waterboarding - not really torture, just 'interrogation'
Sitting at home, a cool cloth pressed against my fevered brow as I was laid up with a debilitating case of astigmatism. I could do little except for manipulate the controls for my multi-media centre – I was as weak as a kitten, enfeebled by agues and wracked by pain. It took all of my strength and determination to press ‘PLAY’ and collapse back onto my cushions hoping for some distraction from the malaise
But I had cued “W.” some weeks before and never got around to watching it – until now !
What was Oliver Stone thinking ?
This homage to the most recent ex-President of the United States of America depicts him as a half-witted privileged playboy who used his family connections to bail him out of difficult situations time and time again. He is portrayed as a drunk, a loud-mouth and slightly retarded (in my opinion) someone who seemed to think that he deserved every success but wasn’t willing to excert any effort whatsoever to achieve his ambitions. In short a spoiled pretentious rich-kid.
I’m not doubting that Josh Brolin did a good job, I liked his work in “No Country For Old Men”, he was OK in ‘Planet Terror’ and “The Valley Of Elah” and I’ve been a fan of Oliver Stone’s work for as long as I can remember. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it’s a bit too early to be making comment on Bush Jr’s presidency, that the harm and damage he inflicted on the US and the World is still taking place and so can’t be properly evaluated yet. It’s too much like the right-wing commentators who are saying that Obama is the worst president the US has ever seen
There are a few scenes in thsi film that stand out (apart from GW being pissed as a newt most of the time) Bush and Cheney are having lunch in the Whitehouse, Cheney asks “if there was a 1% chance that the lettuce you are eating is contaminated with e-coli would you still eat it ?” Bush says that he would, there’s an army of food tasters in the kitchen to make sure that he’s not poisoned, Cheney presses on trying to get Bush to understand that if there’s a one per-cent chance that there are WMD in Iraq they should proceed with a war Bush takes the lettuce off his sandwich, Cheney takes out a small folder Bush seems to balk at doing any reading but is reassured by Cheney that it’s ‘only 3 pages’. He explains that inside are some ideas regarding possible interrogation techniques that could be instituted at places such as Guantanamo (which George keeps calling Guantanamera ). W. balks at first, worried that there would be stuff like pulling out toenails, but Cheney assures him that it would be nothing lethal, just food/sleep deprivation – water torture – fear scenarios to make his point. W is reassured and promises to look at the three-page report. As lunch ends, W then asks Cheney to kindly keep his ego in check, he doesn’t mind the familiarity when they’re alone but when they’re in a meeting he’s got to remember he’s only the vice-president the only other person party to this discussion was the waiter who put the sandwiches on the table.
Oh and did I say that George was a big drinker ?
I ask because he wasn’t the brightest of the Bush Sr. progeny, he managed a ‘C’ average when you combine that with the Alcohol-Related-Brain-Damage that plagues heavy drinkers – it causes a loss of a few IQ points it may explain why he was so easily manipulated and drew so many wrong conclusions during his terms in office and why he seemed such a loon and a dim-wit.
I’m sure there are other projects going on about the Bush legacy, this was entertaining but I’d like to have heard a bit more on the inter-cabinet debates on the merits of torture, the necessity of waging war.
I shall have to watch this again when I am more recovered from this affliction and the pain has passed from my frail and weak body