You are here: Home > Arts > Features

Oliver Stone explores dark side of the US

By Zhang Rui: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, April 25, 2014

Adjust font size:

Famous American director Oliver Stone talks with China.org.cn reporter Zhang Rui to discuss the dark side of the United States and the problems of undertaking a coproduction in Beijing, April 22, 2014. [Photo: Jiang Yiping / China.org.cn]

Famous American director Oliver Stone sat down with China.org.cn to discuss the dark side of the United States and the problems of undertaking a coproduction.

Stone attended several activities during the 4th Beijing International Film Festival and now has two coproduction projects lined up, "The Art of War" and "Genghis Khan's Treasure."

Besides that, he just signed an agreement with the Foreign Languages Press to release the DVD of his documentary "Untold History of the United States" in China, hopefully due out this summer. The documentary series was shown in the United States in 2013. Its accompanying 700-page-long book was already released in China by Chongqing Publishing House, a book he has worked on since 2008 together with co-writer American University historian Peter J. Kuznick.

"2008 was the last year of the second term for George W. Bush, after eight years of a Bush administration, I was inspired by his actions to study American history to determine whether George Bush was an exception to the rules," Stone explained.

He went back to university to study, and eventually present, the dark side of American history that students can never learn about in school. He said America, though winning World War II, had become paranoid and scared instead of confident and victorious; the Cold War then turned America into a national security state. Even after the former Soviet Union collapsed, America accelerated the progress to go from national security state to the global security state it is today, threatening the prosperity of the world.

"Now we have an echo of World War II, recently the United States acknowledged it has taken a Cold War policy, the containment policy, towards Russia for its actions in Ukraine. It is unbelievable to me. The way they are thinking comes back to haunt us; we never give up, we will never give up World War II, yet we never learned any lessons from World War II," Stone continued.

"When you do historical movies, it is always difficult, even in my country, due to much disagreement," he added. "My 'Untold History of the United States' shows the dark side of America, ignored by many and often dismissed as a 'lie,' 'not completely true,' and so on. My view on Vietnam in 'Platoon' and 'Born on the Fourth of July' was not approved of by the Pentagon, they were not happy; my view in 'Heaven & Earth' on Vietnam was not liked by many people in power. My 'JFK' was rounded and criticized, 'Nixon' was criticized. Actually, I also did a film on 9/11, which was called 'World Trade Center,' it was not a contentious film, it was a true story about the heroism of the workers inside the towers, who were buried there. My view on 9/11 is not some conspiracy, but instead is what George W. Bush did with the event by turning it into the war on terrorism which persists to this date. It was wrong, he over-exaggerated the reaction of the United States and really hurt the United States. He made more enemies from 9/11 than we should have. "

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.

1 2 Next