Karina on SpoutBlog

Under discussion:

W.  (2008)

It’s debatable whether it’s one of the film’s major strengths or its fatal flaw, but there’s no denying that Oliver Stone’s W. is loaded with actual quotes and dramatizations of documented events. But as if they were anticipating an argument over the film’s factual basis anyway, Lionsgate has set up a companion web site called the W. Film Guide, which essentially breaks the movie down into 83 footnotes.

These notes basically serve three purposes:

There are the Look It Up, Smart Guy notes, like 80. W Loved “Cats“, which pegs a scene from late in the film, in which Laura Bush tries to cheer up a despondent George by suggesting they go see his favorite musical, to a passage in Frank Bruni’s book, Ambling Into History. A particularly interesting note in this category is 2. Bush and Nicknames, which offers a reference for each of the pet names used in the movie. Though some critics heard Bush’s shorthand for Condi Rice as “Girl” (including me, although I didn’t note it in my review), the guide says Josh Brolin is actually saying “Guru.”

There are also quite a few This Didn’t Happen, But Here’s Why It Could Have notes. These cover the creation of composite characters (31. Bush and Earl Hudd Bible Study Group explains that the Hudd character contains elements of James Robison, Billy Graham, and a number of “charismatic Texas preachers”) or the invention of events based on probable cause. “This scene is a nightmare created by the screenwriter,” begins 81. Poppy Comes to W in a Nightmare. “But it represents a probable, psychological truth of the relationship between Bush father and son.”

And finally, there are Okay, We Totally Made That Up notes, like 83. Ari Fleischer, which admits that Bush’s first press secretary appears in a scene that takes place months after Fleischer was replaced by Scott McClellan “for dramatic and production purposes (i.e., not introducing a new character with only one line in the last minutes of the movie).”

The guide is kind of fascinating. It’s too bad that the film itself isn’t really provocative enough to spark the kind of debate that would make it more useful.

Via Movie City News.