Has Oliver Stone Finally Gotten It Right?

Oliver Stone's 'World Trade Center' Seeks Truth in the Rubble - New York Times: "There are many people of course who have been driven a little crazy for other reasons by some of Mr. Stone's more controversial films, 'JFK,' 'Natural Born Killers' and 'Nixon' chief among them. But in several interviews, sounding variously weary, wounded and either self-deprecating or defensive, Mr. Stone spoke as if his days of deliberate provocation were behind him. 'I stopped,' he says simply. 'I stopped.'"


Has Oliver Stone finally gotten it right? Has Hollywood learned that leftist politics forced into their films will earn them a deserved backlash?

Evidently, Stone has been chastised enough by Hollywood executives that now he is careful not to be political in his movies. JFK was a disgrace to American filmmaking. It hangs out there appearing like a scholarly work on the silver screen, feeding its misinformation to a gullible public that gets its history from the movies and Jon Stewart.

In World War II, Hollywood stars like Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne were patriotic, joining the armed services, promoting war bonds, entertaining the troops, and starring in pro-American movies. Yes, this was propaganda. Patriotic propaganda. A good thing in a time of war.

Now, we've got Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, Jane Fonda and Al Franken, among dozens more, running down America, demonizing our president, and hurting our present war effort. The political right, though, is starting to be heard, even in Hollywood. Image and box office rule. Hollywood has a long way to go to repair its damaged image in the eyes of half of America, and a portion of these disaffected are even staying away from movie theaters because of it.



The same thing is happening in music--look how the Dixie Chicks got smacked. They've lost their country audience. Half their concerts on their current tour have been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.




I cringed when I heard that Stone was making a film about 9/11. The executives, though, have forced him to just tell the story, as it really happened. Plus, the film had to pass muster with 9/11 survivors. If this is true, and since Mr. Stone is capable of great filmmaking, then maybe this one will be a worthwhile effort. If we can't have pro-American propaganda like we had in WWII, at least we are getting the next best thing out of Hollywood, the truth.