Calderon W. Scene

The best scene that reveals the President is when Bush is talking to the press and they are asking him questions about the war. They specifically ask him what he thinks are some mistakes he has made in the presidency thus far. He is left speechless. The look in his face seems to say that he has an answer, but he does not want to reveal his mistakes. He was not emotionally and mentally prepared for that question. It seems as if the question had not even run through his head. He worked so hard to get to the position of President that he hasn’t had time to stop and think. He even says in a grammatically incorrect way, “I haven’t made no mistakes.” He wishes to be this great figure that everyone is relying on, but as the camera turns away because he cannot come up with an answer. The camera moves the audiences’ eyes to focus not on Bush giving his speech, but on Condoleezza and Cheney’s faces in embarrassment. Their faces are looking down as if they empathize with what he is going through. The direction of the camera, moving back and forth from Bush to his staff, makes the audience see that Bush was not alone. He had his “cronies” to rely on. He wishes they could help him answer this question, but he is left on the spot to think about it. In the end he does not have a direct answer. It reveals his personality as relying on someone else to help him. He lacked real confidence in his own thoughts that it got to the point where he would look at Condoleezza and Cheney. In the end, he worked hard and he should stand with that confidence.

Leary- "W."

After watching W, there were many different scenes that came to mind that truly revealed the character of the 43rd President. One scene in particular that seemed to really stand out to me was the “dream scene” at the very end of the movie. I chose this scene for one main reason; it shows Bush junior’s point of view and makes the audience feels the stress he was going through with his dad. I felt like most of the other scenes in the movie were from other perspectives and overall made Bush junior seem very cocky and rude, especially towards his dad. This scene describes exactly how Bush junior felt and the reason for why he was always so rude in the movie. The article Mise-en-scene also helped me get to know Josh Brolin’s character, George W. Bush, from a different perspective and analyze the message that Oliver Stone was trying to portray.
In the “dream scene”, George W. Bush walks into his office at the White House and finds his father, George Bush senior, sitting in his chair behind his desk. Immediately the audience can tell it’s a dream by how bright and white Oliver Stone set up the room. Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that Oliver Stone was trying to make it seem like Bush senior was in power since he was sitting in the President’s chair.
Once Bush junior confronts his dad about being in his chair, his dad actually comes at him and tries to fight him. This shows that the dad was the stronger and more powerful one. I think that the dad trying to fight bush junior also could show how the dad felt when bush junior tried to fight him when he was President and reflecting on how the dad felt. This could be Bush junior’s inner conscious feeling bad about how he treated his dad before. But then again, the dream also shows how his dad constantly put him down and never made him feel good enough.
Bush junior then takes a seat in a small chair as his father stands over him like he is looking down upon him, telling him that he is a disappointment. Bush senior then brings up Jeb, making it sound like he likes Jeb better. Again, Oliver Stone chose the camera angle where it is looking slightly down on the father and son to the point that Bush senior looks so much bigger than Bush junior. Bush junior inner conscious comes out again when Jeb is brought up. Bush junior has always had the feeling that his dad favored Jeb.
In most of the angle shots in this scene, the camera was further away, getting the full picture except for at the end when Bush junior was yelling. The far away shots could symbolize the distance in the relationship between father and son. The close up shot shows Bush junior yelling; it singles him out and creates more of a sympathetic view from the audience.