Ron Radosh

By Ron Radosh

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This weekend, Oliver Stone’s new documentary,  South of the Border, his ode to Hugo Chavez and South and Latin America’s new quasi-Marxist and not so quasi dictators, has opened in New York City and Los Angeles, and will open nationwide in a week. It had a showing this past Wednesday at the AFI Silverdocs Festival in the Washington, D.C., area, and my article about it  appears today in the weekend edition of  the Wall Street Journal. I argue therein: “What Mr. Stone and his writers have presented is a standard far-left narrative that is part of a long line of propaganda films, a modern American version of the old agitprop. There are no dissenting voices in this film. Nor is there any mention of the fact that Mr. Chávez has closed down television and radio stations that disagree with him and arrested dissenting political figures.” The film is what you can expect from the likes of Oliver Stone, a virtual know-nothing who uses his celebrity and acclaim as a film director to spew out hatred for the country that has made him wealthy and influential.

Writing in the New York Times, Larry Rohter came up with many other examples of distortions and omissions in the movie. He notes that the “78-minute South of the Border is meant to be a documentary, and therefore to be held to different standards. But it is plagued by the same issues of accuracy that critics have raised about his movies, dating back to JFK. Taken together, the mistakes, misstatements and missing details could undermine Mr. Stone’s glowing portrait of Mr. Chávez.” Rohter goes on to pinpoint some of these in stunning detail.

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Unfortunately, his film has been for some strange reason convincing otherwise intelligent people that in this effort, Stone has shown nuance.  The most egregious is the review of the film appearing at the Daily Beast, written by Allen Barra. His title, “When Did Oliver Stone Become Sensible?,” tells you all you need to know about Barra’s take. The answer to his question, of course, is that Stone did not.

But Barra does not pause, as I did and Larry Rohter has done, to raise any questions at all about Stone’s claims and methodology. Instead, Barra writes that “Oliver Stone’s documentary South of the Border is an even-tempered, cant-free look at a topic that has just about everyone north of the border, no matter what side of the political spectrum, foaming at the mouth.”  He goes on to even call Stone “the most sensible guy on the block.”

That is the problem with so-called documentaries. They are not objective, as many people think they are or should be. It is to Stone and writer Tariq Ali’s credit that they admit this freely. As Ali told Rohter: “It’s hardly a secret that we support the other side. It’s an opinionated documentary.”  Ali’s rationale does not hold water. Anyone watching the movie sees a narrative that presents their argument as total truthful fact, not as biased agitprop written to defend totalitarianism and Marxism. That is why someone like Barra can fall for it and believe it is nuanced and even-handed.

Of course, Barra reveals much about his own ignorance, writing: “They are all socialists who have distanced themselves in varying degrees from Marxism, they have all been democratically elected, and they have all been demonized, more or less, with Chavez representing the more and Lula, characterized as the closest to the center, the less.” In fact, most of them, especially Chavez, have not distanced themselves from Marxism. Chavez recently proclaimed himself a Trotskyist (the late Bolshevik, upon hearing this, certainly turned over in his grave) and the others, while elected, have to varying degrees endorsed Chavez and sought to replicate his anti-democratic methods. Of the group, Lula in fact has proved moderate, has alienated his left-wing base, and has until the recent agreement with Iran, worked with the United States.

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68 Comments, 33 Threads, 1 Trackbacks

  1. 1. vb

    Allen Barra also did a stupid trashing of To Kill a Mockingbird in the WSJ on the 24th. I’d never heard of him before, and I certainly won’t look for his reviews in the future.

  2. Ron,

    As a classmate of Oliver’s at NYU Film School, and producer of two documentaries on his life and career – “Oliver Stone: Inside/Out” for Showtime (1991) and “Back Story” for AMC (2002), I’d like to give my own personal perspective regarding criticisms that have been leveled at him, personally, and the documentary, SOUTH OF THE BORDER, in particular. Oliver has always served as a moving target for the mainstream press; and he takes to this role with both enthusiasm and vitality. Perhaps this is a legacy of his service in Vietnam, where he served as a moving target of another sort — for VC bullets and punji sticks. My feeling is that hisis feature and documentary work is from the “heart,” and has served to provoke the kind of needed dialogue that is often absent in this country. I’ve butted heads with him on occasion (certainly, I disagree with him in any number of areas), but see his films as an essential contribution to the push and pull nature of civil discourse; certainly in areas often painted black and white by partisan pundits and commentators. If nothing more, his work is courageous and curious, and unlike many a Hollywood “star,” is not the result of the urgings of agent/publicists seeking to place their clients, center-stage, on some single-issue bandwagon.

