“W.” trailer and Bush as Performance Art.

Watching the oddity posted above, it occurred to me that FIVE YEARS have passed since the atrocious DC 9/11: Time of Crisis premiered on Showtime, propagandizing the president’s response to the September 11 attacks with the not-so-subtle machinations of a Leni Riefenstahl montage. Since then, Dubya impersonations have taken a number of forms, from the wrly satirical to the downright comic, and many of them have been delivered by the president himself. Arriving at the end of that scarily accurate “four more years” prophesy, Josh Brolin’s performance seems to be the culmination of all those interpretations—both cynical and sincere, absurd and tragic. Hope it amounts to a good movie.

Update: A friend asked me for some thoughts on the trailer and I figured I’d add them here. It’s too early to delve into any detailed analysis of W., but I think what we’re witnessing here has the feeling of an absurd creation precisely because it appears to tell the story with such seriousness. The president, at least in public, has become a parody of himself. As a result, any fictional satire has to compete with the real thing. Stone appears to be making an attempt at the real thing—or, at least, what the public perceives as the real thing.

It’s hard to completely understand his intent. World Trade Center was sincerely patriotic and blatantly endorsed the war on terror, but contained a sharp element of humanity (particularly in the case of Maggie Gyllenhaall’s character) that seemed to oppose all of that “death of irony” earnestness in the film’s conclusion. We all know Stone is a liberal of sorts, but he also abides by this unique duality rooted in a deep respect for American history. Or, at least, he respects a certain kind of American history, a malleable one that takes its cues from collective memory. W. certainly seems to gives us the legacy of a Bush we’ve seen before, but god knows how it’ll look in a decade or more.

Here’s a video equation tracking the various Bush incarnations from the last several years.

Will Ferrell.

Timothy Bottoms. “That’s My Bush!”

(Bottoms also played Bush straight in DC 9/11, and it’s also an amusing performance, if accidentally so.)

Will Ferrell Again. “I’m George W. Bush, and I approve this message. In fact, I think it is awesome.”

“This Land.”

Steve Bridges.

That infamous slideshow:

Bush Again. “Senator Clinton couldn’t get into the building because of sniper fire, and Senator Obama’s at church.” Also: The president decides to start a band with Cheney: “Bastards from Hell.”