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Director Oliver Stone lashes out at U.S.

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“It’s a system that is going to destroy the world,” he said.

destruction has already started...

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Coming from Hollywood, Stone and the rest are America haters and are fueling the corrupt cronycapitalism that has plagued past and current administrations. He should be ashamed of himself, I'm sure some of his 50 million has come from the government propaganda funds!! We are going through a transformation, shining a light on all criminal activity that is happening now and in the past. We will prevail, with or without Stone. Oh, Hollywood is going down too. It's not the system, we are a republic not a democracy, that is bad, it's the politicians in the system that need to be removed. Stone is hoping he can get his communist hands into changing it, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. I hope you didn't give your hard earned money to listen to this guy....

-17 ( +2 / -18 )

Jan: You are a shining example of the thinking this genius of a man is pointing out. Thank you. It's interesting that you refer to him as a Communist -- are you from the 1950's?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Worst of all is how generations of Americans - going back even to the nation's founders - have, sniff, it's all so terribly sad, sniff, utterly disappointed the Lefties in Hollyweird.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Jan: Am currently watching a Stone flick in your honour. The man is a genius, and 100% correct.

unreconstructed: I bet you're a closet Platoon fan. Just because he points out how wrong the Viet Nam war was, which he served in unlike... ahem... some people, is no reason for you to sulk.

5 ( +8 / -4 )

America can be said to be a horrible country and Mr.Oliver Stone has the FREEDOM, the LEGAL RIGHT to say what ever he wants, now try and say what he says about his own country in public, say in CHINA?? If a CHINESE CITIZEN tries to CRITICIZE the BEIJING government?? Say a Russian goes and bad mouths the Kremlin? A Cuban tries to talk about the human rights violations in CUBA?? Not going to happen! As Americans, we are very lucky, sure we have a shitty government but we can complain, we can vote we can call a radio station, blog night and day and let the whole world know we are angry, upset etc..try that in Cuba?? North Korea? China? Russia??

-1 ( +2 / -4 )

Elbuda: There are probably a lot of Russians that complain about the government, but it does not get aired. Keep in mind we are talking about an award-winning director, which is why it's getting the hype. And this man reserves the right to complain about the media and what not because he's been there and done that. He is 100% correct that the media and government were corrupt on Viet Nam, but it didn't start there, it's always been that way. Do you know what people in the trenches in WWI who wanted to write a letter home could 'write'? Nothing! They could merely check 'in the pink' (which is where the idiom comes from, btw) and write their name. Anything else would be censured.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

He's speaking a lot of sense.

In particular the financial system... how can Americans allow themselves to be manipulated and deceived by all the crooks that run the system?

At least the Occupy Wall Street protestors are finally making a stand...

2 ( +6 / -4 )

sigh He's free to do so.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Oliver Stone is making a lot of sense. The American government and it's system has made some terrible mistakes.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Ollie Stone. Guy has no peers. By that I mean Canada, the UK, France, Japan et cetera, for whatever reason, are incapable of creating artists or directors with the cajones to criticize their respective corruptocracies.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

unreconstructed: "Ollie Stone. Guy has no peers."

He has plenty of peers, and a number of losers jealous and upset about his success, clearly. Tell me, does it sting that he tells the truth in French? That's got to be a big kick in the chops to posters who have to keep changing their handles.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

unreconstructed: By the way, which war did you fight in that you can criticize this man? I'm not talking armchair wars, either.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Did Stone mention his man-crush on totalitarians like Castro and Chavez?

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

I am highly critical to the American government. But I also know that there are many great Americans and that U.S.A has made some great contributions to the world. Americans on a personal level, from private and business are very easy to get along with. I felt at home when I was in U.S.A. People were really welcoming, the country is innovative, setting new trends.

BUT

The obsession on communism and to label any country as "evil" due to having a different ideology and economic policies I find to be highly simplistic. This two dimensional simplistic world view which many brain washed Americans have is a good joke. Recently the entire world voted in favor of an independent Palestine in UNESCO. Japan, France, entire Europe, China, Russia etc. The country which voted against was USA together with Israel. When Palestine became a member of UNESCO, USA pledged to withdraw all of it's funding from UNESCO. With such childish behavior by USA, is it a surprise that people all over the world do not think that highly of the American government and it's system?

6 ( +9 / -3 )

No one in America will listen to or care what he has to say...because he is speaking in French.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Speaking mostly in French at a press conference in Algiers, Stone said he was shocked by the global financial crisis and “to see how money was venerated by America.”