    Respectfully

    • Gringo

      If nothing more, his work is courageous and curious, and unlike many a Hollywood “star,” is not the result of the urgings of agent/publicists seeking to place their clients, center-stage, on some single-issue bandwagon.

      Who in Hollywood is jumping on the anti-Chavez bandwagon ? Would that be Danny Glover? Would that be Sean Penn? Would that be Kevin Spacey? Supermodel Naomi Campbell? Harry Belafonte? No, all of these have met with Chavez and praised him. Some have gotten money from Chavez. It has been chic in Hollywood circles to jump on the Chavez bandwagon, as Chavez is the anti-Bush. Oliver Stone is just following the crowd.

      How “courageous” is it to be a shill for a dictator? What is your opinion of other filmmakers who have shilled for dictators? I’m sure you can think of some.

      Under Chavez, the murder rate has tripled. Per capita housing construction under Chavez is half of what it was for the decade preceding his time in power. In a country with an abundance of energy sources, Venezuela had power shortages this winter – due to a lack of investment in maintenance, transmission lines, and new facilities in the 11 years Chavez has been in power. Hundreds of thousands of tons of imported food has rotted in the warehouses. Venezuela sent rotten food to Haiti for earthquake relief. While Chavez was elected partially due to his promise to deal with corruption, corruption has skyrocketed in the eleven years he has been in power. If Chavez is such a friend of the poor, then why is gasoline at ~ 20 cents US per gallon? It is not the poor who own autos.

      Arrest – the criminalization of dissent- and confiscation of property are some of the methods Chavez uses to deal with his political opponents. Such as Diego Arria. Such as Guillermo Zuloaga, President of Globovision. Such as Manuel Rosales, defeated Presidential candidate who fled to Peru.

      I strongly suggest that you learn something about Venezuela before you venture an opinion on Oliver Stone’s film.

      http://devilsexcrement.com/ Miguel Octavio’s Devil’s Excrement is a good place to start, especially for economics.

      For his blogroll links, Daniel ( Venezuela News and Views) has good narratives on Venezuela. Quico y Juan ( Caracas Chronicles) is for the policy geeks. The upper right of the Caracas Chronicles home page has a link for a “Beginner’s Guide to the Chavez era.”

      • Gringo

        A more documented and up-to-date figure on the rotted food, courtesy of El Universal in Caracas: “122,000 lost tons.”

        The spoiled food could have been used to feed 17 million people a month. Businessmen at Puerto Cabello had warned against an excess of Pdval imports. Why they were not listened to?

        • Cindy

          Thank you for speaking the truth!! I am so tired of the loving tributes made by people such as Stone and the rest of Hollywood. It’s amazing how they turn a blind eye to all of the horror that happens. Even the mainstream media send out love notes. Hey, Hollywood, if Chavez is such a great leader and he has made Venezuela such a utopia – why are you still living in America?

    • David Thomson

      “My feeling is that hisis feature and documentary work is from the “heart,”

      The heck with this “heart” stuff. I really am quite indifferent concerning his alleged good intentions. The road to hell is often paved with them. Mushy sentimentalism has contributed to bringing about many of the horrors of the last century. Facts do matter! We cannot have a genuine debate if one of the partners cares less whether the available evidence supports their main thesis. Oliver Stone is an intellectual lazy man. That cannot be tolerated.

      • ehunter

        Dead on Target! Thats all this guy can offer as a defense of Stone? That
        Stones “heart” was really behind it? What kind of naive drivel is that?
        How about if Stone is intellectually vacant and corrupt to the core? What
        is Stones “heart” worth then? What if Oliver Stone is insane?

        But we dont go there do we? Nothing so honest
        as that is allowed. I guess this fluff is what passes for
        critical thought in “Film School” Which leads us to the oxymoron of Film+School.
        Another travesty in the wasteland of modern education.

