W. and Religulous

Not much of the Bush presidency is none of our business, but Oliver Stone goes right to those places and sets up camp in W. We are treated to possible daydreams and imagined re-enactments of interactions with his father, mother, brother, wife, pastor, friends, and inner White House circle. The treatment is as invasive and personal as an Enquirer article and as shallow, sympathetic, and pointless as a Hallmark special. It really doesn’t matter to America that Bush choked on a pretzel or that he has father issues. (Both things could have been true for George Washington or Ghandi for all I know.) Those things are not what make this president different. Oliver Stone has interesting and pertinent things to say in interviews; he’d have been more fun and more useful just speaking into the camera for two hours or putting news clips together.
What makes George W. Bush so special? If it’s an unwavering certainty in his own judgments and beliefs, Bill Maher takes the problem on much more directly and effectively in Religulous. Maher takes us on a tour, questioning various religious convictions with a non-believer’s uncertainty. Uncertainty leads to curiosity. Curiosity leads to questioning. Questioning leads to new ideas and learning. This is the train that George Bush refuses to ride because he won’t get out of the Throne that shoots up to Heaven. He is snuggled in tight on Jesus’ lap and all he needs to do to stay safe is not pull on His beard.
Maher talks to believers who are hopeful for rapture, the end of the world, in their (and our) lifetimes. This is where faith doesn’t mix well with military authority. Especially if that military includes world-ending devices.