Over the weekend Register executive editor Tom Hoopes will post several thoughtful commentaries on the Daily Blog, as usual.

Those who don’t want to wait for their weekly helping of Hoopes should venture over to National Review Online to read his review of Oliver Stone’s “W.”

In addition to cataloguing the movie’s excesses, Hoopes takes a stab at what makes Josh Brolin’s Bush surprisingly likeable despite the movie’s obvious anti-Dubya biases. Some guesses:

“The authentic religious expression. The movie makes a couple of half-hearted attempts to be cynical about Bush’s religious conversion. But his spiritual counseling by Earle Hudd (Stacy Keach) in the film is far from the self-righteous stereotyping of Christians. Hudd tells Bush that ‘We’re all wounded sinners.’ Bush looks contrite and earnest. From then on out, it’s hard to tut-tut his praying at meetings as we’re supposed to. (As Bob Dole once told the National Catholic Register, ‘I think Bush’s faith is authentic, and that will be useful to us.’)”

Hoopes said the film avoids the typical negative stereotype of Bush: “The film’s Bush isn’t a ‘Bush lied, people died’ Bush. The movie’s W. clearly believed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He also clearly had the best of intentions when he ordered the invasion.”

Just what kind of a Bush was he? Read the rest of the “W.” review here.

— Tom McFeely