W.

I was overjoyed to finally be rid of George W. Bush. So it took some doing to decide to watch the movie W.

I read the reviews and pretty much figured what it was going to be. And it turned out to be all that and more. But however good it was, it's not one I want to see again. It's one I would definitely recommend renting, not buying. I want to be rid of Bush, not to see him on my shelf for future entertainment.

One reviewer said it was a fairly sympathetic portrayal of Bush. And I think that's true. He's shown as loud, a big hick, a dunce, consumed with a desire to please his dad, and all the rest. I never thought he was that much of a brain, but I think he is probably smarter in real life than the movie showed. So as much as I dislike, I think I would've gone for an even more sympathetic portrayal, in the sense of keeping it closer to the facts.

You could feel some of those moments where it wasn't according to facts. Like where Bush made some of his more well-known verbal bobbles, like "Is our children learning," "misunderestimating me," others like that. They seemed to me to be in different contexts than they were in actual history. But that's OK. It's necessary to do a certain telescoping, stylizing to make it into a movie of coherence and not just a documentary.

I liked it how Bush kept calling Cheney "Vice." I don't know if he really did that, but it lent itself well to the dumb kind of portrayal Oliver Stone was going for. We definitely know he had nicknames for people, so it didn't seem unbelievable.

Even though there was some sympathetic stuff, there's no way that watching the movie made me long for or like the Bush administration any more. He was disgusting, rotten to the core, and his administration was criminal. Good riddance to bad rubbish. May your name be trompled on in the dust of revolted history and all that. But despite Bush's own sorrows as a leader, it made you long for more intelligence in this country, that we wouldn't elect a crumb like that, just because he was the first George Bush's son. How stupid the whole political scene was in 1999 and 2000, that we had to get this twerp and all the other twerps he brought with him.

One other thing. The portrayal of key figures in his administration was interesting. Cheney, just as sour and miserable as real life. Condi Rice, I think she got a severe portrayal. She seems amused but also very admiring and supportive of this dunce. It makes you wonder what makes her tick. Colin Powell tries to be a straight arrow but is bent by the persistence of the ideologues. Rumsfeld, virtually not there. Wolfy, seeking every in for ideology.

Good movie. Provokes thoughts. Provokes a lot of sorrow. Great ending.