        • Will

          ehunter said: “I guess this fluff is what passes for
          critical thought in “Film School”

          The only critical thought in film school, or any other so-called “institution of higher learning,” is critical theory. Think Max Horkheimer of the Frankfurt School, original home of today’s authoritarian tyranny, known as, political correctness.

    • carol

      I don’t care if you gave birth to the dirt bag, he’s still an ungrateful dirt bag..from “the heart” that is… Obama probably sent him there to be with Hugo since he couldn’t be…

      Stone is “un”defendable just as Moore is “un”defendable…yeah, Obama too.

    • KevinB

      You must be the voice of “synthesis” in the Hegelian Dialectic, are you not? But, in the same vein as your synthesis it is possible to commend any person, regardless of how hypocritically destabilizing or corrupt they may be, because they have, after all, played a part of that better, final outcome. We’re all winners, because even evil people are merely showing us what not to do.

      I mean, even apart from my snarkiness, I think it must be so, because what purpose did your comment serve? That is the question. If you really think that Stone contributes to civil discourse by offering a polemic challenge to a free society (or however) then people are right to either agree or disagree with him, but you do neither. Your comment’s function is to make a person complacent, it seems.

    • Boy Mr. Sucher, congratulations, if that wasn’t a perfectly transparent example of glib obfuscation that actually argues against itself between the lines then I don’t know what is. To call it disingenuous is kind since it really is an overly wordy lie.

    • pelaut

      You damn your opinion by your own words.

      You say you “produce” “documentaries”.

      If your writing serves as a guide to your “documetary” products, then they must also be disorganized, improperly punctuated, thoughtless run-ons of fragments of catch-phrases. NYU Film School? No doubt.

      I bet you wowed the chicks in Washington Square in those days. Stone’s flicks will have the same effect on the same mouth-breathers today.

    • PhillipGaley

      Slightly interesting—appears to me, as just another debate surrounding a doggy-bowl. Apparently, Stone is just another of America’s losers who enjoy making a ton of money, the while, . . .
      Upon getting a successful release from a hospital room—during which time, The Lord was “dealing with” me—I could “kick the bucket” at any moment and, . . . I’d like to begin making better use of what time remains to me—just in case there is a G-D—you understand. So, I took a chance and had my cable disconnected; and, The Lord was correct on the matter, I haven’t missed, . . . not in the slightest.

    • 2. Joel Sucher
      If nothing more, his work is courageous and curious…

      Respectfully, in Hollywood, I think being a leftist is about as “courageous and curious” as being a lesbian. (Once edgy, now fashionable.)

    • bearbud

      Joel…I have not seen your work. I am sure you are very talented. But shoot film or tape. Do not waste your time defending washed up hacks such as Stone…

  3. 3. David Thomson

    Oliver Stone obviously does even believe in the concept of objective reality. It is perceived as simply another way for the reactionaries to delude their victims. Stone therefore feels totally justified in remaining loyal to the narrative that implicitly asserts the darker skinned Hugo Chavez is a victim of white Western imperialism. Conflicting evidence can simply be ignored. Its immediately blipped off his radar screen. Stone finds nothing whatsoever wrong with this attitude. He can also get away such nonsense because most of his fans are outright idiots. These are the ones who obtained phony liberal arts credentials during their college years. Anyone who takes Oliver Stone seriously is not wrapped too tight. We don’t owe them an ounce of respect.

    • ehunter

      What if it goes a step futher.. What if Oliver Stone is trying to discredit
      objective reality as way to erase any vantage point from which to gaze
      on Oliver Stone? What if Oliver Stone is insane..and uses film to destroy
      all semblances of sanity in the world so that Oliver Stone is never detected
      for what he is… a paranoid egomanical sociopath?

  4. 4. cfbleachers

    Oliver Stone and Michael Moore are cut from the same crapumentary cloth.

    They each possess the morals more appropriate to a medieval bazaar. Lying through a celluloid medium, distortion as an end game, blatant disregard for the “inconvenient truth” of a matter…remains part and parcel of their film genre. The radical leftist propaganda piece rooting around foul ground looking for literati dung beetles to lap it up and roll it into a tidy little package to present to the useful idiots who dutifully spew back this mindless drivel.

    Oliver Stone is not some poor, misunderstood, misunderappreciated, misunderloved, envelope pusher of “greater dialogue”. He is a typical radical leftist and an apologist for leftism’s excesses.

