Stone cold

W. -- Oliver Stone's latest film on the incumbent American president George "Dubya" Bush -- in a nutshell:

1. Oliver Stone hates Dubya

2. George Bush Sr. and Barbara Bush favored Jeb, writing Dubya off as a failure of a son 

3. Dubya spent his life trying to step out of his powerful father's imposing shadow

4. Oliver Stone hates Dubya

5. Hubris fueled much of Dubya's major decisions in office, including the most fateful of all: the decision to declare war on Iraq

6. Condolezza Rice is a passive bootlicker with a weird accent

7. Young Dubya was a rich, privileged, hootin' tootin', hard drinking, cowboy hat and checkered shirt wearing, skirt chasing, impulsive, baseball-loving, Ivy League educated troublemaker. Yeeehaw!

8. Dubya found God and stopped rolling in all that crap.

9. Dubya is a charismatic figure with the 'people's touch'

10. Oliver Stone hates Dubya

11. The senior Bush is a respectable and ambitious statesman, but a cold and indifferent father.

12. Dubya lives off a steady stream of Dr. Pepper, sandwiches on white bread, pretzels, and (once upon a time) beer.

13. Good thing Dubya runs three miles a day.

14. Dubya is extremely dumb yet well meaning, and spends his life with a confused yet eager expression on his face

15. Dubya was manipulated by the powerful neocons who dominated his cabinet

16. Laura Bush has no personality, but wears the most perfect shade of red lipstick

17. Dubya is a hopeless public speaker

18. Karl Rove bears a striking resemblance to Gollum. Are they related? 

19. Dubya is a born again Christian

And finally...

20. Oliver Stone hates Duyba's guts.

I'm disappointed with Stone's portrayal of Dubya, whom I think will eventually be judged as one of the most interesting, if not one of the most enigmatic, figures in history. I can say this of course in hindsight -- in the aftermath of the election -- as Obama prepares to take his place in the White House. Believe me, I'm no Dubya fan myself. But Stone has done nothing to peel away the many layers of myth and media to expose the elusive human soul of this most vilified, most hated of men. 

That his being President of the United States is a product of strong political machinery, family money and connections, and possible electoral fraud is not new. Nor is anything else in the movie, including the implication that Cheney's desire for empire and oil wealth motivated the invasion of Iraq.  We didn't need to sit though a two hour Michael Moore-ish rant be reminded of these things.

I expected more from Stone. I would have liked to see him form an intimate picture of George, in the same way that director Stephen Frears's 2006 hit The Queen managed to chip past Queen Elizabeth's icy public image, and touch on her isolation, her loneliness, her quivering vulnerability. Bush might be 'dumb,' but it must take something particular to keep afloat politically, run both and country and a war, and remain the most powerful man on the planet for eight straight years. America's in rotten shape, but it's still there, and so is he. How did he do it? Could he actually be a shrewd, sneaky son of a bitch? Or could he have an instinctual, unique understanding of the political game in general, and the White House in particular? Surely there is something to learn, even from a villain. Stone makes it seem that, with the right political and financial backing, a monkey could run the White House. Not to be naive, but I'm hoping that it's a lot more complicated than that.

Maybe Dubya's unbelievable and unexpected hold on power reflects not only him as person, but an aspect of contemporary America snubbed by cosmopolitan, liberal, and 'worldly' commentators and pundits. Stone's caricature of Dubya as a stereotypical Southerner -- his cowboy hat, his boots, his exaggerated Texan drawl -- makes the director come off as yet another rich, sleek, all-black wearing, Hollywood bigshot who sneers at what he considers the 'backwards,' overly religious, provincial hicks who make up the American South. 

If I'd wanted a stereotypical, monolithic depiction of the South and Southerners, I would have preferred to watch HeeHaw. At least it's funny.