The idea of Oliver Stone making a biopic out of an unpopular sitting president is pretty weird, so I guess it should be no surprise that the movie’s first teaser poster is pretty weird too.
A bigger version of the poster to your right can be found over at ioncinema. As a teaser, I’m not sure how effective it is. You’d have to get pretty close to it to make any sense of it, though I guess the letter “W” has become a symbol for Bush, at least it was back when people weren’t too ashamed to put it on the car. It’s kind of like Superman’s “S”, except in a bad way, which I suppose is why they picked it as the title of the movie.
The text under the W is a long listing of George W. Bush’s most famous boneheaded remarks. For instance, the first one is “There’s an old saying in Tennesee… I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee… that says fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.” You all know that one.
What this poster says to me more than anything, is that despite all the talk from Stone and his cast about how this movie isn’t trying to make fun of Bush or laugh at him… that making fun of him is exactly what they’re doing. The poster is basically a laundry list of things to make fun of. Make fun of the way people pronounce his middle initial dub-ya, make fun of the stupid way he talks… I mean they might as well have put a picture of Bush’s face on the poster and drew a funny nose and glasses on him.
Click over to ioncinema if you’re interested in seeing the poster bigger.
