Film Director Oliver Stone 'Savages' The Drug War

from brasschecktv.com: Oliver Stone, in an interview about his new movie 'Savages' discusses the movie's deeper meaning and speaks out against the war on drugs. He points out that you can't suppress human behavior, people are willing to pay for drugs whether they are illegal or not. He also elaborates on the fact that the values imposed by our government are not the same values held by the majority people.

jfk assassination: 48th anniversary of an american coup

'lost' jfk assassination tapes on sale
from ap: A long-lost version of the Air Force One recordings made in the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, with more than 30 minutes of additional material not in the official version in the government's archives, has been found and is for sale.

new book indicts cia in kennedy assassination
from cisionwire: New York Times number one bestselling author and JFK historian Mark Lane tried the only U.S. court case in which jurors concluded that the CIA plotted the murder of President Kennedy, but there were always missing pieces: How did the CIA control Dallas police and Secret Service agents on the ground in Dealey Plaza? How did federal authorities prevent the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations from discovering the truth about the complicity of the CIA? Now, Lane tells all in his explosive new book – Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK – with exclusive new interviews, sworn statements and meticulous new research (including interviews with Oliver Stone, Dallas Police deputy sheriffs, Robert K. Tanenbaum, and Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden) Lane finds out first hand exactly what went on the day JFK was assassinated.

'the umbrella man'
from errol morris: For years, I’ve wanted to make a movie about the John F. Kennedy assassination. Not because I thought I could prove that it was a conspiracy, or that I could prove it was a lone gunman, but because I believe that by looking at the assassination, we can learn a lot about the nature of investigation and evidence. Why, after 48 years, are people still quarreling and quibbling about this case? What is it about this case that has led not to a solution, but to the endless proliferation of possible solutions? Years ago, Josiah Thompson, known as Tink, a young, Yale-educated Kierkegaard scholar, quit his day job as a professor of philosophy at Haverford College to write the definitive book on the Zapruder film — “Six Seconds in Dallas.” Tink became a private detective, and came to work with many of the same private investigators I had also worked with in the 1980s. We had so much in common — philosophy, P.I. work and an obsessive interest in the complexities of reality. But we had never met. Last year, I finally got to meet and interview Tink Thompson. I hope his interview can become the first part of an extended series on the Kennedy assassination. This film is but a small segment of my six-hour interview with Tink.

flashback: 47th anniversary of an american coup

9/9 newspurge: momma, i'm a communist

geopolitiks:
castro admits cuba's communism doesn't work*
pessimistic about peace,
israelis greet new year*
massive israel spy base exposed*
haaretz: israel has one of world's largest 'eavesdropping' intel bases*
mossad impersonating US intel ops & trying to recruit US arabs*
US reveals refusal to military drill as turkey denies israel role*
chinese officials head for anti-terror drills in kazakhstan*
four arrested as dublin throws eggs & shoes at tony bliar*
blair scraps london book signing*

history/mystery:
book says nazi-hunter wiesenthal was on mossad payroll* palaeolithic funeral feast unearthed in northern israel*

media/memes:
portuguese tv presenter guilty of being in paedophile ring*
why does disney hate parents? ever noticed your favourite films always kill off mum & dad*
'jfk ii: secrets never keep' - the new oliver stone sequel*
twilight language: poltergeist girls*

murder/mayhem:
missing, presumed dead:
disappearance of ukrainian journalist deepens media fears*

8/20 newspurge: leary, cho, stone, disney, s&m, surveillance

history/mystery:
timothy leary & the cia*
scotus orders review of death row inmate troy davis's case*
fromme-peltier: inequality of mercy*
cho's missing mental records released*

media/memes:
fcc 'diversity officer' targets talk radio*
the fairness doctrine is dead, long live the fairness doctrine*
'indictments are coming' in jackson case*

oliver stone revealing 'secret history of america'*
your tax dollar$ at work for michael bay*
why the recession will lead to a renaissance in film noir*

murder/mayhem:
gunmen kill 7 women in russian sauna*
woman sets herself on fire in west dade mall*
savage boutique immolation*
3rd disney world death in recent weeks*
body in suitcase identified as missing swimsuit model*
lawyer killed in alleged s&m triangle at ny lawfirm*

