Reel Life

Director Oliver Stone has made a career out of popularizing controversial topics. With Platoon (1986), he painted a visceral picture of American atrocities in Vietnam, in JFK (1991), he articulated an expansive assassination conspiracy, and these are just two of his more famous. More recently, he helmed the surprisingly average and safe World Trade Center (2006), a film generally considered unimpressive, and very un-Stone.

Now Stone is doing a biopic of current President George W. Bush, with production set to begin April 21. Early copies of the script - initially titled Bush - have flooded the Internet, and media outlets are clamoring to get their two cents in. Slate and The Hollywood Reporter offered two of the more amusing descriptions of both the contents and the reactions. Some highlights:

In his early days, Bush is a Greek-living, heavy-drinking frat boy at Yale, who's usually "snockered" on a pint of Wild Turkey or beer, and probably doesn't know where the library is. Pre-Laura, Bush fooled around with a "blonde, curvaceous Texas cowgirl." Saddam Hussein is a major obsession throughout his political days, as is a "conflicted relationship" (as described by Slate) with his father, George Bush, Sr.

One particularly effective - and by effective, I mean hilarious - Bush comment: "I think it's time we stopped standing around with our dicks in our hands, and raised the stakes on ol' 'Husseny.'" (In the script, Dubya loves nicknames. He refers to Karl Rove as "Boo Boo Kitty-F-k." No, I'm kidding, he actually refers to him as "Turdblossom.")

As expected, W - as the film is now known - has gotten plenty of peoples' leather knickers in a bunch. Bush biographers, even some whom have been critical of the 43rd president in their publications, are quick to point out the flaws in the draft of the script.

"It leaves you with the impression that the White House is run as a fraternity house with no reverence for hierarchy, the office itself, or for the implications of policy," said Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush's in the Reporter article. "[The script] really misses the mark of how many White Houses, including this one, are run."

Really? The White House isn't run as a frat? And here I thought that Bush nearly choked on the pretzel because he was doing a keg stand. (Side note: The Boston Globe and other Boston media routinely criticize Boston College students for our reckless beer and Jello-shot culture. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Anti-Beer Guzzlers: Beer and Jello-shots didn't exactly hurt Dubya's shot at the war on terror, did they? That's right, he knows our pain. And our BAC levels.)

So, how do the filmmakers feel about the feedback?

"I have no comment," said screenwriter Stanley Weiser to the Reporter, "other than the fact that I have read 17 books on Bush." (Oooh, 17 whole books!)

The film's producers support Weiser and Stone (who declined to comment for any of the articles), and point to Stone's history with liberalism and controversy - and, er, his unbiased portrayals of American presidents in previous films? (For unbiased portrayals see: Nixon.) Ultimately, The Reporter concluded that the biographers were in general open to the idea of Bush's story being told on screen. With profound insight, one biographer even manned up and conceded that, yes, "I understand this is a movie, not pure history." Thank goodness we cleared that one up.

One of W's producers, however, did hammer home the importance of accuracy, and above all, truth.

"When you embark on something as important as this," the producer told The Reporter, "the truth is extremely important."

Had he been reached for comment, Stone might have added: "Someone should have told that to Dubya."