Ann Louise Bardach interviews Oliver Stone in regards to his HBO documentary on Fidel Castro. Actually, it's more like interrogates. She basically skewers Stone on a spear.
A couple of incredibly stupid comments from Stone, who truly appears blinded by the "glamour" of Fidel Castro:
OS: I must say, you're really picturing a Stalinist state. It doesn't feel that way. You can always find horrible prisons if you go to any country in Central America.ALB: Did you go to the prisons in Cuba?
OS: No, I didn't.
My favorite part of that is Oliver Stone's protest: "I must say, you're really picturing a Stalinist state."
Uh ... YEAH. EXACTLY.
And then this:
Castro has become a spiritual leader. He will always be a Mao to those people.
There's so much that is wrong with this. If you only talk to Castro, and if you only talk to Cubans WHILE CASTRO IS STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU, then of course you are going to get a lot of bull shit answers. "Yes, we love him. We love him. He is our spiritual leader".
Is Oliver Stone aware that even Mao is no longer Mao to the people of China? Trips to Mao's birthplace used to be compulsory. Like pilgrimages to Mecca. Now it sits, gathering dust. Communism has basically been tossed out, in everything but name, and China now is consumed with performing economic miracles. Embracing capitalism wholeheartedly. Mr. "I wear a peasant suit every day of my life" Mao would have been horrified.
So Stone says, "He will always be a Mao to these people."
This is such a blatant misunderstanding, first of all of who Mao was, and also - of the nature of tyrants and societies in general.
There are too many quotes to even list about the temporary nature of all tyrants. Going back to Herodutus, and Shakespeare, and any writer who observes history and politics. The king always falls. Tyrants never die of old age asleep in their old beds. The Shah must go.
Mao's legacy of being a "spiritual leader" barely lasted one generation.
What the hell is Stone talking about?
He's in love with Communist leaders, that's apparent, and the long-debunked ideals of Communism - He remains completely blind to inconsistencies. He doesn't investigate things which do not agree with his world view. He also seems unaware that there are actually such things as "show-trials", and tyrants trotting out "happy peasants" just for show - to fool the useful idiots such as himself. These tactics have been used by despotic leaders for AGES. It seems beyond his comprehension to realize he has been duped. He has been fooled by the glamour of this leader.
Anyway. I've rambled enough - and Ann Louise Bardach does a much better job than I could of remaining logical, cool, and bombarding Oliver Stone with the uncomfortable realities of Cuba, as opposed to the Castro-loving propaganda he has swallowed, hook, line and sinker.
It's sad that blithering idiots like Stone get attention, while celebs with intelligent and reasoned opinions, like John rhys-Davies, go largely unnoticed.
Posted by: Dan at April 15, 2004 11:23 AMWell - maybe I'm the one being naive now - but it seems like the attention Stone is getting right now is pretty mocking, and not positive at all. I mean, if SLATE is mocking him, and saying to his face, "You were duped. Did you go to prisons? Did you think it was a show-trial?" - it seems like a good sign. (I mean, as opposed to it being, say, Larry Miller or somebody like that interviewing Stone...)
Posted by: red at April 15, 2004 11:40 AMTo paraphrase Costner in "JFK," Stone should call Castro's government by its real name- fascism.
"You're a fine lookin' man, Mr. Garrison..."
Posted by: Stephen Silver at April 15, 2004 12:04 PMHe is SUCH a hypocrite. Or let's just call him by his real name: Communist.
I still love that movie though, as you well know. :)
Posted by: red at April 15, 2004 12:06 PMEven worse, Dan...while I was wasting my time listening to the blithering actor commentary on the TT DVD (I will NOT be bothering with the same on ROTK), at one point Sean Astin (oh, I've loved him since The Goonies, but...) said that John Rhys-Davies had a tendancy to "run off at the mouth". Yeah, after enduring the ridiculously patronizing and outright ignorant rants about saving the trees and how war is soooo bad ("I learned this while filming a movie!") from the other actors, I was in no mood to hear some hypocrite criticizing a fellow cast member for having the NERVE to make a public statement that he didn't agree with.
Oh, and Castro is a fucking piece of shit.
Posted by: Emily at April 15, 2004 12:34 PMSince I agree with everything that's been said already, I'll go on a tangent.
"The Shah must go."
Do you know the origin of the word checkmate? It's from the Farsi "shah mat," meaning "the king is dead."
Posted by: Dave J at April 15, 2004 12:38 PMDave J - I absolutely love that. Fabulous.
Posted by: red at April 15, 2004 12:47 PMOh, and I wish Gimli would "run off at the mouth" more often.
Posted by: red at April 15, 2004 12:49 PMOliver Stone = Fidel's Leni Riefenstahl?
Posted by: MedullaPancreasOblongata at April 15, 2004 1:20 PMEmily,
The TT commentary was hideous; the hobbits annoyed me to no end. Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee were missed. If he could refrain from too much far-left commentary I would love to hear some Viggo commentary as I'd guess he'd have some interesting things to say about the films.
Posted by: Dan at April 15, 2004 1:41 PMOne last way off-topic comment about LOTR actor's commentary: Rhys-Davies seemed very much a gentleman of the old school (as did McKellan and Lee): intelligent, witty and cultured.
Fun fact o' the day: Christopher Lee volunteered to serve with the Finnish amred forces during the Winter War with the USSR.
Ok, no more off topic posts about LOTR.
No really, I promise.
Posted by: Dan at April 15, 2004 1:47 PMThere were a lot of Cubans at my dorm in Moscow, 1989. At the time, the Soviet Union was a mess. Boots were in short suppply (we were working for the summer on a construction site), razors couldn't be had for love or money, laundry soap was as good as hard currency. After getting to know some of my Cuban neighbors in the dorm, we got to talking about each other's countries (and how we were going to teach the Russians how to play baseball...). Turns out, their long term plans did not include a return to Cuba: they were staying IN THE SOVET UNION as it disintegrated around us. That is how bad things were and are in Cuba. I wold love to see OS explain to those guys how Castro's paternalism is to be preferred over Gorby's (and Yeltsin's, and Putin's) Russia.
Posted by: John at April 15, 2004 2:06 PM