warwhores:
new army camera promises super-wide surveillance*
expert warns new mind drugs eyed by military*
poll shows most americans oppose war in afghanistan*
iraq forces admit lapses after blasts kill 95*
US troops to return to northern iraq*
cia hired blackwater to help hunt terrorists*
cia hired blackwater for assassin program*
report: lithuania hosted secret cia prison
uk 'can't find' $13b in military hardware*

history/mystery: unspeakable, kennedys, elites & freemasons

oliver stone, the relaunch of 'jfk & the unspeakable' & 9/11*

flashback: 'jfk & the unspeakable' author speaks in portland*
shocking revelations of US business & nazis*
some suspect conspiracy in holocaust museum case*
it's a very nice house in the country (but not for an orgy)*
bohemian grove protest 2009*
freemasons jailed in fiji over sorcery claims*
jfk jr.'s death: 10yrs later*
video: 10yrs already since jfk jr died*

flashback: the assassination of jfk jr*

media memes: nixon, cruise, stone, lennon, vhs & hi-def

'frost/nixon': meant for each other
from washington post: Neither the title nor the subject matter prepares you for the pure fun of "Frost/Nixon." Ron Howard's movie is based on Peter Morgan's play, which was based on the 1977 television interviews between British journalist David Frost and the disgraced former president Richard Nixon. You expect something dry, historical and probably contrived. But you get a delicious contest of wits, brilliant acting and a surprisingly gripping narrative - no less dramatic even though the results are a foregone conclusion.

pentagon & hollywood pair up for transformers sequel
from danger room: Hollywood action director Michael Bay enlisted the U.S. military to provide realistic props for his 2007 giant-robot epic Transformers. After the Pentagon helped rewrite the script, Bay got access to helicopters, warships and - for just $25,000 an hour - F-22 stealth fighters. As we speak, Bay is shooting a sequel that has even more U.S. military hardware on display, according to USA Today. The director set up shop at White Sands, a test range in New Mexico, standing in for Egypt, where the new movie's climactic battle takes place. "As far as I know, this is the biggest joint military operation movie ever made," said Bay's liaison officer from the Army.

stone unturned: oliver on obama

tom cruise, scientology & holocaust revisionism
from indybay: Tom Cruise is asking for your Valkyrie movie ticket dollars, but spends his money to fund a cult with a similar attitude towards lesser races and global domination. Should the actor be separated from his actions? As a producer of the movie, he earns money from every ticket. Should you care where that money is going? ... Tom Cruise is one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, even with his anti-Semitic portrayal of a Hollywood producer (complete with gold star necklace) in Tropic Thunder. Is having his money go toward funding studies linking the Holocaust to modern medicine worth the price of your movie ticket?

mind control through the hi-def boxes

john lennon digitally inserted into television commercial
from raw story: With the approval of widow Yoko Ono, former Beatle and peace activist John Lennon, who was killed 28 years ago, appeared digitally in a 30-second television ad in support of the "One Laptop per Child" campaign. The spot was launched on Thursday and will play in donated broadcast and cable time slots. The voice of Lennon says: "Imagine every child, no matter where in the world they were, could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way. You can give a child a laptop and, more than imagine, you can change the world."

long, winding road hits a dead end at last for vhs
from latimes: Pop culture is hitting the eject button on the VHS tape, the once ubiquitous home video format that will finish this month as a creaky ghost of Christmas past. After three decades of steady if unspectacular service, the spinning wheels of the home entertainment stalwart are slowing to a halt at retail outlets. On a crisp Friday morning in October, the final truckload of VHS tapes rolled out of a Palm Harbor, Fla., warehouse run by Ryan Kugler, the last major supplier of the tapes. "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," said Kugler, 34, a Southern California businessman. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away." ... But Kugler, with a sly smile, offered a warning to consumers: "The days of the DVD are numbered... And that is good news for me."

