( CNN ) -- President Bush is `` a disgrace , frankly , '' film director Oliver Stone said Wednesday , two days before the release of his biopic on the 43rd U.S. president . Director Oliver Stone says he believes the timing was right for his upcoming film , `` W. '' Stone , who has endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president , seems to thrive on controversy , and his latest foray into filmmaking , `` W. , '' will likely hold true to form . In an interview with CNN 's Kiran Chetry , Stone discussed the rationale behind the release date , his troubles securing financing for the film , and why he thinks President Bush 's relationship with his father , President George H.W . Bush , played a role in the decision to invade Iraq . Kiran Chetry : We had a chance to see the screening of this movie and I want to ask you a little bit about the timing . This is coming out three weeks before our 2008 presidential election . Why did you want to it come out now ? Oliver Stone : Those events are beyond my control . We made the movie as fast as we could starting last May . If I could n't have completed it , it would have come out in January perhaps for the inauguration . It 's not about this election . It 's about the last eight years with one man , George W. Bush . It 's his story , how he became the man that he is , how we elected him -- basically , if you start to think about it , where we are now as a country . Watch Stone discuss why he finds Bush `` fascinating '' » . Chetry : Is it an anti-war movie ? Stone : Of course it 's an anti-war movie , because I happen to be an anti-war person . That 's not to say I 'm a pacifist . I believe you fight for the right reasons . This man has us in three wars right now -- Iraq , Afghanistan , and basically , the war on terror . We have a foreign policy which is a very preventive one , a pre-emptive one . It 's a Bush doctrine . It 's a very dangerous place . Whoever wins the election , Obama or McCain , I think is going to live in the shadow of the events of these last eight years . This man ... will be around , his influence will be felt for 20 years , 40 years . Chetry : What did you want viewers of your movie to come away with ? Stone : ... I ca n't control that . We made the movie to make people think , to make themselves feel , to walk in the shoes of George Bush and to understand him . This is not a job done with malice . This is a fair portrait of the man . I think it 's empathetic . You care for him and your feelings for him . An activist said , `` I never thought I could feel something for George Bush . I came out of this movie feeling compassionate for him , and even more important , feeling compassion for our country and where we are now . '' Chetry : You had trouble getting financing because people felt it was too , I guess , sympathetic for the president . Stone : Not for that reason . No , I think that the issues that we had with the American corporations were essentially that it was an inconvenient subject . They thought , he 's gone from office , and they do n't want to know , and he 's controversial , and blah , blah , blah . These are corporations -- large corporations . They 're not going to take risks like this . So , the movie business you 've got to make movies with risks , and unfortunately , America 's moving away from that in all forms , not just movies . Chetry : It 's very interesting . You had a soliloquy , a great monologue , by the character playing Vice President Dick Cheney ... about the rationale for Iraq . It was very detailed and it 's safe to say you did n't have Dick Cheney 's cooperation . Where did you compile some of these scenes , some of these dialogues from those scenes ? Stone : [ Writer ] Stanley Weiser and myself did a lot of research . There 's not much known about the first [ George W. ] Bush administration , the first few years . It 's coming out gradually from [ `` Price of Loyalty '' author Ron ] Suskind and [ `` The Bush Tragedy '' author Jacob ] Weisburg , and it 's coming out gradually . We 're finding out about oil and the secret meeting . It is supposition . There are geopolitics involved . There are other issues at stake . We 're trying to do justice . We allowed Cheney to speak for himself and [ former Defense Secretary Donald ] Rumsfeld to speak for himself . And [ former Secretary of State Colin ] Powell , by the way , is the guy that argues with Cheney in that scene . iReport.com : Will you see ' W. ' ? Chetry : You say President Bush changed the world . Is it something you believe is permanent ? Stone : Put it this way : We have practically an $ 800 billion Pentagon budget every year . That 's a huge amount -- the amount of the bailout right there . Are we going to be in a state of reaction in force for everything that happens ? Is it an us-versus-them foreign policy ? Of course , I 'm very concerned about the Constitution and about the stripping of liberties , torture , Guantanamo . Do you want the whole list ? This guy ... he 's a disgrace , frankly . And his legacy is going to be a hard one to live down . But I hope we take steps in the positive direction . And I am an optimist . Chetry : Variety 's review said Oliver Stone 's `` W. '' feels like a rough draft , that it may behoove to make in 10 or 15 years . They say it lacks an ending because we do n't have time as perspective . Did we need some more time ? Stone : I think the film is quite satisfying in that it shows you the marks for Iraq . It ends at the moment he goes to war . We know how things turn out . It 's not a film about those eight years . It 's a film about the character of a man . There 's a first act when he 's in his 20s , a second act in his 40s and the third act when he 's in his mid-50s . It 's a character study and we get to the place at which we know the way he 's going to behave . It 's a father-son story because a lot of his actions are motivated by , let 's call it , rivalry to be stronger than his father . And that 's part of the reason he goes to Iraq .
Director insists `` W. '' presents `` a fair portrait of the man , '' is empathetic . Bush 's `` rivalry to be stronger than his father '' helped prompt Iraq war , Stone says . Stone says he is anti-war , has concerns about torture , `` stripping of liberties '' `` W. , '' a biopic of President Bush , hits theaters Friday .