So by now you all know that Oliver Stone is gearing up to start shooting his movie about President George W Bush later this month and it should be in theaters before the end of the year (they’re aiming to get it in theaters BEFORE Bush leaves office).
Over at CNN they asked a pretty simple question that got a lot of responses. The question was this:
“Will you go to see this movie about President Bush?”
Simple question. But by far the best answer I read was left in the comments by Keith from Texas who said:
“Why see the movie, Jack, when I’ve lived the nightmare for 7 1/2 years?”
I laughed out loud when I read that, but it also got me thinking. A lot of people hate Bush, a lot of people want to see him tried and convicted of crimes against humanity… and I can see where they’re coming from to a point. But as for me, I’m DYING to see a movie about George W Bush… but not for the reasons you may think.
It’s no secret that I think Bush was a horrible world leader. He’s done more to make the world a more dangerous place than any American president before him and found a way to make even more people in the world hate the US than before him.
Having said that… let’s face it… the man was in an impossible situation. Maybe he made horribly wrong decisions… but can you honestly say that under the circumstances and under the pressure he was facing that you would have done much better? He’s just been elected president, and all of a sudden for the first time a foreign attack is made on American soil with a catastrophic series of events that left thousands of people dead and BILLIONS of dollars in damage. Communities destroyed, lives ruined and a country in panic.
Put yourself in George W Bush’s shoes in that moment. Seriously. WTF do you do? You can’t do nothing. You have to do SOMETHING, and you don’t have a year to sit around and think about it. You’ve got very angry people screaming for justice, a nation hurting… and on top of all that you HAVE to be insanely pissed off. How the hell do you manage all of that? How the hell do you take a situation like that and make calm, rational and sensible decisions that are well thought out and wise?
THAT’S something I’d love to see a movie about. That’s a story that deserves to be told. Maybe Bush failed, but dear heavens, 99% of us would have failed one way or another under those type of impossible circumstances. I’m not trying to make excuses for Bush or the string of decisions he made following 9/11, but step back and think about it. It was a remarkable time under remarkable circumstances that would push the capacity of any human being. You can’t write drama better than that. It was the single most dramatic moment and decision facing an American President since JFK and the Cuban missile crisis and a look at how one mortal human being faced it, rightly or wrongly, is a movie I’d pay to see.
Maybe Stone will do a great job with this movie and maybe he’ll ruin it. Either way it’s a movie worth making and one I’m anxious to see.
