Oliver Stone:

‘Are we alone? Are we alone?’

By Betsy Rothstein from THE HILL

Filmmaker Oliver Stone has been on the media circuit promoting “W.,” the new film starring Josh Brolin as President Bush. Stone convened a conference call Monday morning from Paris with American reporters.


Stone seemed shaky on the details of a conference call. He said he didn’t know where to begin and remarked, “I’m here on a European press tour, just started in Paris. It’s 4 in the afternoon.”
Stone declared his film more important than the upcoming presidential election: “It overshadows the election, in my opinion,” he said. “I frankly think [President Bush] is one of the greatest stories of the last 40 years, bigger than Reagan, bigger than Nixon.”

Stone was asked repeatedly about the authenticity of Brolin’s depiction of Bush, since many quotes were taken out of context. “These quotes are strung over years,” he said. “As a dramatist we have to simplify and condense and I don’t think we crossed the line of what happened in that administration. They said these things.”

After insisting that the Bush family has no desire to look inside themselves psychologically, Stone offered the Bushes a private screening of the film, saying, “If they would like to screen the film with me, I’d be most gracious. It’s very hard, I know, to see a film about yourself. Neither Freud nor Darwin meant a lot to them.”

When the interview came to a close, Stone kept asking the call’s organizer, “Are we alone?” No, hang up, he was told. “Are we alone?” he repeated. No, hang up, he was told again. We’ll call back, he was told. “OK, please do,” he said. You can read the entire story at:

http://thehill.com/in-the-know/etheridge-to-host-fundraiser-for-kucinich-2008-10-21.html