Another filthy-rich Liberal American condeming his own country for pursuing wealth. I can't decide if I am more astonished by his stupidity or the hillarious self-paraody.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

smithinjapan - you cannot refute what elbuda wrote about Cuba, North Korea , China or Russia. What makes you think you have won any arguments here?

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Another filthy-rich Liberal American condeming his own country for pursuing wealth. I can't decide if I am more astonished by his stupidity or the hillarious self-paraody.

Same goes for Stone's defenders. As Americans we all knew by the time we were in high school the rich kid who liked to parade his conscience denouncing his country at every chance and play at being a socialist or the misunderstood 'oppressed' Marxist.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

you cannot refute what elbuda wrote about Cuba, North Korea , China or Russia. What makes you think you have won any arguments here?

You should try to get more into details. You seem to be color blind. There is only red and then there is only dark blue. Cuba is doing all right when infant mortality is lower than U.S.A despite being a 3rd world country. They got some of the best doctors in the world. But it still is a totalitarian country. How about the socialist Nordic countries? They enjoy a higher standard of living than U.S.A. Maybe socialism is not as scary as what brain washed Americans think.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Jan: "Coming from Hollywood, Stone and the rest"

Go read the LA Weekly review of Stone's Latin American dictators documentary. That was sometime around July 2010. Most scathing review I've ever read. The funny thing is, Stone is such a provocateur that the movie was advertised using all the most negative quotes. The ad carried in the LA Weekly was a classic for the way it skewered Hollywood print ad conventions. Not a single positive word from the dozen or so industry establishment writers quoted.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Don't necessarily share his dire view of the U.S., especially given the options, but at least the U.S., as his movies and ones by folks like Roger Moore demonstrate, is always casting a critical eye on itself and debating where it is headed. (Movies that make millions of those dollars he critisizes others for chasing.) And, he can also point to things like "Occupy Wall Street" where people take action to try to correct the things that they view as wrong.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

@herefornow, just a small correction: Roger Moore was one of the actors who played James Bond.

Michael Moore is the filmmaker, TV producer, and activist from Michigan. Moore physically gets involved in the Occupy protests, the Wisconsin recall movement and other union-related rallies, but Oliver Stone seems to do most of his activism through his movies. I could be wrong about that last point though--somebody correct me if I am.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"The pot should not call the kettle black." "Eye booger laughs at nose booger." Repent, Stone, repent.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Sad to say but what is America good for? 3 words. That's US top business. Was watching HBO replay movie the Last Samurai. Although it's partly fiction, it's about US making trade relations to sell guns and ammunitions convincing the Emperor that Katana and Samurai were things in the past.

Oliver Stone will be another Michael Moore. Hi 5 guys.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

i wonder where he keeps his home? In the country he hates so much? If so, then he should move.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Agreed with smithinjapan. Oliver Stone is probably one of the best American directors in history. He is absolutely genius. He has earned his respect no matter how many Stone haters try to destroy his reputations.

unreconstructed: "Ollie Stone. Guy has no peers."

LOL, he has many supporters and peers including Ted Turner who is a philanthropist and a CNN founder.

Well, if you have not seen any of his movies, I highly recommend you to see them. They will force you to THINK.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The whole world does not hate America. The masses of the world in most part see it as imperfect often an oppressor, often a humanitarian country, often wrong, often right. America has done terrible things. Although the government seems far from making any concessions, showing any humility or indiscernible sign of modesty, the world probably understand that the American people are hurt, and is sympathetic and caring. People in most nations know that American people are no less human than anyone else, trying their best. Governments and massive organization, however are frequently the last to realize when such human emotions need to be bought to the forefront. Therefore America as a young country is only recently learning that actions last forever. Hence the distrust of America is perhaps not as great as people's condemnation of terrorism its atrocities and oppression.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

WHAT A HYPOCRITE... this millionaire made millions by making movies in AMERICA.. then has the nerve to talk trash about the country that made him rich.. typical liberal democrat

1 ( +3 / -2 )

OS-You are too old, and far too successful to act the petulant child.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

pamelot, thank you for the correct info. That's my first movie my mother took me to a theater to see. I was too busy eating something on her lap. Many, many years ago......

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Love the people that say OS should leave the USA if he don't like but I see many are fervent opponents/critics of their own chosen country(Japan, etc).