‘w’ film aimed at independent voters

from raw replay: CNN’s Kareen Wynter reported that Oliver Stone’s new film, “W,” is aimed at independent voters and timed to effect the election. This video is from CNN’s American Morning, broadcast October 13, 2008.

a puzzling portrayal of a president
from washington post: "W.," the title of Oliver Stone's new biopic of President Bush, obviously refers to the subject's middle initial and nickname, but it could just as easily stand for "Why?" Why this movie -- a rushed, wildly uneven, tonally off-kilter caricature -- and why now? Why, when Americans and citizens around the globe are still coping with myriad depredations of Bush administration policies, would they want to pay money at the box office to see what amounts to an extended "Saturday Night Live" skit?

stone's balanced 'w' is no 'jfk'
from ap: All he wanted to do was watch baseball and drink beer. Instead, George W. Bush ended up being chosen as leader of the free world. That's Oliver Stone's surprisingly fair and balanced assessment of the president, who truly needs no further parodying, in "W." Stone, who previously dug up White House dirt with the conspiracy-laden "JFK" and the campy and paranoid "Nixon," has come up with a rather conventional biopic rather than an evisceration.

october surprise: oliver stone's 'w' doesn't have one
from mcclatchy: Watching "W.", you get a sense of the scrupulous care and respect with which director Oliver Stone and screenwriter Stanley Weiser approached their movie about the troubled presidency of George W. Bush. This is, for Stone, an unusually restrained and well-behaved film, one that is going to confound viewers expecting a free-for-all demonization of the 43rd president of the United States. What you don't get while watching "W." is a convincing argument that the movie needed to be made.

oliver stone on 'w'
from cbs: Oliver Stone talks to Harry Smith about his new film, "W," a character study of George W. Bush.


how unpopular is dubya? oliver stone's 'w' will tell us
from marketwatch: This week, Lions Gate will go a long way toward tapping the nation's mood. On Oct. 17, the film studio will release the long-awaited movie "W," director Oliver Stone's look at President George Bush. It will open on about 1,800 screens across America. The film is informally projected to amass ticket sales of about $10 million (but I suspect it will do better) in its initial weekend. The movie debuts at an opportune time to measure the president's relevance. Bush's approval ratings have sunk to near-historic lows. His somber proclamations on the financial meltdown and foreign policy issues have been largely ignored. Sarah Palin's emergence in the 2008 presidential campaign has all but pushed Bush off prime areas of the front page.

oliver stone: we made ‘vast mistake in last eight years’
from raw replay: Rachel Maddow is joined by director Oliver Stone to talk about his new movie, “W.,” a biopic about George W. Bush. This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast October 14, 2008.

stone's w is "unusual & inescapably interesting"

from variety: Oliver Stone’s unusual and inescapably interesting “W.” feels like a rough draft of a film it might behoove him to remake in 10 or 15 years. The director’s third feature to hinge on a modern-era presidency, after “JFK” and “Nixon,” offers a clear and plausible take on the current chief executive’s psychological makeup and, considering Stone’s reputation and Bush’s vast unpopularity, a relatively even-handed, restrained treatment of recent politics. For a film that could have been either a scorching satire or an outright tragedy, “W.” is, if anything, overly conventional, especially stylistically. The picture possesses dramatic and entertainment value, but beyond serious filmgoers curious about how Stone deals with all this president’s men and women, it’s questionable how wide a public will pony up to immerse itself in a story that still lacks an ending.

psychodrama of party animal turned president missing final act
from guardian: Finally, "W.", Oliver Stone's film about George Bush's life, was revealed to the press yesterday ahead of its release to the public next week.

The film has all the elements of the best psychodramas: an overbearing father, a straight-talking mother, a favourite son/brother, and a cast of sycophants and true believers. But it is the comedy - some of it very dark - that will stay in the minds of the audience. Bush, uncannily portrayed by Josh Brolin, saying "Guantanamero" instead of "Guantánamo"; comparing himself to Moses - "He wasn't a very good speaker," Bush says to explain his own call to politics, "but he knew"; and agreeing with Laura, his wife, that the musical Cats is "one thing I'll stay up late for".

But the film (its title is the initial of the president's middle name, Walker) plays like a TV movie rather than a cinematic epic, and it will not shift the political landscape ahead of the US election on November 4. Instead, it will reinforce the feelings of those who believe Bush was a dangerous incompetent, and provide ammunition to those on the other side of the political spectrum who prefer to worry about the bias of the liberal media...