    The crapumentary stylings of Moore and Stone may have differences, but their end game is precisely the same. These two rather doughy, corpulent, bloated, jowl jello egos with ears, do everything they can to undermine America and cheerlead for leftist dictators around the world.

    The “dialogue” is not enhanced by intentional deceit and naked propaganda. It does, however, test our willingness to be brutalized by our own rulebook. We champion open sedition, even treason …because we loathe even the slightest suppression of dissent. The irony, of course, is that leads to the puny integrities of the likes of Moore and Stone, “dissenting” through distortion about us and championing the crushers of dissent, our very enemies of thought and… of honor.

    As such, the envelope is not so much pushed, but rather, licked with a diseased tongue.

  5. 5. Gringo

    Finally, you should not miss the incredible BBC Hard Talk interview conducted by the fearless BBC reporter Stephen Sackur, who unlike his US counterparts, knows how to ask the tough questions to Hugo Chavez, and who confronts him head on with his lies, obfuscations and his inability to be honest……Why, I wonder, did Oliver Stone fail to include any of this footage in his new movie?

    The answer can be found from the interview and a written summary of it at BBC HARDtalk. An excerpt follows.

    Mr Chavez became visibly agitated when faced with a set of specific questions about his government’s respect for the independence of the judiciary, the freedom of the press and the rights of political opponents.
    He was asked about the imprisonment of one of his fiercest critics, former defence minister Raul Baduel, and the pending charges filed against former opposition candidate Oswaldo Alvarez Paz.
    The Venezuelan president responded: “You don’t know what you’re saying. Wow, does the BBC in London defend corruption. You are being used. You really don’t know what you’re saying.”
    As the tension in the presidential palace rose, Oliver Stone who was seated in a corner listening intently to the exchanges – along with a host of presidential aides and one of the president’s daughters – gestured to the president with both hands.
    The message was easy to read: Calm down.

    Venezuelans are used to seeing an angry president. Last week he went on television to vent his fury on a judge who ruled that a wealthy businessman should be freed from detention after three years of imprisonment without trial.
    Mr Chavez accused the judge, Maria Afiuni, of behaving worse than an assassin and he demanded that she be jailed for 30 years. Judge Afiuni is now in prison facing corruption charges.

    The answer is two-fold. First, Oliver Stone did not include the interview because it presented Chávez in a bad light. Second,Stone did not wish to draw attention to the following. Stone’s was at the interview with Chávez’s entourage, and coached Chávez at a problematic part of the interview.

    • Ger

      Thank you Gringo.

      To complete the rational it should be noted that the “Venezuela Constitution” expressly forbids that a person be incarcerated for more than two years without a trial.

      Thus the reason for freeing the businessman by the judge.

      This is just another (of the many) violations by the Venezuela Government against the Constitution.

      We can infer the Venezuela President is not a strict (or loose) constitutionalist.

      • Gringo

        We can infer the Venezuela President is not a strict (or loose) constitutionalist.

        That is the understatement of the month.Thugo approaches the Constitution through the perspective found in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass:

        `When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
        `The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
        `The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master — that’s all.

        Such is life in Thugoslavia. Thugo is never wrong. What is ironic about it is that Thugo went to the trouble back in ’99 to have a new Constitution written. Write a new Constitution and then don’t follow it if it is inconvenient. So it goes with Thugo.

  6. 6. Ric

    It is clear that there is a deep sickness in Oliver Stone – to look on the destruction of a country and its people, the theft of the hopes and dreams of the young and the poor, the destruction of its natural rights and freedoms and traditions, through egoism, tyranny, totalitarianism, theft, violence, and the active and deliberate aiding and abetting of numerous terrorist groups – and call this good. Shame on him.

  7. Inevitably, a classic by your Sherab:

    who is this “Oliver Stone” ???

    (And goes back to delving into the treasures of the P.G. and P.L. edited by Migne)

  8. 8. jo an

    I agree with 99% of Oliver Stone’s films/writing

    • Venn Set

      I agree with 1% of Oliver Stone’s films/writing; it would interesting to discern whether there were any overlap of your 99% and my 1%.

