W.

Madeline Schmidt

Lindsay Rogowicz

Samuel Rhotenberry

Josh Sanchez

The film, W., opened in theaters on October 17, 2008. The film came in at #4 behind Max Payne, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and the Secret Life of Bees. The movie is a somewhat biographical depiction of the story behind our current president. The movie posters emphasize Josh Brolin, as he is the only actor billed on the top of the poster. Also, the multiple posters with varied expressions hint to the viewer that the film will cover all the sides of George W. Bush. The image selected for the poster also uses Brolin's likeness of the president to attract viewers. In contrast, the trailer for the film emphasizes the many characters in the film. Some featured in the trailer are Rove, the Vice President, Laura Bush, and George Bush Sr. Also, the trailer mentions that the film is directed by Oliver Stone, which gives the view the impression that the film will be controversial like many of Stone's previous films. However, once again, Josh Brolin is the only actor credited.

The trailer and movie poster seem to be fairly representative of one another. The film seems to be marketed to a liberal audience craving an explanation for Bush's actions. It is depicted as a biography, and gives the illusion that it features real life footage by omitting critical acclaim or press reviews. Also, when the actors are shown they are credited with their character names. Contrary to its liberal theme, the poster does provide a clue that the movie will be somewhat sympathetic to Bush with the tagline, "A life misunderestimated." Although, by using "misunderestimated" Stone still shows that the film will somewhat poke fun at Bush.

The official site for film features a large image of Josh Brolin as W in the center of the page. Some of the features include the trailer, an about the film section, photo gallery, cast and crew links, downloads featuring wallpapers, a film guide, a mash-up contest, and a widget. I found the most interesting part of the site to be the film guide. The provided a list of the scenes in the film with explanations of their origin. For instance, they would either provide links to the actual quotes used for the film or an explanation as to why the author took the liberty to create the scene from his imagination.

Another neat aspect of the official site was the video mash-up contest. Participants could create a mash-up trailer for the film and post it to the site to be viewed. One winner that is selected will win a MAC PRO, Final Cut Express, and a video camera. I thought this was a great way to get people involved in the film.

While I could not find any fan sites or merchandise for sale, I did find a review of the film from the San Francisco Chronicle. Also, the film attracted some heated debates amongst the members of the IMDB. The threads on this site include of variety of topics including questions about the film and full out political debates.

There does seem to be websites where you can download the full movie for free to watch online. However, I was not actually able to watch them from my computer. I also checked other sites that were recommended for watching movies online, and they did not have W. available. These sites included alluc.org and watch-movies.net. I suspect that in the next couple of weeks, many more bootleg copies will be available as it is now released in theaters.