Those wise words are usually ascribed to Benjamin Disraeli, but whoever said them ought to whisper them in the ear of filmmaker Olvier Stone who is now blaming the failure of his soporific epic Alexander on… you will be ‘astonished’ to hear… “raging fundamentalism” in the US South. Oh, well, I guess he’s trying to drum up box office in Britain with a little fashionable America-bashing. He’d be better served cutting about an hour from the movie. (HT: Scaramouche)
PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.
Well, to be fair to Mr. Stone, it was a fundamentally crappy movie…
Stones problem is that he has not grasped the fact that,epix nix politix.
This is a weird confluence of marketing and politics. Stone and his producer are trying to sell the bomb in Europe by appealing to European prejudices about Americans, saying that Americans aren’t sophisticated enough to have appreciated the film.
BTW, around Detroit, the “never complain, never explain” quote is associated with Henry Ford II, who said it to reporters after being arrested for drunk driving with a lady passenger who was not his wife at the time.
Apropos of Mr. Stone’s purported profession, the first time I heard that phrase was from John Wayne’s crusty old colonel Nathan Biddles in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. You know. A real movie.
Of course, Oliver’s previous movie about Castro was also trashed by American fundamentalists (i.e., who fundamentally prefer Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness) : http://slate.msn.com/id/2098860/
It sounds like Oliver is still tokin’ away too much. Perhaps one day he’ll find a real father, instead of sucking up to dictators and Eurotrash film critics (oh yeah, same thing).
richard—
Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness.
…
Never complain and never explain.
The Disraeli attribution appears in the 1903 Life of Gladstone by the 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, John. I don’t know the context, but that is almost certainly the first time it appears on the page.
I am reminded of this famous quote:
Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Mark Twain put it in his Autobiography. Disraeli may have said it, but, given the context, I’ve always thought it more likely to have been Twain.
…
Alexander is only fifth (Cat Woman leads) in early 2004 Worst Picture voting over at imdb.com. The male actors lead their categories and the actresses only trail the Cat Woman stars. Oliver has a slight lead on Michael (Moore) in the Director category.
http://www.imdb.com/features/rto/2005/poll/worstresults
While I didn’t see the picture in question–sandal sagas always make me break out in hives–I gather from the reviews (there was a particularly hilarious one in the New York Times that compared Angelina Jolie’s curious accent to Natasha of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame)that it was a turkey of epic proportions. Stone wouldn’t be the first director to blame his own failure on the audience’s inability to discern the artistry of his production; as well as pinning the rap on those pesky “fundamentalists”, he has previously blamed the movie’s failure on the American public’s ignorance of ancient history.
(Thanks for the hat tip, Roger.)
I am always amused when some Hollywood provincial like Stone attributes his failures to the hoard of rightwing fundamentalist who are too dumb and prejudiced to appreciate his artwork. There were almost 60,000,000 intelligent, open minded and hemophilic voters who sided with Kerry last November. Certainly, that should generate enough traffic to make “Alexander the Fabulous” a box office success.
Message to Oliver: If your movie bombed with the Kedwards set then it wasn’t homophobic prejudice that killed your stinker of a movie.
Damn, I wish I remembered what blogger (or columnist – it might have been John Podhoretz at the NY Post) it was, but they predicted before the movie even opened that this would be Stone’s go-to excuse if it flopped.
I think the Jews, the fundamentalists and the Masons really need to band together and show those Illuminati a thing or two.
This is getting silly, now Republicans are to blame for the fact that Stone made a sucky movie. The reviews I have read have been really bad and not one of the reviewers was Southern or evangelical or whatever. Well Podhoretz is a Republican but the others were heretics like Stone himself.
I remember hearing John Wayne say never complain never explain in a movie years and years ago.
Patrick Tyson ó There are a wealth of lines in that movie that will get you far in life. I personally have gotten much use out of Ben Jonson’s “Thinkin’ ain’t my department…” and “A man with a thirst like that can’t get by on a trooper’s pension…” And of course, the eyeglasses scene, which Nicholas Meyer swiped (and got wrong) in Wrath of Khan.
“Never Complain and Never Explain.”
These words were famously spoken by Henry Ford II when, in California in the mid 70′s, he was arrested for drunk driving with a mysterious woman passenger.
I’ll admit that I have not seen the movie. Watching the previews on various “Siskel & Ebert”-type shows (I still can’t bring myself to say “Ebert & Roeper”), I couldn’t help but laugh. Colin Farrell’s blond mullet is so incredibly awful, and glaringly contemporary. Angelina Jolie is no Ava Gardner, and is clearly far too young to be Alexander’s mother. Stone’s inability to determine how he wanted to address the gay aspect of Alexander’s sexuality is also a problem. Don’t blame the South for what you were loathe to do, Oliver!
Stone’s problem (besides the others that have been so aptly captured by the other posters) is that he is unable to see that he has created a truly bad, campy flick … and not the “epic” he claims “Alexander” to be. The only thing “epic” about “Alexander” is its’ cost: Stone spent $100-$200 million on something that resembles a Jim Abrahams & David Zucker parody. Stone thinks of himself as David Lean, so he can’t possibly comprehend that where Lean would have created a masterpiece, Stone has manufactured a disaster.
Roger:
Somehow the all powerfull right wing religous Rove storm troopers were able to ruin Stone’s bloated snoozefest but were unable to ruin fatboy’s 9-11 propaganda fest. Stone’s shrinking grip on reality is beginning to get very funny. He may want to do a JFK style film on how Ishtar was ruined by a right wing plot.
I have only seen the posters and realised that my suspension of disbelief didn’t run that far.The man that was a warrior from childhood,who probably killed his own father, looked like one of the Beach Boys?
One of my favorites is appropriate here for Oliver Stone – Clint Eastwood’s line in Magnum Force, “a man’s got to know his limitations.”
Percy Dovetonsils said”
“I think the Jews, the fundamentalists and the Masons really need to band together and show those Illuminati a thing or two.”
I get the point, but you should realize that Masons are not a religious organization, but a fraternal one, devoted to improving oneself and performing charitable works.
Peter Lake
Junior Warden
Starr King Lodge
Salem, Massachusetts
(Starr King was a well-known abolitionist)