  9. 9. gs

    1. Even Nancy Pelosi has been quoted describing Chavez as a “thug”.

    2. Whenever I read about Venezuela in the years when Chavez was lurking in the background, the report would mention the society’s massive corruption. Therein lie warnings.

    3. Joe McCarthy was a dangerous man who, per Bill Buckley, did more harm than good, but there was a valid concern buried in his demagoguery.

    4. I fear that bipartisan US incompetence can lead to a Chavez in Mexico and, maybe sooner than we think, eventually here.

  10. 10. Dave Surls

    “Chavez recently proclaimed himself a Trotskyist (the late Bolshevik, upon hearing this, certainly turned over in his grave)”

    Not an option for Trotsky.

    He was cremated.

  11. 11. Ballz2daWall

    opinionated documentary = propaganda

  12. 12. John

    Oliver Stone is the producer of JFK a gigantic fraud which was based on outright lies and disortion. There was not one shred of truth in his outlandish expose. Yet Americanized schools used the film in the history classes in order to brainwash the youth of America at the behest of the teachers union. Everything Stone produces is pure Marxist propoganda; one wonders why he doesn’t move to Cuba or Venezuela and stay there.

    • TheMightyMonarach

      If I had to venture a guess, it would be to enjoy the advantages and comforts of what’s left of free-market, Western societies while speaking out against it. As is the case with most politicians and rich Hollywood idiots, they wallow in their incredible wealth without having an inkling or appreciation of how it was generated.

  13. 13. J.J. Sefton

    Q: Does Stone have any curiosity about Venezuela’s continuing pogrom against its Jewish citizens???

    A: Sounds of crickets chirping (here and in the 2 theaters showing this celluloid piece of dreck)

  14. 14. stuart williamson

    Name me a “documentary film” that has been neutral and objective – ever. There is no market for such a production: it has to have a target audience. Oliver Stone is a socialist film producer. Michael Moore is a socialist film producer. They make movies for the Socialist/Democrat market. If you’re left-leaning you’ll see them to give a boost to your bias. If you are a leftist movie critic, you’ll give them three stars. If you’re a conservative pundit you’ll go to them to prop up your predisposition and lather up your rhetoric. The rest of us will simply ignore it, except for a few badly-disappointed mariachi fans.

    “South of the Border” will be a box-office flop. In three weeks it will be forgotten. Oliver Stone will go out and make another propaganda “documentary” yawner. He’s like a film-making version of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The message never changes. It’s a minor niche but, hey, if you’re a true believer, its an easy living, and the perks are great.

    • ehunter

      I wish it was all so frivolous and innocent as you describe. Actually
      millions will watch it. Thousands of college age morons
      with no sense of reality will sit hypnotized by the film
      They will fervently believe it. They will find some version
      of Hugo Chavez to promote here in America. They will rally, and
      protest and contribute to the cause. The Media will promote the issue.
      Elections will be won..and then the few fragmented remains of
      traditional America will be ground further into the mud…which of
      course is what Oliver Stone the sociopath intended all along.

      • stuart williamson

        With Chavez rapidly establishing himself as the Mugabe of the Caribean, I seriously doubt that Ollie’s effort will win many hearts to Chavez north or south of the border, downTtrotskyite way. In fact, Mr. Stone may well wind up the target of ridicule and derision, and much faster than Al Gore.

        • ehunter

          Trotskyite Central is right here in the USA…every University is a
          regional headquarters. Chavez isnt Venzuelan ..he is just the current
          poster boy of the eternal South American Marxist cycle..of class warfare,
          resentment, revolutionary overthrow…failure, collapse. Here is
          Ron Gochez from La Raza preaching Marxist Revolution and the racial war against white
          “oppressors” in California. BTW Ron’s salary is paid by the whites he promises to destroy.
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iybaDyMr1rs

    • MarkTheGreat

      This so called documentary will, in all probability, win an Oscar.

  15. 15. Bohemond

    Meanwhile, just today Chavez

    A) rolled out the red carpet for Strian dictator and Hezbullah sponsor/arms supplier Bashir al-Assad, declaring “the genocidal Israeli entity and the Yankee empire are the enemy.”

    B) Declared “economic war” on… shopkeepers- some of the horrors of Chavez’ food policy are given in the very, very LEFT-leaning Guardian:

    Most economists attribute Venezuela’s soaring inflation to loose monetary policy, exchange controls, devaluation and anaemic domestic production, dynamics that show no sign of abating.

