Something funny happens in Oliver Stone's "W." - besides the scene where the commander-in-chief clumsily chokes on a pretzel while watching a football game. Despite the director's well-known lefty leanings, Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser have managed to make George W. Bush, dare we say it, sympathetic.
The president portrayed in the film (by Josh Brolin) is not evil. He is a man struggling to do the right thing, who ultimately fails due to ignorance, laziness, egotism, bad advice and a misguided belief that he is doing the will of God. Weiser says he wanted to present a well-rounded take on the 43rd president.
"I wanted to leave my politics at the door," he says. " 'Fahrenheit 9/11' has already been made, and it eviscerated Bush. After reading about him, I learned a lot and saw him in a different light than I did only seeing the parodies of him on television."
Weiser's script, which follows Bush from his hard-drinking youth up to the Iraq War, was initially rejected by studios for being too politically sensitive. When Stone went elsewhere to get financing, the script was again rejected - but for a different reason.
"Oliver went to a very wealthy liberal investor, and he claimed the script was too pro-Bush for him," Weiser says. "The same thing happened with German investors. They said, 'You made him a human being.' "
The filmmakers also strove for accuracy. Weiser and a research assistant pored over some 20 books and created file folders for scenes and themes. (For example, "God and Bush" and "Mission Accomplished.") Is what they cooked up factual?
To find out, The Post ran a truthiness check on some of the more surprising moments from "W." via
