Camelot for a new Age

On January 21^st, 2009, historians would remember the day change swept America and perhaps the entire world.

Barack Obama is poised to become the 44^th President of the United States of America, a country that came out in its stride demanding for change. More so than others, it was perhaps an insistence from Hollywood; an insistence for George W. Bush to leave and an insistence for Obama to take his place; that was the most effective.

The most powerful nation in the land boasts some of the most powerful entertainment and media houses. And almost every president, since Kennedy, has to come to terms with the media and eventually Hollywood.

During the last few months and years of Bush's presidency, there has been an outcry from Hollywood for his outing, some public, some subtle and even some shouting. We have seen Michael Moore craft an entire series of award winning pseudo-documentaries attacking George W Bush. We have seen Al Gore transform from a goofy Vice-President to a venerable environmental messiah. We have also seen an African American woo not only the world of politics but the world of Hollywood as well.

Hollywood and Politics have quite the love and hate relationship. And there have been some poignant times in the history of the United States where we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly side of this relationship.

The most prominent display happened during the 1960 race to the White House. Vice-President Richard Nixon hoped to secure a republican presidency but he did not count on his candidate being so strong with Hollywood.

Contrary to Nixon, who represented the dull and boring establishment, Kennedy stood out almost like a movie star. He was tanned and always smiling, appearing confident and calm in front of cameras, whereas Nixon appeared confused and pale. For example, during the debates of the 1960 election, Kennedy used his image to great advantage. In the first ever televised debates, Kennedy knew that his image would play a big role. He rested before the debates and used make-up unlike his opponent, who deemed it too "feminine." Instead, Nixon appeared almost haggard like and unkempt, viewers of the debate clearly favored with the younger, dashing, candidate.

And the results clearly had an effect; Kennedy won and eventually went on to have a favorable relationship with Hollywood. His reign over the White House was such a pristine picture that would end up being associated with the fairy tale of King Arthur. They would call his reign, Camelot.

In recent times though, that relationship has been quite strained. George W Bush wasn't a media darling, in fact, he's had a troublesome relationship with Hollywood and Michael Moore has been spearheading that trouble, since Bush's election.

In 2002, we saw the release of Bowling for Columbine which was an attack on Republican ideals, such as Gun Control and media violence. Though it didn't attack Bush directly, the pseudo-documentary gave Moore more ammunition than before. Two years later, Moore led an all out assault against Bush and his war in Fahrenheit 9/11. Hollywood had suddenly created a new craze, it had made a nation mock its own leader and the world loved it. Every move that Bush made during his remaining tenure of Presidency became the object of scrutiny or mockery.

The most recent jab comes from Oliver Stone in the form of W. Although some dub the movie controversial and an attack, the movie is perhaps humanizes Bush from the past demonizing of Moore's perspective.

Bill Clinton's reign, though marred by controversy, was much favorable with Hollywood. In one of his last televised addresses as President, he prepared a video of his last day at the White House. Included in the video was a small snippet of him accepting an Academy Award. Though that was simply a skit, it clearly indicated that Clinton liked Hollywood and vice versa.

Obama has had a similar journey. He first came into the spotlight in the 2004 election when he made a key note address. He then caught the attention of the producers of the West Wing, who even modeled a character after him in the show. Some say that it was the character of Matthew Santos (Jimmy Smits) on the West Wing that braced America for the change they now have.

In February 2007, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 Presidential Elections. He made the announcement in front of the Old Capitol building and set his campaign ablaze. Obama's popularity would ultimately spill over into Hollywood, with the likes of Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney carrying the torch for him.

Obama's status with Hollywood was completely clear when the choice between him and Hillary Clinton became wasn't much of a choice. Immediately, the majority of Hollywood would side with Obama, even the likes of Oprah Winfrey.

Will I Am, of the Black Eyed Peas, released a song about the Obama campaign, called, "Yes We Can." The lyrics of the song are composed almost entirely of excerpts from Obama's speech on January 8, 2008, following the New Hampshire presidential primary election. The video features appearances from numerous celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Adam Rodríguez, Kelly Hu, Hill Harper, Amber Valletta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger, Nick Cannon and Bryan Greenberg. Within a week of its release over four million viewers on had seen the video on YouTube alone. Clearly Hollywood had given Obama its blessing.

Edward Norton believed in the campaign so much that he had arranged for a documentary crew to follow the campaign wherever it went. And now, HBO plans on releasing the documentary in the near future.

Will Smith and his family were so sure that he'd win that he and his family filmed the entire election day in all of their home cameras. African Americans in Hollywood especially took a much bigger interest in this Election. Obama's heritage played an important role in the election. His critics accused it of being his greatest weakness, but his followers saw it as a sign of change.

Now Obama is poised at a new age, an age one hopes that will be filled with prosperity and betterment, an age where historians will begin with a fairy tale-esque "A long time ago…" as the new age of Camelot once again begins.

The Masters of Controversy

Through each of their professions, they have individually shaped the 20th and 21st century. Their professions, of course, delve deep into the chaotic realm of controversy: whether it is politics or cinema.

President George W Bush, whether you consider him to be a pariah, savior or a plain old fool, has attracted all sorts of attention and created perhaps the most controversy in the 21st century. Whether it is the hunt for the elusive weapons of mass destruction, the inability to converse, or good ol' fashioned greed, President Bush has had his fair share of controversy. There have been many writers, movie-makers and entertainers who have had caught on to his coattails and tailgated along for a boost in their career.

But Oliver Stone's career needed no such boost.

Stone's movies have always attracted attention from the media, whether good or bad and have made people think twice about the things they thought they knew so well. It was Stone's interest in Bush's controversial life that has brought about Stone's latest project W to life.

