Lucio W.

In Oliver Stone’s W., George W. Bush was portrayed from the very beginning as being lost or without a meaning. He was always getting drunk, and he quit several of his jobs while his brother was succeeding with high expectations for his future. W. never got the approval from his father that he always strived for, so he ultimately decided to run for public office as a way to prove that he was worthy of his father’s respect. I think that W.’s entire career as a politician was strongly influenced by his relationship with his father and his need to prove that he is capable of doing anything his father can do. Oliver stone portrays W. as someone who truly wanted to help the country but was just too dumb to do so. Most of what W. did as presidency was strongly influenced on him by someone else. One of the most interesting scenes in the movie, which takes place near the end, displays this idea very well. The scene is a dream in which he is in a chair in the center of a room being judged by his father. His father repeatedly tells W. how disappointed he is in him. In this scene, I think W. comes to the realization that not only was his presidency governed by his father but his entire life was as well. After all that W. has done he still feels like he is a failure in the eyes of his father and in the eyes of the American people.