    “The government has boxed itself in with a misguided policy mix of rampant spending and price and foreign exchange controls that has resulted in a growing output gap and galloping inflation,” said Patrick Esteruelas, of Eurasia Group political consultancy. He added that the government, unwilling to risk austerity measures in the run-up to September’s congressional elections, was deflecting blame. “It has found it highly convenient to persecute private food retailers.”

    Venezuela’s authorities disagree. They say private firms are cheating customers with unjustified price rises that are driving 30% inflation, Latin America’s highest. Food prices are rising even faster, at 40%. According to Chávez, it is part of a plot by US-backed “fascist oligarchs” to destabilise his leftist experiment.

    “Do you know why capitalist prices are so high? Because they are thieves, stealing from the people. Don’t let them trick you,” said the president during a TV broadcast last week.
    [...] “They know where we are headed, we are going to take from the Venezuela bourgeoisie,” the president told cheering supporters.

    But problems are mounting. In the name of “nutritional sovereignty” the government seized 6m hectares (about 15m acres) of farmland, expanded cultivation and set up socialist co-operatives. Results are poor: beef, sugar, coffee and fruit production plunged. Grain and rice output initially rose, but fell last year.

    Food imports soared to $7.5bn (about £5bn) last year, by some measures a sixfold increase since Chávez took office.
    [...]
    But critics are exercised by another odour: that of 80,000 tonnes of imported food discovered rotting in government warehouses, a scandal that prompted the arrest of senior officials. Some government-run stores are showing strain: bare shelves and scarce meat. “No chicken, and they make you buy tomato sauce with everything,” grumbled one shopper, Elvira Sierra, 54.

    Undeterred, the government has pressed ahead with the takeover of farms, processing plants and supermarkets and threatened to nationalise Polar, Venezuela’s leading beer and food company. Troops have seized company land, impounded “illegally stored” food and made hundreds of inspections.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/27/venezuela-hugo-chavez-private-retailers

    That’s right- collective farms. In the 21st century, and not in North Korea.

    Not only is Stone’s “not-a-communist” Hugo a SELF-PROCLAIMED Marxist and Trotskyite, he has managed in a short decade to have imposed every asubmoronic economic idiocy of modern history at the same time.

    Stone is not “courageous” or “thought provoking” or anything elseother than a foul liar, an odious, naked, willful propagandist for whom no falsehood is too enormous, no enormity to infamous in his quest to support a diseased ideology.

  16. 16. Gringo

    The posting on Assad reminded me of Hugo’s friends.
    Chávez on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:

    “We have the same political vision.”

    on Ahmadinejad on Chávez:

    “I feel I have met a brother and trench mate after meeting Chávez.”

    Chávez on Mugabe:

    “You are and always will be a true warrior of freedom.”

    Chávez on Omar Gadaffi, after he received the Gadafi Prize for Human Rights:

    “ a friend and a brother.”

    Like they say, friends of a feather flock together. I wonder if Oliver Stone will have the courage to make a film to shill any of the above friends of Hugo.

    • hubrislam

      ‘mad’ and Chavez… trench mates?

      Don’t ask, don’t tell.

  17. 17. Ivan Soto

    The likes of Chavez and their groupies, like Oliver Stone, are all in one tent: enemies of civilization, enemies of freedom, enemies of decency. I don’t feel any obligation to waste any of my rhetorical time on those fools.

  18. 18. Nver for Obama

    The other problem with so-called documentary leftist films like this, is that they will be force-fed to our children in the public schools by leftist teachers. Both of my daughters were required to watch Al Gore’s so-called documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, at least 3 times during their high school years. I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes part of the curriculum too.

  19. 19. RickGreenvilleSC

    Can Stone be any more irrelevant?I spend no money on anything he is involved in. . . .anyone else can do the same.

  20. 20. Dick

    Oliver Stone?
    just not all that important…

  21. 21. miriam rove

    Ron: spew hatred of the country that made him wealth and influential?

    Look: the only country we are not allowed to crisize is Israel, otherwise we would be called anti semites, Jew haters or self hating jews. all other countries are open to critisism

    • MarkTheGreat

      There goes miriam with her lies again.

