Politico's Jeffrey Ressner has an interesting interview with Oliver Stone in advance of W.'s release this Friday, and Stone specifically addresses some of the heat he's feeling from the far left, namely that the movie is too empathetic a portrait of George Bush: "We didn't go against the truth. We show clearly what kind of man he is: a simple-minded man with limited intellectual curiosity. That’s the essence of the man. It doesn't matter that we don't show him doing cocaine or drinking too much — you don't have to dwell on his defects. What are his crimes? He's embraced the war on terror in the notion that it's a war for freedom and democracy, for good vs. bad, which is a very Manichaean view of the world, and a very simplistic view."