Oliver Stone's Secret History of America

[Gold Trumpet]

On Real Time With Bill Maher tonight, there was a one-on-one interview with Oliver Stone. As expected, talked about general things and even Wall Street 2 a little bit, but Stone finally came forward with some concrete details on a secret documentary he's been working on.

- Been working on it for a year and a half

- Will be 10 parts

- is about, in his words, "American national security state and how it came to be."

- Credited the book, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died Why it Matters by James W. Douglass as excellent. Not sure if it's tied into the documentary at all.

[Gold Trumpet]

Someone can now move this to the TV forum....

Showtime Unveils Docuseries "Oliver Stone's Secret History of America"
Written by Jace | Tuesday, August 18, 2009 | 0 comments »

Pay cabler Showtime has announced that it has pacted with filmmaker Oliver Stone on a new ten-episode documentary series that will air next year.

Entitled Oliver Stone's Secret History of America, the ten-hour docuseries--narrated by Stone himself--will investigate crucial human events that were "under-reported" at the time of their occurrence, with Stone and his team of researchers sifting through national archives of several countries in order to amass a more detailed view at certain events. Topics explored in the series will include the US bombing of Japan during WWII, the Cold War, America's national security complex, the Kennedy administration, and the Vietnam War, among others.

"We are very happy that Oliver Stone has chosen Showtime as the home for his provocative series about key unknown moments of American history," said Showtime's President of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt. "Not only has his name become synonymous with visionary filmmaker, but Oliver is also a fascinating storyteller always striving to shed new light on the human experience. His continuing curiosity about real events of the 20th Century has now led him to a documentary series unlike any other, which is why it's perfect for our premium audience."

The full press release from Showtime, announcing the ten-episode documentary series, can be found below.



SHOWTIME AND OLIVER STONE UNCOVER
AMERICA'S SECRET HISTORY

New 10-Episode Documentary Series From Academy Award®-Winning Director Oliver Stone Entitled
OLIVER STONE'S SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICA
To Debut On SHOWTIME in 2010


LOS ANGELES, CA – (August 18, 2009) – As Americans, do we really know and understand our shared and complicated history? How do we recall the small details and forgotten players that influenced some of the biggest events from America's past? Will our children actually get the "real" or whole story from reading history books? And how will it affect the future of our country?

Academy Award®-winning director Oliver Stone is creating and executive producing a new, ten episode documentary series entitled OLIVER STONE'S SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICA, which will premiere on SHOWTIME in 2010. The announcement was made today by Robert Greenblatt, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

"We are very happy that Oliver Stone has chosen SHOWTIME as the home for his provocative series about key unknown moments of American history," said Greenblatt. "Not only has his name become synonymous with visionary filmmaker, but Oliver is also a fascinating storyteller always striving to shed new light on the human experience. His continuing curiosity about real events of the 20th Century has now led him to a documentary series unlike any other, which is why it's perfect for our premium audience."

Narrated by Stone, the new one-hour series will feature episodes that focus on human events, that at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America's unique and complex history over the last 60 years. Stone and a small group of historians and archivists have meticulously combed through the national archives of the U.S., Russia, South Africa, England, and Japan in search of papers, letters, memoranda, film, and photographs to assist in their documentation of unknown historical figures and events that have rarely, if ever, been revealed. Topics range from President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan to the origins and reasons for the Cold War with the Soviet Union, to the fierce struggle between war and peace in America's national security complex. Newly discovered facts and accounts from the Kennedy administration, the Vietnam War, and the great changes in America's role in the world since the fall of Communism in the 1980s will be presented.

Oliver Stone, who has worked on the series for almost 2 years, said today, "Through this epic 10-hour series, which I feel is the deepest contribution I could ever make in film to my children and the next generation, I can only hope a change in our thinking will result."

[MacGuffin]

Oliver Stone's 'Secret History' to put Hitler 'in context'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Director Oliver Stone's upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries "Secret History of America" promises to put mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler "in context."

"Stalin, Hitler, Mao, McCarthy -- these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history," Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.  

"Stalin has a complete other story," Stone said. "Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any single person. We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good.' Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and its been used cheaply. He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect ... People in America don't know the connection between WWI and WWII ... I've been able to walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view. We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated."

The controversial director's 10-part documentary series for Showtime promises to focus on events that "at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America's unique and complex history of the last 60 years." Subjects in "History" include President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and the origins of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

"You cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate," Stone said during the show's trailer, which promised to put historical villains "in context." "I don't want to put out conventional History Channel product where it's easy to like it."

"He's not saying we're going to come out with a more positive view of Hitler," emphasized professor Peter Kuznick, the lead writer on the project. "But we're going to describe him as a historical phenomenon and not just somebody who appeared out of nowhere."

Stone said that conservative pundits will dislike the show.

"Obviously, Rush Limbaugh is not going to like this history and, as usual, we're going to get those kind of ignorant attacks," said Stone, who also also compared the experience of sympathizing with war criminals to making his "W" movie about George W. Bush. "I'm trying to understand somebody I thoroughly despised."

Stone also warned that the same military industrial complex forces that he's explored in movies such as "JFK" and in "Secret History," are now corrupting Barack Obama.

"You can understand why Obama is following in Bush's footsteps in Afghanistan," Stone said."Obama is very much trapped, we believe, in that system. And so that's what we're going to try and show you -- the way it works."

