Secret Histories of America, and other tall tales by Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone is planning to come out with a major production of the secret history of America. And one thing that really bothers me about Stone is how he plays off both ends of this argument or has done so in the past. On one hand he says he's not a historian, he claims that he's just a filmmaker, just an entertainer. And in that regard, sure, obviously, he's right and his films are all very entertaining, if amazingly misleading about their factual history.But here, all the sudden Stone becomes a historian. He wants both things without the responsibility of either, especially as a serious historian. He wants to tell interesting tales that people tune into because they are so desperate for truth, for clarity about their cultural identity, and then Stone maliciously lies and maligns historical figures because of his twisted ideology. I write ideology and I don't even know that he seriously has one, or if his ideology is just a manner of saying that he enjoys filming lies. I don't think he's "liberal" as much as he's "completely unconcerned with truth" and likes to tell a big tale. He's somewhat infantile in that regard, and many of the things in his personal life suggest a certain childishness that comes through. He's the victim of sexual abuse by his mother, so he claims, and I've read elsewhere that such people often stop their emotional and psychological development at the point when that happens. So, taking that unfortunate fact into account, you can start to see Stone as the prepubescent boy who loves lying so that people listen to his tall tales, the kid who always has an amazing yarn to spin. He's always wanted and desired because he can capture and enthrall people. We're all supporting actors in this 50 year old tragedy of mommy molesting oliver.
And I love Stone's movies, they're all masterful. They're incredibly engaging, they provide and provoke hours of discussion. The man is dangerous and ought to be imprisoned for life, however, and anyone with even a passing interest in either history or films ought to seriously consider if they ought to intellectually consume our modern Gnostic priest of recent American history.
Labels: cinema, history, movies, Oliver Stone, theory
posted by . @ 4:56 PM
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