Pot meet Kettle.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Globalwatch - you are spot on in your analysis. It is clear that with the release of the epic blockbuster "Wall Stree"t back in 1987 this guy Oliver Stone predicted the 2008 economic meltdown and all the booms and busts in between.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

JeremiahW, you've got it. I have been told this meltdown (secretly) in 1980.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I have to wonder if this rant is fictional is the same way scenes in his movie Nixon were fictional.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

unreconstructed: "smithinjapan - you cannot refute what elbuda wrote about Cuba, North Korea , China or Russia."

I did refute it, and correctly, or as correctly as you can refute an unrelated argument. But you and Elbuda share the handle changing in common, so you ought to know about 'irrelevant' comments, no? Fact remains that Stone is 100% on the money about the US's drawbacks and failures, and that hurts you -- a person who has not done for his nation what Stone has.

Heaven forbid at the very least you should have to THINK about his comments or his movies instead of just judging him without thinking.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I have refuted communists since junior high school, I really doubt Smith being in Japan is any kind of communist, and all of us here in Japan, can enjoy the freedom of living in a democracy, unlike our amigos enjoying their socialist paradise next door in the DPRK, right?? Sure Mr.Stone would get a great welcome over in Pyongyang! Long live freedom of speech!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

globalwatcher

unreconstructed: "Ollie Stone. Guy has no peers." LOL, he has many supporters and peers including Ted Turner who is a philanthropist and a CNN founder.

smithinjapan

unreconstructed: "Ollie Stone. Guy has no peers." He has plenty of peers, and a number of losers jealous and upset about his success, clearly.

Hilarious. No coincidence that the same two guys, self-professed experts on the cinematic arts who rush here to declare Stone a genius - because he happens to share their sentimental lefty world view, are incapable of detecting a little sarcasm when they come across it. I would bet both of them think 'pro-wrestling' is a real sport.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Doesn't he know that you cannot criticize China in any way, no matter how small or true, without declaring your hate for the government of China, the people, the culture, every apple in every tree, and every worm in the ground?

Wait, I meant to say America! But yes, that does seem to be the position of the Chinese leadership when anyone dares to criticize. Strange that anyone in the free world would seem to think the same.

Oliver is a patriot. Those who think you got to love or leave it, and lovingly kiss every wart, and turn a blind eye to every wrong, are not patriots. They are the pretenders.

And Oliver is rich because we all watched his movies, not because he propped up the needless American military machine by building tanks.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

And Oliver is rich because we all watched his movies, not because he propped up the needless American military machine by building tanks

More of your tired nihilism. Denouncing the military industrial complex but oblivious to or more likely a full supporter of the neo-McCarthyism of the cultural Left that dominates Hollywood and the virtual monopoly which that industrial complex still enjoys.I get asked as a long term expat with a more objective view if there aren't things about my country that embarrass me and modern Hollywood is near the top.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

And remember all you armchair American patriots who try to label Oliver Stone as anti-American... he is the one who actually served in Vietnam and experienced combat firsthand.

I'll take what he has to say about war, America and the world much more seriously than someone who's combat experience is limited to Call of Duty Black Ops...

And the fact that he completely rejects the system that sent him to Vietnam and is still even now chewing up lives and money is a testament to his intellect and integrity...

0 ( +1 / -2 )

choiwaruoyaji.

100% agree. You won't know what he experienced until you served yourself and been to the front yourself or lived in a country that was the front.

Personally I think the USA started declining(as other countries did) once they got rid of the draft. Don't get me wrong but citizenship, etc don't come for free(handout) when you let others die for your privileges, Oh you can have as many memorial days, etc but you won't know what it means till you been there. That is just lip-service to people that did what you don't have the gonads to do yourself.

Not an american but I did my service and seen the horrors of war and felt the losses.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@it's me

Hats off to you, sir.

I don't know your story but it seems you've been through the wars... I hope you've found peace now.

As for me, I'll turn and run a mile at the first hint of any aggro...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

And remember all you armchair American patriots who try to label Oliver Stone as anti-American... he is the one who actually served in Vietnam and experienced combat firsthand.

So are you saying it is only Americans who serve, fight and kill that have any right to ordinary pride in their country, pride in the achievements of their American ancestors and gratitude for what America gave them?

I've never watched one of Stone's war movies in their entirety. Platoon kinda bored me , Born on the Fourth made me laugh; I popped both out of the machine before they ended. Wall Street was a real 80s piece, but I enjoyed it. I criticize the guy for his hypocrisy and his curious affinities. What has he done with his fortune to alleviate the problems he lashes out at (in Fwench, and only when overseas no less...)? Why does he lionize totalitarians like Castro and Chavez?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Thx, at peace now.

