Oliver Stone still hasn’t gotten over all the criticism he faced from Kennedy assassination scholars after the release of JFK. Once it was made clear that the film was based more on wild conspiracy theories than factual evidence, Stone was quoted as saying, “"I believe the Warren Commission Report is a great myth. And in order to fight a myth, maybe you have to create another one, a counter-myth.” This always sounded just a tad defensive (and, of course, convenient), especially when the release of Nixon was accompanied by a published screenplay annotated with hundreds of footnotes citing sources. There’s your “facts,” buddy! He’s done the same with W., his new George W. Bush bio, but there’s no need to purchase the screenplay to get the footnotes. They’re available online!
Here’s an index to the 83 footnotes, each corresponding to a scene from the movie. For example, footnote #20 is titled Bush-Pretzel Incident. “On January 14, 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush emerged in front of a press conference with a very prominent broken blood vessel welt on his cheek, and said that he had choked on a pretzel while watching television the day before. Bush had reportedly been sitting on his couch, 90 minutes into watching an NFL football Miami vs. Baltimore play-off game on television, when he choked on the pretzel, falling to the ground, injuring himself, and briefly losing consciousness before awakening to see his dogs Barney and Spot showing alarm at his state. Laura Bush was reportedly in the adjoining room at the time, and Bush was alone watching the football game.” The source cited for this information is…well, it’s Wikipedia. But I’m sure the Wikipedia page cites someone reliable. (Really, how alarmed was Spot? Was he interviewed?)
The film also depicts W. as being behind the infamous “Willie Horton” ads during his father’s 1988 campaign – and Karl Rove being behind W. Footnote 33 provides some documentation supporting the involvement of “Junior,” but Rove is not mentioned – probably because Rove was actually running Supreme Court campaigns in Texas at the time. Let’s just call that one creative license; it doesn’t quite rise to the level of “counter-myth.” And as for the scenes in which Bush swills O’Doul’s non-alcoholic beer? Total fiction. According to Footnote #60, Bush’s brand is Buckler.
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Screengrab Review: "W."
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