The project will also show lesser-known positive aspects of American history and unsung heroes. Stone eventually hopes to send "Secret History" to schools as a teaching curriculum.

"It would be a very different counterweight to what they're learning," Stone said. "Nobody is going to force it down anybody's throat."

A critic also asked Stone "the Sarah Palin question" of what he likes to read.

"My father was a voracious New York Times reader," he said.  "We consider that in The Middle. Sarah Palin would disagree."

[Gold Trumpet]

Haha, Stone collaborated with a history professor and did this interview with him and it seems the professor had to chime in with reminders that Hitler is evil and they both believed that when Oliver Stone would go a little too far with his empathy comments. I'm excited, but I'm also very sensitive to history reconstructions feeling too free-wheeling and over relying on slim associations. Stone is going to have be very detailed and thorough to make his case with this documentary. He can't be Glenn Beck and think simple diagrams on a chalk board will be sufficient.

[Gold Trumpet]

Interview with documentary collaborator, Peter Kuznick. He explains Stone's comments and tries to clear up any wrong impressions, but he also gets into what the documentary is about. He also speaks about the doc's overall position on Hitler. The revelations are nothing new and have been written in both conservative and liberal history books, but there are points about Stalin that are interesting. I also like that Kuznick admits that Stone went easy on Bush in W. and two episodes will be devoted to the Bush years and those episodes will try to cover all the political details that the film could not fit in. I'm still not sold it will be convincing history, but my interest level has definitely went up.

Also, the interview begins a little over 7 minutes into the video. It's part of a bigger show called The Alyona Show.

[MacGuffin]

Oliver Stone: Hitler 'enabled by Western bankers'

BANGKOK - Adolf Hitler was a psychopath and a monster but rose to power thanks to big business leaders and other supporters who appreciated his vow to destroy communism and control workers, Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone said Monday.

Stone, who is working on a 10-part documentary on the 20th century titled "The Secret History of the United States," said the German dictator was "enabled by Western bankers" and managed to "seduce" Germany's military industrial complex.

"Hitler is a monster. There is no question. I have no empathy for Hitler at all. He was a crazy psychopath," Stone told reporters in the Thai capital. "But like Frankenstein was a monster, there was a Dr. Frankenstein. He is product of his era."

Stone was in Bangkok to give a lecture to high school students on the role of film in peace-building as part of a visit organized by the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation.

He said the aim of his documentary, which two historians are helping him with, was to offer a fuller understanding of the 20th century and how some of those lessons may be relevant to President Barack Obama in 2010.

"What has America become? How can we in America not learn from Germany in the 1930s," the Oscar-winning director asked.

Earlier in the day, Stone told about 300 students that his 1991 movie "JFK," was his most controversial to date and that the United States remains in denial over the possibility that someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald could have assassinated John F. Kennedy.

Stone said exploring alternative theories over the JFK assassination remains too sensitive for those in the media or academia who "would be endangering their careers and their position."

"To this day, many key Americans in power are in total denial about this story," Stone said. "They don't even want to know about the possibility that he was killed by someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald. It is a national fairy tale."

"JFK" ridicules the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone and suggests a massive conspiracy.

Stone's film centered on a theory by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison that a CIA-led mutiny killed the president and the plotters walked away unscathed. Garrison's theories went to court in 1967, but Clay Shaw, the alleged "evil genius" behind the assassination, was acquitted.

Stone said Monday he thought it was "a good thing" to revisit the JFK assassination. But he came under fire from the historians and film reviewers who contended Stone had fudged facts, invented characters and elevated speculation to truth to support his burning belief that the killing was a high-level government conspiracy.

"It's an amazing story and I did it," Stone said. "I thought I would be respected for it, and I was lambasted in the establishment press. I was called a myth-maker, a propagandist. I didn't see it coming. I thought the Kennedy murder was safe."

Stone is famous for several other movies, including the Vietnam War films "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Platoon," which won four Oscars, including best picture and best director.

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Both liberal and conservative historians have touched on these ideas of finding alternate ways to look at the greater social complex of what allowed an Adolf Hitler to thrive so Oliver Stone's premise is not uncalled for or even anti-historical, but the questions will be to what lengths Stone takes these understandings. His political opinions tend to be my least favorite part about him. I even hate some of his opinions so this documentary can really go either way.

[Alexandro]

No one saw this? I just finished it and found it fascinating. I pretty much devoured the thing, watching three episodes per day.

Sharply constructed, fast, always interesting, and Stone being Stone, he manages to give american history a dramatic arc not unlike the one he gave to Nixon, a tragic snowball of lost ideals and uncontrollable demons.

I don't understand why he can't make feature films as good as this thing. The only weird/bad aspect to it was his narration. He has a strange habit of making pauses when there are not supposed to be pauses, like "after a while the...republican party had a...tremendous advantage..." weird.

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I was the same way Alexandro, got through it very fast. It's kinda funny, I talked to a few American friends of mine and the general consensus was that it's only the untold history of America to Americans. The rest of the world seems to get into a few of these topics, and as a canadian a lot of it was the case with my upbringing.

However, there was also a lot i didn't know about.

My favourite part was the bits about the heroes i never knew about, or knew to a lessor degree. He really plays up wallace as a potential jfk. He truly did seem like a fascinating man, i'd love to see an Oliver Stone bio-pic on wallace. I bet he'd kill it.