      1) You are allowed to criticize Israel. However if your criticisms are quite clearly lies (as all of yours have been) you leave yourself open to the charge of being an anti-semite.
      2) If you criticize Israel for the same thing that you give other countries a pass on, you leave yourself open to the charge of being an anti-semite.
      3) If no matter what the subject matter, you find a way to link it to the Jews, then you are quite probably an anti-semite.

      You have proven yourself, by your words and lies, to be an anti-semite.

    • Gringo

      Look: the only country we are not allowed to crisize is Israel, otherwise we would be called anti semites, Jew haters or self hating jews. all other countries are open to critisism.

      If you would please inform me what crisize means, as I have not been able to find it in any dictionary, I would be pleased to comment on that.

      Since for some unknown reason, you brought up Israel on a thread which comments on a movie by an American about South American politics, here is an excerpt from Assad and Chavez last weekend.

      “Someday the genocidal state of Israel will be put in its place, in the proper place and hopefully a real democratic state will be born,” Chavez said Saturday. “But it has become the murderous arm of the Yankee empire – who can doubt it? – which threatens all of us.”
      Assad on Sunday called Israel a state “based on crime, slaughter.”

      In 1982,Assad’s father was responsible for the killing of some 20,000 of his countrymen in Hama, which took only several days to accomplish. Assad Jr. is responsible for the assassination of several Lebanese politicians. Sounds like Assad Jr. fits the definition of “chutzpah.” But anyone who would accept a “human rights” award from Gadaffi(see my previous comment) would welcome Assad with open arms.

    • hubrislam

      “not allowed to crisize”(sic)is such a demonstrably
      infantile parody of a comment.

      The majority of world comments are about Israel, and mostly they’re pejorative. Israel gets far more press (again, mostly negative) than any other area of dispute.
      Compare the coverage of the DPRK act of war against South Korea (with 46 murdered), and the loony left’s MSM focus on the Mavi Marmara. Nine attacktivists were apparently killed by members of a boarding party (who had previously asked the ship to turn around)after they were viciously attacked with steel stanchions, and knives.

      And how much coverage of the cultural genocide of Tibet, the army occupation of Burma, or the state rapine and ethnic cleansing of Darfur?

      WHY the disparity in reportage; and the universal condemnation of Israel, before any inquiry?
      Because all the other four situations are communist driven,(by one state China). And the MSM devil looks after his own. Israel is the oh so convenient whipping boy for all the world’s ills.

      Given their ‘druthers’ the world (or the MSM)would prefer the other figure of speech: they will literally make Israel a scapegoat, or sacrificial lamb.

      A question: Antisemitism/Jew bashing has been around so long that it is endemic in the christian and mohammedan psyches. Do shintoism, buddhism and other large religious groups also indulge in this psychopathy?

      • MarkTheGreat

        Anti-semitism is not endemic to the Christian psyche. Most of those in the so called Christian countries who engage in anti-semitic words and actions have never graced the insides of a church.

      • Larry in the Silicon

        From what I have read, admittedly fairly quickly, both Sikh-ism and the Baha’i faith have strong anti-Jewish statements and opinions written into their theologies; as far as I know, the same is true of Mormonism, which claims it was really fighting the false Israelites (Indians).

        And, yes, MarkTheGreat notwithstanding, there is plenty of anti-Jewish sentiment in the ‘New Testament.’ The translations of the Torah/Tanach into various languages were often done in such as way as to highlight the ‘fundamental’ errors of all Jews and claim to predict the coming of Jesus as Messiah. The actual Torah does not in fact predict the coming of Jesus.

        • MarkTheGreat

          Having studied both, I have to disagree on both counts.

  22. 22. DavidMac

    I’m sure Stone’s latest effort will bomb at the box office. But Stone himself will be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.

  23. 23. Ruler4You

    At times I wonder about Americans savvy. It’s no wonder we seem to elect idiot after idiot to our elected offices.

    We all have seen Stone’s work. He claims that says he is manufacturing ‘entertainment’ but then claims historical, cultural and factual accuracy in his ‘plots’ as social truths as seen through his eyes. Relativistic truth.

