Bush biographers mixed on script for Oliver Stone's 'W'
By Stephen Galloway and Matthew Belloni
April 7, 2008
President George W. Bush is a foul-mouthed, reformed drunk obsessed
with baseball, Saddam Hussein and a conflicted relation****p with his
dad. Or at least that's how he's ****trayed in the script for Oliver
Stone's upcoming feature "W."
But how accurate is that depiction?
As the film preps for its April 21 start date, The Hollywood Re****ter
sent a copy of the screenplay to four Bush biographers for their
comments. The draft is dated Oct. 17, 2007, and has recently been
circulated to talent, though a person close to the film said the
script has since gone through at least two drafts.
Naturally, what a director does with a script is how a movie is
ultimately judged, but because this screenplay depicts a sitting
president and the run-up to the war in Iraq, its authenticity is
becoming a hotly debated subject -- not to mention the fact that any
historical material Stone has touched has become controversial.
Reactions to the script from the biographers were mixed. They said
specific scenes are largely based in fact but noted that the
screenplay contains inaccurate and over-the-top caricatures of Bush
and his inner circle.
"It leaves you with the impression that the White House is run as a
fraternity house with no reverence for hierarchy, the office itself or
for the implications of policy," said Robert Draper, author of "Dead
Certain: The Presidency of George Bush." "Everybody calling everybody
else nicknames and chatting about whether to go to war as if they were
chatting about how to bet on a football game really misses the mark of
how many White Houses, including this one, are run."
Jacob Weisberg ("The Bush Tragedy") was skeptical about Stone's claim
that he wants to make "a fair, true ****trait" of Bush. "His saying he
is going to be fair to Bush is like Donald Trump saying he is going to
be modest," Weisberg quipped.
"W," which is set to begin filming in Shreve****t, La., with Bill
Block's QED financing a budget of about $30 million, stars Josh Brolin
and James Cromwell as Bush 43 and 41, respectively. The film is being
closely watched in entertainment and political circles, in part
because Stone has said his goal is to release it while Bush is still
in office and possibly in time for the November election.
In the script -- then titled "Bush" -- the president's policy
judgments are often manipulated by his White House staff, a depiction
several of the biographers said did not ring true.
"The problem here is it goes to this notion of Bush as being the
passive receiver of policy and the White House being run by (Dick)
Cheney, (Donald) Rumsfeld, (Karl) Rove and others," Draper said.
"Bush's adversaries have been ill-served by this belief that Bush is
an observer to his own presidency. This notion that his schedule is
driven by what's on ESPN is ludicrous."
The biographers were split on the accuracy of some eye-popping details
in the screenplay, including scenes in which Bush nearly crashes a
plane while under the influence of alcohol and another in which he
tells wife Laura he wishes his father had not been elected president.
"That story was running around," said Skip Hollandsworth (Texas
Monthly's "Born to Run" profile). "But he was extremely upset later
about (Ross) P***** entering that race, and very angry. That doesn't
make sense."
Stone declined to comment for this re****t. Screenwriter Stanley
Weiser, who wrote "W" and also co-wrote Stone's "Wall Street," said:
"I have no comment other than the fact that I have read 17 books on
Bush."
"We've done our homework," said Moritz Borman, one of the film's
producers. " 'W' will not be a do***entary. It will be a compelling
account of the actions and motivations of this president, fully guided
by facts that have been established and do***ented."
What ends up in the final draft could have a big impact on the market
for the film, whose financial prospects may actually depend on how
many feathers it ruffles.
"Controversy can only help this film," said Paul Dergarabedian,
president of boxoffice tracking firm Media By Numbers. "It's a tough
marketing challenge because none of the politically charged films or
films about the war have been doing well. But Oliver Stone's bread and
butter is controversy. It's part of his brand."
Stone's previous presidential examinations, 1991's "JFK" and 1995's
"Nixon," became cultural lightning rods. They grossed $70.4 million
and $13.7 million domestically, respectively.
A film analyzing the life of a lame-duck president might be a tougher
sell, especially if Americans are more interested in the man or woman
who will replace him.
"But the country is in really rough shape," Dergarabedian said. "So
maybe people will want to know how we got here and what Bush's legacy
might be."
QED's Block acknowledged that controversy would help market the film,
which he said he presold to some foreign distributors during the
Berlin Film Festival in February and will continue to sell at the
Cannes market next month.
The QED CEO, who is also one of the picture's producers, said he was
in talks with a major Hollywood studio to distribute it domestically.
He declined to name the studio.
Because no domestic deal is in place, it is uncertain whether the
movie will be released in North America before November. Such a
release date would drop the picture squarely into the presidential
election debate, where it would likely be picked apart by commentators
across the political spectrum.
All four Bush biographers cast doubt on one scene in which a wave
crashes on a rocky promontory as Bush reveals: "There's this darkness
that follows me ..."
"He doesn't think or talk like that," Weisberg said. "The darkness
sounds like they've been listening to too much Springsteen. It doesn't
ring psychologically true to me."
The movie, which intercuts between past and present and follows Bush
from his twenties to the White House, begins in the Oval Office with
the president and his staffers discussing the term "axis of hatred"
and deciding that "axis of evil" sounds better.
"That phrase did evolve," Weisberg said. "There was a funny debate
about who got credit, which is hilarious when you think what a
disaster it was."
The biographers were torn over the ****trayal of Bush's relation****p
with Cheney, depicted as far more competitive than generally
acknowledged. "Just keep your ego in check. I'm the president. I'm the
decider," Bush tells Cheney privately at one point, employing the term
he actually used in a news conference.
"What that gets wrong is, Cheney has been absolutely astute in reading
Bush's insecurities and Cheney knows very well how not to make Bush
feel that his status as decision-maker is in doubt," Weisberg said.
Peter Schweizer ("The Bushes: ****trait of a Dynasty") disagreed. "I
would say: true on the conflict," he said. "I don't know specifically
about the 'ego in check.' But there is no question you are dealing
with strong personalities, and there was tension and conflict, as
there was between George H.W. Bush and Reagan."
All four biographers confirmed the accuracy of one striking scene in
which a young Bush challenges his father to a fistfight after coming
home drunk. And while they recognized the nickname "Turdblossom" for
Rove, they were less familiar with "Balloon Foot," which Stone's Bush
uses for Colin Powell. And some felt that "Pooty Poot" for Vladimir
Putin was taken from New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, not Bush
himself.
Overall, the biographers said they were not opposed to the story of
America's 43rd president being told by Stone.
"I understand this is a movie, not pure history," Schweizer said. "But
if Stone wants to ****tray this as an accurate accounting, he has some
serious work to do."
Block, for one, said accuracy was vital to the filmmakers.
"When you embark on something as im****tant as this," he said, "the
truth is extremely im****tant, and Oliver is relentless about the truth
and facts."
Added Block: "It is not going to be simplistic at all. It is powerful
and not trying to be skewed to the left, but to be real. The truth is
surprising and, frankly, shocking enough."
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