[Nettime-bold] OLIVER STONE'S CHAOS THEORY

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THE PICTURES

OLIVER STONE'S CHAOS THEORY

Issue of 2001-10-22
Posted 2001-10-15
On the morning before the United States bombed Afghanistan, HBO Films 
presented a panel discussion, at Alice Tully Hall, entitled "Making Movies 
That Matter: The Role of Filmmaking in the National Debate." The people in 
the audience were restless, eager for someone to put their anger and unease 
into focus, and it wasn't long before one panelist, Bob Shaye, the C.E.O. of

New Line Cinema, got them going by insisting that movies should entertain, 
not explain. Referring to his studio's forthcoming "The Lord of the Rings" 
trilogy, he declared, "What the world needs now is hobbits."
As hisses filled the air, Oliver Stone, another panelist, shook his head in 
disbelief. From the start of the discussion, Stone, the writer-director of 
such political films as "Salvador" and "JFK," had seemed jumpy, swivelling 
his thick neck like a turret gun at the sound of any foolishness or naïveté.

Now his voice rumbled up from his chest and he began to illuminate the dark 
levers that move the film industry and, by extension, the world. "There's 
been conglomeration under six principal princes—they're kings, they're

barons!—and these six companies have control of the world," he said, 
referring to such corporations as Fox and AOL Time Warner. His voice grew 
louder as his ideas took shape. "Michael Eisner decides, 'I can't make a 
movie about Martin Luther King, Jr.—they'll be rioting at the gates of

Disneyland!' That's bullshit! But that's what the new world order is." There

was a storm of applause. "They control culture, they control ideas. And I 
think the revolt of September 11th was about 'Fuck you! Fuck your
order—' "
"Excuse me," a fellow-panelist, Christopher Hitchens, said. " 'Revolt'?"
"Whatever you want to call it," Stone said.
"It was state-supported mass murder, using civilians as missiles," said 
Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and The Nation.
Stone wagged his head and continued. "The studios bought television 
stations," he said. "Why? Why did the telecommunications bill get passed at 
midnight, a hidden bill at midnight? The Arabs have a point! They're going 
to be joined by the people who objected in Seattle, and the usual ten per 
cent who are against everything, and it's going to be, like, twenty-five per

cent of this country that's against the new world order. We need a 
trustbuster like Teddy Roosevelt to take the television stations away from 
the film companies and give them back to the people!" There was more 
applause, and a few uncertain murmurs. "Does anybody make a connection 
between the 2000 election"—for the Presidency—"and the events of
September 
11th?" he asked, and added cryptically, "Look for the thirteenth month!" He 
went on to say that the Palestinians who danced at the news of the attack 
were reacting just as people had responded after the revolutions in France 
and Russia.
Afterward, the panelists had lunch nearby, at Gabriel's. Hitchens stood 
outside, holding a glass of Scotch and a trembling cigarette. He was about 
to leave for Pakistan. "To say that this attack in any way resembles the 
French Revolution means you are a moral idiot, as well as an intellectual 
idiot," he said of Stone. "The man has completely lost it."
Inside the restaurant, Stone made his way, grinning, through the crowd. He 
plunged his hands into the hair of a young female producer and tugged, 
asking, "Is this real?" Although it seemed to most observers to be early 
afternoon, he twice observed that it was a wonderful night.
Stone sat in a booth, cradling a glass of white wine in his hands, and 
remarked that he hadn't slept in days. "The new world order is about order 
and control," he said. "This attack was pure chaos, and chaos is energy. All

great changes have come from people or events that were initially 
misunderstood, and seemed frightening, like madmen. Einstein, Nikola Tesla, 
Gates. I think, I think . . . I think many things." He explained how the 
World Bank, McDonald's, and the studios' response to the threat of a Writers

Guild strike last year were all manifestations of the new global conspiracy 
of order.
"This is the time for a bullet of a film about terrorism, like 'The Battle 
of Algiers' "—Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 movie about the conflict between
the 
French and F.L.N. terrorist cells in Algeria, in which the director's 
sympathies lie with the terrorists. "You show the Arab side and the American

side in a chase film with a 'French Connection' urgency, where you track 
people by satellite, like in 'Enemy of the State.' My movie would have the 
C.I.A. guys and the F.B.I. guys, but they blow it. They're a bunch of drunks

from World War II who haven't recovered from the disasters of the 
sixties—the Kennedy assassination and Vietnam. My movie would show the
new 
heroes of security, the people who really get the job done, who know where 
the secrets are."
And who would that be?
His eyes roamed, searching and sad. "I don't know yet."


http://www.newyorker.com/THE_TALK_OF_THE_TOWN/CONTENT/?011022ta_talk_the_pic
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