Oliver Stone's Secret History Of America
Pre-empting the inevitable critical response this series will generate from commentators across the political spectrum, Stone has to be admired for the ambitious nature of the project. Is he the right person to film an undertaking such as this? Probably not. Talented film-maker that he is (the previous decade aside) Stone's factual inaccuracies in JFK leave one with the impression that this will serve primarily as a punch to the gut of conservative, Republican America. Normally I'd sympathise with such sentiments but they require meticulous research and a dispassionate, objective view of history which Stone is unlikely to provide.
I don't for a minute believe that Stone worships or even likes Hitler and Stalin but comments he's made in relation to this new film are going to muddy the waters somewhat
I'm reeling with those, for example. Perhaps some of the philosophy graduates here can have a crack at rationalising Stone's words because, while I'd be similarly reluctant to break history into a series of discrete events classified as either Good Things or Bad Things, surely by any criteria that we use, and even allowing for an objective view, Hitler would have to be viewed as evil? (Yes, I understand that Hitler himself would have considered himself a "good" person as he was doing what he believed was right and just but what Stone's saying goes beyong that, surely)
I don't know how one could quantify or determine how any one individual can be said to have fought Hitler's military "more than any other person". In terms of the amount of money spent, the resources expended, the lives lost in pursuit of the objective, then yeah Stalin probably is ahead of (if only slightly) Churchill and Roosevelt on that one - I don't have the figures to hand. He never fought himself, of course, so I'd be more inclined to attribute the credit to the incredible resolve of the Russian military and people without whom Europe would have almost certainly become a fascist tyranny.
Pre-empting the inevitable critical response this series will generate from commentators across the political spectrum, Stone has to be admired for the ambitious nature of the project. Is he the right person to film an undertaking such as this? Probably not. Talented film-maker that he is (the previous decade aside) Stone's factual inaccuracies in JFK leave one with the impression that this will serve primarily as a punch to the gut of conservative, Republican America. Normally I'd sympathise with such sentiments but they require meticulous research and a dispassionate, objective view of history which Stone is unlikely to provide.
I don't for a minute believe that Stone worships or even likes Hitler and Stalin but comments he's made in relation to this new film are going to muddy the waters somewhat
Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply
We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good'. [Hitler] is the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect. People in America don't know the connection between WWI and WWII
Stalin has a complete other story. Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any person
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