An early draft of Oliver Stone's Bush, the life story of our 43rd president, has been leaked to ABC and is garnering attention from various news outlets. Not to be outdone, Slate has acquired a copy of the screenplay, dated October 15, 2007, and titled Bush, though IMDB now lists the working title as W. In Stone's words, the film asks: "How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?"

The screenplay, written by Stanley Weiser, plays up the rivalry between W. and his father, suggests at least one conspiracy theory, and dramatizes W.'s near-fatal encounter with a pretzel in 2002. But compared with Stone's paranoid take on the JFK assassination, the script lacks imagination. For the most part, it trots out well-known Bushisms ("I'm the decider," "shock and awe," "is our children learning," and "axis of evil") and seems content to re-create equally well-known events from Bush's presidency (pressuring George Tenet to produce actionable intelligence on Iraq, proclaiming "mission accomplished" on the USS Lincoln).

Spoiler alert: Bush gets the intelligence he needs, but the mission isn't quite accomplished. If you're not averse to a few other spoilers, follow Slate's handy guide straight to the good parts.

http://www.slate.com/id/2188423/