W.

Whether you love him or hate him, there is no question that President George W. Bush is one of the most controversial public figures in recent memory. Oliver Stone's film takes viewers through Bush's eventful life—his struggles and triumphs, how he found both his wife and his faith, and, of course, the critical days leading up to Bush's decision to invade Iraq. (Gary Reber)

Special features include audio commentary with Director Oliver Stone; two featurettes: Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Legacy from the perspective of renowned political experts, academics, critics, and historians (HD 17:18) and No Stranger To Controversy: Oliver Stone's George W. Bush (HD 16:34); six deleted scenes (HD 17:00); filmmaker's research and annotations guide presented in 83 text slides; the theatrical trailer; and up-front previews.

The 2.35:1 1080p AVC picture quality is good, with excellent color fidelity, deep blacks, and revealing shadow delineation. Hues are nicely saturated and rich, and fleshtones appear accurate and natural throughout. Contrast is excellent as well, providing a natural balance to the imagery. Resolution is generally good, but the picture often appears soft, though, close-ups are sharp and reveal fine facial expressions and textures. The picture is pristine, with no objectionable noise, grain, or other artifacts. Overall, the picture presents a natural color palette, with excellent contrast. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 7.1-channel soundtrack is wanting in numerous respects, considering this is a modern motion picture and directed by Oliver Stone. Dialogue is conventional production sound, monaurally recorded with no spatial integration support in other channels, or the dialogue is ADR-produced and then mixed with other elements, in an attempt to create scene realism. Dialogue also, at times, sounds extremely forward. Room ambiance is mixed in the stereo channels, but not in the surrounds, during numerous interior scenes. Thus, surround envelopment is non-existent or limited at low levels. Even the music score is most often limited to the front soundstage, with no surround ambiance support. Nor are the war scenes supported with surround sound. When the surround channels are engaged, in ballpark and demonstration scenes predominantly, the additional channels provide a larger holosonic® presence, but...the added side channels are positioned to the back sides of the sweet spot listening position, not to the sides as they should be. This is a constant with Lionsgate 7.1 soundtracks (or possibly the processor manufacturer, to be determined). Thus, unless you switch outputs, the normal surrounds in a 5.1-channel mix will be at the sides, not to the back sides. Unfortunately, the creative community, the studios, and the equipment manufacturers have not dictated a spatial loudspeaker setup standard. Our preferred 7.1-channel setup is a perfect circle with each full-range loudspeaker location equidistant from the sweet spot, and equidistant from each other along the perimeter of the 360-degree circle. In this arrangement the added mid-left and mid-right surrounds convey added surround envelopment and dimensionality. Unfortunately, in addition to Lionsgate, some other 7.1-channel soundtracks are produced with the added channels not at the sides but behind the sweet spot listening position, which then creates positioning problems for normal 5.1-channel presentations, with the surround loudspeakers located to the back sides of the prime listening position, including for surround music reproduction. Otherwise, the fidelity is superb, with an excellent music score stereo mix and effective sound effects and Foley sounds. There are a few instances where the SPL is system-threatening, and bass extension is deep and solid, extending to well below 25 Hz. Other than a few instances of 7.1-channel surround envelopment, this is not an impressive soundtrack. (Gary Reber)