THE SPINE JANUARY 12, 2010
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And Showtime is about to present, in a ten-part miniseries, Oliver Stone’s “Secret History of America.” Don’t you wonder why, if Stone (and Michael Moore, for that matter) is right about the evils of capitalism, an enormous capitalist corporation has produced--and will now show--what is, almost by self-advertisement, a nutcase reconstruction of the American past, focusing on its enemies, who he seems to think have been traduced by historians?
Someone named Jackson Creswell, from a website called Collider, seems to think that Stone “revel[s] in political controversy ... extremely well.” And that “JFK with all of its inaccuracies and fabricated drama was entertaining.” Oh, those entertainment values. But “[i]f anyone has the clout and talent to pull off a more human portrayal of the most evil figure in history, then it’s Stone.” Surely, that figure is not Kennedy. Still, amongst the most evil figures in history are Stalin and Hitler. And Stone finds things to like about them--things that no other historians have discovered--although Hitler apparently liked dogs, and Stalin children. Or maybe it was visa versa.
In any case, Ronald Radosh has put the whole public record of Oliver Stone in the sunlight--OK, there is no sunlight in the northeast, so it’s under a scholarly microscope-- and revealed just how mendacious Stone is.
And what about CBS? Hey, as long as it sells.
7 comments
"Milhouse: Not only am I not learning, I'm forgetting stuff I used to know." Milhouse must have been in Oliver Stone's classroom.
- malahat
January 12, 2010 at 6:03pm
Gotta disagree with Creswell: JFK was not an entertaining movie. It was a tedious dramatic trainwreck, though toward the end it became almost entertainingly laughable. I kind of don't care how false the movie is -- MacBeth ain't true either -- it's simply a poorly directed movie with Kevin Costner's least convincing performance. (Some excellent supporting acting do get wasted in the course of the film, though.)
- rhubarbs
January 12, 2010 at 6:04pm
The movie JFK served one useful purpose: It drove Alexander Cockburn completely insane, and he has never recovered. Haven't read a Beat the Devil Column since...
- MrCookie1
January 12, 2010 at 7:12pm
There have been good conspiracy stories and movies, but JFK isn't one of them. Stone has a sort of a gift for the convincing backdrop -- the New Orleans setting was done very well -- but as regards narrative elegance, emotional pacing, or keeping a sense of when you're becoming ridiculous, he makes James Cameron look like John Ford.
- ironyroad
January 12, 2010 at 8:00pm
irony, "...but as regards narrative elegance, emotional pacing, or keeping a sense of when you're becoming ridiculous, he makes James Cameron look like John Ford." In fact, he puts the fact in factitious.
- malahat
January 12, 2010 at 8:56pm
:)
- ironyroad
January 12, 2010 at 10:47pm
I could never forgive Oliver Stone after the shite he made of the story of Alexander the Great. Although I should have turned on him after his Sandalista love story, Salvador.
- wildboy
January 13, 2010 at 12:49pm