But like many others I have seen things many can't comprehend or even imagine, those are not experiences easily shared nor would I wish them on anyone else. Not a tough guy(softie really) but I had to do what I did.

Thx again.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

have any right to ordinary pride in their country, pride in the achievements of their American ancestors and gratitude for what America gave them

Well, to be honest, I'm becoming more and more against patriotism in any form as I get older.

We're just born in a certain place by luck. It's not an achievement. We have no particular connection with people who may have done something good in previous generations. Our governments give us little flags to wave and little songs to sing and then give guns and other lethal weapons to young men and whip them up into a frenzy of hatred to kill the young men of other countries.

It all just seems like so much BS.

Sometimes I think John Lennon said it all with the lines: "Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too..."

But in the case of sports I accept countries... it's more fun.

2 ( +3 / -2 )

choiwaruoyaji.

I like your views and agree.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

So are you saying it is only Americans who serve, fight and kill that have any right to ordinary pride in their country, pride in the achievements of their American ancestors and gratitude for what America gave them?

No, he's saying the right is very quick to paint this man as un-American despite the fact that he is a Veteran. The right wing in America seems to believe they are the only ones entitled to be in America or to be patriotic.

That was the point he was trying to make. I can see where you would take it to where you did however, having never done anything of significance for your country in your life, you don't understand the concept of service to something greater than oneself. Your ego and selfishness preclude you from ever learning that lesson.

Taka

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I can see where you would take it to where you did however, having never done anything of significance for your country in your life, you don't understand the concept of service to something greater than oneself.

Again, there seems to be this, uh, slightly totalitarian mindset at work here, starkly at odds with taka's 'liberal' posturing: all of your fellow Americans must serve, before they can be proud of the nation into which they were born? Is this what you are trying to say? We must, like Oliver Stone did,enlist and go and fight and kill "The Other" - as the cultural Left likes to say. Or are you saying the country needs to reinstate the draft, which the libertarian economist Milton Friedman convinced Gen. Westmoreland (and a young Don Rumsfeld, among others) to end?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

all of your fellow Americans must serve, before they can be proud of the nation into which they were born?

Of course not. That's just you trying to put words into my mouth because I unveiled a unpleasant truth about you.

What I am saying is that people like you, who haven't served or done anything for a greater cause should hold your tongue before attacking the patriotism of those who have served.

Do you honestly think you are more patriotic than Sen. John Kerry or me for that matter? You aren't. To use a conservative buzzword, you have no skin in the game. You're a leech on America and not a contributor to it.

Therefore, you should probably hold your tongue about those of us who are.

And I think it's really funny that you consider it "totalitarian" to even consider you doing what you would have so many others do in your stead. Says a lot about your courage of conviction.

Taka

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Therefore, you should probably hold your tongue about those of us who are.

Again, I would like some clarity here. You are saying that those who, for whatever reason did not serve (or who disagree with 'liberals') should not be allowed free speech?

When entering the service was our constitutional right to free speech what you swore to uphold and defend, or merely free speech for Americans who toe a certain party line?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Again, I would like some clarity here. You are saying that those who, for whatever reason did not serve (or who disagree with 'liberals') should not be allowed free speech?

It's not so much a matter of rights. It's a matter of tact and good taste. No wonder it was lost on you.

Taka

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

"Stone lashes out"

The more Obama flails and flops the more an Obama fanboi will lash out, and it ain't just Stone...

It's as predictable as their identity politics.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The more Obama flails and flops

Since October 17th, President Obama has risen in the polls. Facts just aren't your strong suit.

Stalking on the other hand...

Taka

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

As a working class American who was born in the mountains of West Virginia and lived in the city of Buffalo, New York on the shores of Lake Erie, I say that greed fuels the world economies and it is very true about this country fueled by a minority who can spend 4 to 5 million dollars for a pad while there are those who can't ever find a bed to sleep on at night. A place where more and more workers are dumped in order for companies to achieve buoyancy. In case of emergency dump workers. Is it still my country right or wrong? When this was the land of the Navajo, the Iroquois, Seneca, Apache, Crow and many other native peoples, no one said my country right or wrong. A country where there is still the KKK, the American Nazi party, and racial and gender inequality, is it still my country right or wrong? When it has taken 200 years to elect a non-white male president (not even a female vice president) and still have not had one female president, is it still my country right or wrong.? When the CIA can come up with 101 ways of using a cattle prod, is it still my country right or wrong? Remember Nazi Germany (Krakow, Auschwitz-Birkenau,and Warsaw) for they believed in my country right or wrong?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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