While JFK proved controversial for Stone's conspiratorial take on the Kennedy assassination, W. is far more conventional in its assessment. The core of the psychodrama is Bush's relationship with his domineering father. As is his wont, Stone explains the battle between the two in stark terms: he has them fight an imaginary duel at the close of the film.

Of necessity - a necessity probably provoked by the imminent election - the film, which was only begun in May, will be released before the end of the story. With W still in office, the final act has yet to be written.

flashback: clip from oliver stone’s bush film released

clip from oliver stone’s bush film released

from raw replay: A clip from Oliver Stone’s latest film W, about President George W Bush, has been released. This video is from ITN, broadcast September 4, 2008.

oliver stone rushes to finish off bush bio-pic

from politico: They first crossed paths four decades ago at Yale University. But Oliver Stone’s climactic encounter with George W. Bush may come in movie theaters as early as this fall. Stone is planning to begin production this month of his upcoming film biography of the president, tentatively titled 'W'. An early draft of the screenplay, recently obtained by Politico, suggests the widely acclaimed, widely denounced director plans a departure from his previous presidential pictures 'JFK' and 'Nixon', both of which revolved around dark conspiracies at the seat of power.

US shame still stings 40 years after my lai massacre

from monsters & critics: The soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 11th US Army Brigade, arrived in the morning. Their mission was clear. "The orders were to shoot anything that moved," one US army officer told journalist Seymour Hersh, the investigative journalist who broke the story in 1969.

As the brigade pulled out three hours later on that fateful day, March 16, 1968, the village of My Lai in south Vietnam's highlands was levelled. Not a living thing stirred. Blood-soaked bodies covered the ground - women, children, old men, dogs. Smoke from burning huts could be seen from afar. The bodies of young women bore evidence of sexual violation.

The number of dead ranged from 347 to 504, victims of a Charlie Company gone amok in blood lust. Not one shot had been fired at the infantry. It would be another year and a half before the American public learned the truth - after a cover-up by the US Army...

Last summer, historians were outraged by US President George W Bush's comparison of Vietnam to Iraq. Bush likened the dangers of withdrawing from Iraq to the 'killing fields' that followed the US withdrawal from Vietnam. The 2008 release of Pinkville, a new film about My Lai by director Oliver Stone - Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) - will no doubt bring up more comparisons to current US military actions.

oliver stone to make 'fair' movie about bush

from reuters: Director Oliver Stone, who has made movies about Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, is developing a project about the current occupant of the White House, but promises it will not be a hatchet job, Daily Variety reported on Sunday.

Stone is in talks with Josh Brolin, who is starring in "No Country For Old Men," to play the title role in "Bush," the trade paper said.

He is shopping the script to financiers and hopes to start production by April, with a release date in time for the election in November, or the inauguration of Bush's successor in January.

Stone told Daily Variety that he planned to make "a fair, true portrait" of Bush, focusing on such areas as his relationship with his father, President George H.W. Bush, his wild youth, and his conversion to Christianity.

"It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors," said Stone.

iran rejects oliver stone film request

from news24: Iran has rejected a request by United States filmmaker Oliver Stone to make a film about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the website of the news network Press TV reported on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad's media advisor, Mehdi Kalhor, said that Stone had requested to make a film about Ahmadinejad which was however rejected by the president.

"We have already seen his documentaries - even though Stone is considered a member of the opposition group in the US, it is still part of the Great Satan," he said.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has branded the US as the "Great Satan" for what Iran calls imperialistic policies worldwide.

"We believe American cinema is void of real art and culture and largely used as a mouthpiece," he added.

Despite the remarks by Kalhor, Stone is regarded within cinema circles in Islamic Iran as a distinguished filmmaker.

update: oliver stone hits back at iran
from world net daily: Oliver Stone took a swipe at President Bush in a response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's rejection of the Oscar-winning director's request to make a documentary film about the Iranian president.

Ahmadinejad's media adviser explained this week that while Stone may be a member of the "opposition" in the U.S., he's "still part of the Great Satan."

Stone shot back.

"I've been called a lot of things, but never a 'Great Satan,'" the director said in a statement.

"I wish the Iranian people well, and I only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours."

As WND reported, an Iranian news service said Stone made the request three months ago, and the Iranian president's office had been studying it.