Fiction.’ “
‘W’ is supposed to be fair and balanced, but in the script (which criss-crosses between his younger days and mostly-modern day Iraq, circa 2003), it’s quite heavy-handed, but as we mentioned earlier, there are some kernels thrown to Bush sympathies (he’s apparently got a killer memory).
But the more and more we think of it, what we’ve read – old draft or no – and what all the players involved have said so far, we think we’ve got the essences of the story : it’s one big backhanded compliment to Bush’s achievements. An idiot that somehow got to the top.
The early EW cover story in the Spring with Brolin and Elizabeth Banks, basically says as much. Check what Oliver Stone said back then.
“I think history is going to be very tough on [Dubya]. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great story. It’s almost Capra-esque, the story of a guy who had very limited talents in life, except for the ability to sell himself. The fact that he had to overcome the shadow of his father and the weight of his family name — you have to admire his tenacity. There’s almost an Andy Griffith quality to him, from A Face in the Crowd. If Fitzgerald were alive today, he might be writing about him. He’s sort of a reverse Gatsby.”
You’ll recall back then that the author of Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush, Robert Draper wasn’t feeling the script either. ”My quarrel with the script isn’t that it departed from factual reality here and there, but that it just misses the guy. ”You come away with an even more hyperbolized caricature of Bush the Cowboy President than is already out there.’
Our favorite parts in the script? When Bush snaps at Cheney during a one-on-one meeting to let him know who’s in charge. “‘Just keep your ego in check. I’m the president. I’m the decider,” he barks at the VP.
Another scene has Bush in a prep meeting for Iraq and he’s so distracted and angry that he begins to start stealing everyone’s mints. Condoleezza Rice playfully slaps him on the wrist when he gets to her candy and in a moment of frustration, BDubya snaps at Paul Wolfowitz and commands him to trim his ear hair! (we’re not joking) Lastly a meeting with a Saudi ambassador yields a hilarious confession on Bush’s part. He tells the guy in all earnestness that he’s given up sweets since the beginning of shock and awe. ”This is my personal sacrifice to show support for our troops,” he says. How amazing is that?
Honestly? No matter how stupid it might seem? After reading the script, we’re dying to see this thing.