Oliver Stone's W. A glorified SNL skit.

 

I am a big fan of Oliver Stone's work. I enjoyed Alexander, JFK and Scarface. So when I decided to watch W. which is a stupid name for a movie anyway. I would have called a movie about George Bush Bushism and make it a comedy about Bush's incompetence and foibles. Anyways I love Oliver Stone so I was expecting fire works. But boy oh boy, was I disappointed. The movie is way too long for my liking. And I dont know why they had to Josh Brolin play a young Bush at college. Couldnt they find a younger man to play George Bush? It was so ridiculous to see a middle aged man act like an adolescent.  The entire movie seemed like a Saturday Night Live skit. With that said Dennis Quaid played a better George Bush than Josh Brolin in American Dreamz and Truth.

Secondly, the movie does not try to entertain. It is there to merely tick the important parts of George Bush's life. His drinking and driving, his time at Yale, his failed attempt at the oil business and there his disastrous presidency. Movies are there to entertain and it is okay to embellish and bend the truth so as to tell an exciting story. Another movie that failed to entertain and felt like a history lesson was 2012 Lincoln. Biopics that succeeded in telling a great story are ones like Apprentice. The Apprentice is there to entertain and it does so. Not by telling a dry story about Donald Trump but by being creative with the truth. Facts are not fun and giving us a detailed movie about George Bush is not fun. Oliver Stone should have made a documentary if his goal was to tell us a Wikipedia like movie about George Bush.

Thirdly, the movie makes George Bush seem like a good man who made mistakes. No! George Bush is a mass murderer no different from Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. He is the worst president in American history and he is the reason why Europe is now saddled with migrants and refugees. His unnecessary wars have left an indelible mark on the world that will haunt Europe for decades. Bush and Obama and their wars to topple Saddam and Gaddafi will ensure that migrants will continue to flood into Europe. But perhaps that was the plan. I refuse to believe that Bush was just a halfwit who was way over his head. He was a calculating and Machiavellian. And I am sure he was aware of 911 before it happened. If Oliver Stone was bold enough, he should have made a movie depicting Bush as the devil he really is.

If you are looking for a great biopic film dont watch W. Watch The Apprentice instead.

The Apprentice > W

The moral of the story.

There is a Turkish proverb that states, 'When a clown moves into a palace, he does not become a king. The palace becomes a circus.' 

President Bill Clinton turned the president's palace into a whorehouse. George Bush turned the White House into a circus with his malapropisms and media gaffes. And today it has even gotten worse with Donald Trump at the helm. But I guess the real moral of the story is that only in a democracy can a clown become the head of state. In a monarchy, a clown remains a clown. And perhaps that means that monarchies despite their failings are superior to democracies. Today, western democracies have turned into crime infested hell holes without borders. Whilst absolute monarchies like UAE, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states are safe, clean and prosperous. Kings rule thinking about the next generations whilst politicians rule whilst thinking about the next election. Kings want to pass on a stable realm to their kids whilst politicians steal as much as they can. Some of the most successful and longest running institutions in the world are monarchies like the Windsors and the Japanese imperial family. Maybe monarchies are the natural government for people. And the election of George Bush the son of a former president shows a subconscious desire for hereditary kings. If one is to have an efficient democracy one must limit the number of voters. Voters must be educated and productive citizens. Universal suffrage and allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to vote is a recipe for disaster. How can you have a prosperous state when even miscreants and reprobates have the same vote as upstanding citizens who pay their taxes? In the wrong hands the election voting box is like Pandora's box, it unleashes all manner of evil into the world while simultaneously being a vessel that contains hope for the masses.

The debate between republicans and royalists is as old as the hills. The Greeks and Romans debated and thought deeply about the issue. The British parliamentary system with a ceremonial monarch attempted to mix the two systems. In the end there is no perfect political system because man is an imperfect creature. Human folly and greed will upend even the most honourable systems. A good king can give his kingdom to a foolish prince. And an honest politician may become corrupt. In the end power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

Polybius cycle of governments known as anacyclosis illustrates how no political system is stable. A monarchy can become a tyranny, an aristocracy can devolve into an oligarchy and a democracy can turn into an anarchy. 

                                                     

 

I wrote a short story about the pitfalls of power. It is a tale like the story of George Bush, where a young and foolish man gains power and destroys his country and himself in the end. The book is called A Fool and his Crown, you can purchase it on Amazon if you want. Link is below.

https://www.amazon.com/Fool-his-Crown-Mark-Anderson-ebook/dp/B0CZ51CMS3