Stone was mentored by Martin Scorsese in NYU Film School, is best friends with Fidel Castro, has directed eight actors to individual Oscar winning performances and served in the US Army near the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War. It was here that he was wounded twice in action. His personal awards include the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor for "extraordinary acts of courage under fire", and the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster. Stone would go on to make three movies about Vietnam, but more on that later.

His initial foray into screenwriting spread evenly across most genres, starting from his student film entitled Last Year in Viet Nam (1971), followed by the gritty horror film Seizure (1974), Midnight Express (1978), Conan the Barbarian (1982), and Scarface (1983). Stone won his first Oscar for Midnight Express (1978) and this was just the beginning of his career.

It was clear that the more controversial the matter, the more Stone's interest in it. He has made three films about Vietnam – Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and Heaven & Earth (1993). For Stone, these films are a very personal trilogy even though they are inspired by other people's stories. Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about Stone's experience of war and combat. Born on the Fourth of July is based on the story of war veteran Ron Kovic. Heaven & Earth is derived from the memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, the true story of a Vietnamese girl whose life is drastically affected by the war.

During this same period, Stone directed Wall Street (1987), which earned Michael Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor; Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio (1988), and The Doors (1991), starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. However, it was the film after this that truly cemented Stone’s career as a master of controversy. JFK (1991) was a star spangled cast of who’s who of Hollywood, with Kevin Costner leading the cast. Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, and John Candy all starred in this no holds barred look at one of the most shocking moments in America’s history, the assassination of US President John F Kennedy. In true Stone fashion, this movie is more than just the assassination of a political figure; it is about the assassination of a political ideal, or even, as some say, the assassination of democracy itself.

Stone then made Natural Born Killers (1994) starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Robert Downey Jr. and Rodney Dangerfield. The movie, an adaptation of one of Quentin Tarantino’s earlier screenwriting works, was the story of the love and hate relationship of the media and violence. Stone’s movie was a kaleidoscope of violence and satire. Blurring the line between funny and offensive, the movie was filled with gruesome scenes of violence, juxtaposed with scenes of comedic nuances—more specifically black comedy. Nixon (1995), with Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen, earned nominations for the actors and Stone for screenwriting, but failed to recover its budget.

During this time, Stone had slowed down in his movie making. Even the subject matter had saturated from spicy to quite bland. U-Turn (1997) had a very interesting storyline but was perhaps more Hitchcock intrigue and less Stone’s controversy. Any Given Sunday (1999) saw Stone veer off into the world of American Football and it wouldn’t be until 5 years that we’d see the director come back and do a film that he’d wanted to do for a life time. Alexander (2004) is perhaps Stone’s most epic film to date. The story of the great king who had conquered most of the known world, perhaps echoed the story of the director who had come so far in life and was desperate to rediscover himself. Again, the film failed to find an audience and barely recovered its budget through international DVD sales.

It wasn’t until World Trade Center (2006) that Stone finally found rediscovered himself and found his voice. Starring Nicolas Cage, the movie finally cemented the director with audiences and critics alike. And now, with the upcoming W, Stone sticks with what he knows best and delves knee deep in controversial subject matter once again. In the much anticipated movie Stone revisits the tumultuous youth of a man who came from a wealthy, oil family and whose father, George H. Bush, was also president—and his rise to power. "I want a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own with the stunning, pre-emptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors," he told a Hollywood magazine.

As usual, Stone found the process of making a political biopic motion picture quite difficult. “Nobody wanted to finance this film,” Stone told AFP, “Every studio said no. You’d be surprised to know the number of people in the business who don’t want to have their name associated with politics. This thing almost never got made.” But it did get made and cheaply at that too, thanks to tax cut incentives for only $30 million.

Speaking on being neutral on the subject matter, Stone told AFP, “Fifty million people voted for him on two occasions, He was in the same league for a long time as Ronald Reagan, until he became so offensive.” He told USA Today he had "tried to stay human to this man. People get me confused with my outspoken citizen side. But I'm a dramatist first and foremost. I am not interested in that radical 15 percent that hate Bush or the 15 or 20 percent who love Bush,” he said. “That's not our audience. Those people probably won't come. I'm interested in that 60 percent in the American middle who at least have a little more open mind.'

But however, Bush wasn't the only real life personality portrayed in the upcoming movie. The cast reads like a who's who of politics and hollywood: Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Jesse Bradford as Thatcher, a college buddy of Bush, James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney (originally, Stone was interested in Robert Duvall for the role, but he turned it down), Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, Ioan Gruffudd, Jason Ritter as Jeb Bush, Noah Wyle as Donald Evans, Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell and Toby Jones as Karl Rove. Josh Brolin steps into the shoes of the American President and he spoke about the role to EW Magazine, especially about the mannerisms such as the walk, "It changes over the years, how he walks in his 30s, how he walks in foreign lands, before 9/11 and afterward. People hold their emotions in their bodies. They can't fake it. Especially him."

When news broke that W was in production, Stone told the movie industry newspaper Variety that the movie would ask a very simple question: 'How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?' Bush, a former Texas governor, has never hidden the fact that he once battled alcoholism, but says he quit after a particularly heavy night on his 40th birthday in 1986 and has not touched a drop since.

Stone is a three-time Oscar winner. His directed films have been nominated for 31 Academy Awards, including eight for acting, six for screen writing, and three for directing. Not only is he well suited for making a movie about one of the most controversial figures of the 21st century, he is also the most capable since throughout his career, controversy has played a vital part in Oliver Stone’s success.

President Bush's actions have secured him a place in history books for years to come, but it will be Stone's portrayal of his character that will truly immortalize the President.