    Americans have got to learn to be discerning and selective when it comes to where their discretionary money goes. Ideologues, like Stone, are and have long been communists. America haters. All the while sucking up the money that we pay him as some form of financial homage paid in agreement with his ‘artistic expressions’ of anti American sentiments that he holds as his relative truths.

    RickGreenvilleSC has the right answer.

    IMHBLO Hollywood has almost exclusively been the source of communist propaganda and infiltration of anti-American dogma outside of politicians, that is most commonly in the face of Americans. If that success is used to flaunt marxist ties and establish friendships (don’t forget his similar relationship with Fidel Castro) with dictators and tyrants, he is laughing at America and Americans.

    Who would pay for some one to destroy our way of life? It’s very nearly exactly what we are doing by patronizing his tripe.

  24. 24. Isahiah62

    Miriam: today’s topic is NOT ISRAEL- you have a very singular obsession dear-

    do try to comment on the piece above you
    as long as youare trying to connect some dots whynot look at
    Ollie’s partner in this Marxist propaganda is a MUSLIM?

    strange bedfellows indeed- leftists should have learned by now that the Muslim cannibals will eat them when they are finished using them………
    Venezuela is the new Iran

  25. 25. miriam rove

    markthegreat, gringo and Isahuah62:
    All I am saying is you just can not lablel someone becuase they disagree with you.. that is it!
    Stone is allowed to critisize US, if he wants to.
    My spelling has nothing to do with anything.
    so please get over it…

    • ehunter

      Its amazing how you simply have no idea of what “truth” means. Whether criticism
      resembles reality or not..simply doesnt matter. All that matters
      is if something fits your emotional needs or not. Children operate this
      way..and psychotics too.

    • MarkTheGreat

      in addition to your spelling skill being non-existant, it appears that your ability to read in general is woefull inadequate.

      For the 23rd time. You can criticize Isreal, just don’t use lies to do so. Especially when it has been pointed out to you many times that you are using lies.

      I wonder why the anti-semites also appear to be big on conspiracy theories as well?

  26. 26. ehunter

    In the good ol days of the CIA Hugo would have long ago slipped on a bar of soap in the bathroom and fallen out a 20 story window.

  27. 27. dw

    You bet we better start labeling people if they are out to destroy our country. Shallow leftist like Stone choose to subvert our heritage in favor of foriegn doctrine that is proven to fail time and time again. What are the two things communism has in common from the Soviet Union to Venezuela to Cuba? Third world poverty and totalitarian dictatorship.
    Stone is a hypocrite of the first order considering he would find none of his fame and fortune under those systems. In fact he would probably have dissappeared during the night as he would have been considered a dangerous intelluctual and a committed contrarian. I know using Stone and intelligence is an oxymoron but dissappear he would. He had a bad experience in Viet Nam so he trashes our country and praises a despot. Too bad he didn’t find his way to North Veit Nam.

  28. 28. Dave Surls

    “Stone is allowed to critisize US”

    Yeah, and I’m free to call Stone a blithering idiot too.

    And, I intend to exercise that freedom.

    • MarkTheGreat

      I’ll always remember the Ditzy Chicks, after they made their on stage comments blasting President Bush. Lots of radio stations stopped playing their music, and lots of customers not only stopped buying their music but stopped going to their concerts.

      A few months after, the DC’s were on some talk show whining about how their freedom of speech was being supressed by those evil rednecks.

      Like most liberals, they believe that they have freedom, and everyone else has responsibility, to them.

  29. 29. Adrian

    Mindlessly spewing out hatred for money…isn’t that what this website does?

  30. 30. Landru

    I happened to catch a minute of Ollie in an interview yesterday. He looked exactly like Joseph Mengele as played by Gregory Peck in “The Boys From Brazil”. Same white suit and the exact same moustache. I think he might be a Nazi.

  31. 31. davelnaf

    O. Stone is living proof that creativity and insanity are not incompatible.

  32. 32. Elize Nayden

    I wonder if “south of the border” is just the first movie of a series named “missunderstood tyrants”. Will Mahmoud be next?

  33. 33. Mark Johnson

    Stone and his associates completely rebutted every factual challenge in Larry Rohmer’s piece. It’s only fair to share their response here: http://pulsemedia.org/2010/06/28/stone-ali-and-weisbrot-respond-to-attack-from-the-new-york-times-larry-rohter/

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