Director and provocateur Oliver Stone tells Anthony Breznican about his new satire of the Bush era.

A man stands in the middle of a sunny baseball field, beaming a smile as the roar of an approving crowd is heard. An echoing announcer's voice calls out his name: "Ladies and gentlemen, the 43rd president of the United States ... " But as the camera pans back, the cheering fades, and the stadium is revealed to be empty.

With outstretched arms and raised head, the character's body forms an unmistakable symbol: W.

It's the opening scene of Oliver Stone's movie of the same name, which chronicles the youth of George W Bush, his rise to the White House and the crises he has faced over the past eight years. And it's a comedy.

Not that Stone thinks the actual history is funny.

"It was so painful for me. The reaction is to laugh a little because the pain would be too much," he says, sitting in his office after showing the first act of the movie in his editing bay.

"We all have retreat fantasies," Stone says. "He did have the express desire to be baseball commissioner, and I think some people, historically, would say if he had become baseball commissioner, it would have saved us a lot of problems."

W. features an all-star cast playing the White House's highest-profile figures: Josh Brolin as the president, Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, Richard Dreyfuss as Vice President Cheney, Jeffrey Wright as Secretary of State Colin Powell, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice and James Cromwell as George H W Bush.

Stone, an outspoken liberal and longtime cinematic provocateur, is not an admirer of the president. And he's prepared to be dismissed by Bush die-hards.

"I'm not interested in that radical 15% who hate Bush or the 15 to 20% who love Bush. That's not our audience. Those people probably won't come," he says. "I'm interested in that 60% in the American middle who at least have a little more open mind."

The movie portrays Bush as charming, spiritually devout and well-intentioned but also reckless - always relying on wealthy friends or family connections. He's also depicted as overly trusting.

In one scene, Cheney presents him with an executive order authorising "enhanced interrogation techniques" of detainees.

The president approves the idea but warns, "Just remember, though, we don't use torture in this country." Shortly after that scene he makes clear that he doesn't want to read a long report on the details."I think Cheney gamed him and gamed the whole system. Cheney is a brilliant player," Stone says. Recent books such as Barton Gellman's Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency provided political and psychological context.

"We didn't want to go over the line," Stone says, though he acknowledges sometimes tip-toeing perilously close.

THOUGH the movie is being released in the thick of the election season, (its US release date is October 17), Stone says he doesn't expect W. to have any effect one way or the other. He says W. is not a polemic but a character study about a man who is simply interesting.

"Bush is not a lightweight. He has determination. What did I learn? I really learned how powerful the willpower and discipline is that he has," Stone says. "I'm not making political judgments. We're not looking to condemn. He says what he says and does what he does. You're going to like him, and at the same time, you're going to be horrified by some of the stuff he does."

Scenes featuring Bush involved in binge-drinking and fraternity hazing are contrasted with a scene of him cavalierly setting the stage for armed conflict in a 2002 Oval Office meeting where the term "Axis of Evil" entered the language.

Stone also depicts warmer qualities in the character: "Faith, family and friendship," Stone says. "You could argue he is a good born-again Christian. He has been good with his family. There's a scene where he goes to the hospital and talks to the soldiers, and we honestly looked at the stuff he said and did." The Laura Bush character, upon meeting her future husband at a Texas barbecue, refers to him playfully as a "devil in a white hat".

"I think Bush is going to be accountable to history in a big way," Stone says. "These people who dismissed this movie, who wouldn't give us the money to make it - especially the American studios (the film was independently produced) - had this attitude that he's too hot a potato, and at the same time, he's going away in January, so who cares?' "Who cares? I'll tell you what - his policies are going to be still paying off 20 years from now. He's not gone, baby."

There are certain parallels between the lives of the filmmaker and his subject. Both had powerful fathers; both enrolled at Yale University in 1965 (Stone quit two years later to join the Army); both did military service, Stone taking combat duty in Vietnam while Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard.

"And drugs. And alcohol. And women," Stone says, making his own list of comparisons. Bush was arrested for DUI in 1976, and Stone was, too, in 1999 and 2005.

The two men obviously turned out differently. Stone bristles when asked if he found anything about Bush to like.

"Empathy is understanding. Why can't you just try to understand somebody? This whole polarising Do you hate him? Do you love him?' doesn't work for me."

So how does he see the president? "Ever notice how impatient Bush is at press conferences with questions, like, What right do you have to ask me a question?'" Stone says, noting the comical names the president makes up for reporters, friends and colleagues.

"I would say he's a bully. It's classic bully syndrome. The nicknames, for instance, are bullying."

Bush and Stone never met during their time at Yale, but they did encounter each other in 1998 at a Republican breakfast in Los Angeles.

"I was the token liberal who was invited. It was hilarious." Stone corrects himself: "Not hilarious, scary. He was talking about tough love and justice in Texas because he was known as a guy who executed all these people. He brought me up to his hotel room afterwards. I didn't know he'd been to Yale with me, so he told me that. He knew more about me than I knew about him. He was definitely a charismatic guy. I knew he'd be president because there was no question that guy had absolute confidence."

Ten years later, it has set the scene for one of the most eagerly-awaited films of this heated political season.

W. is released on November 7.