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THE MAN THEY LOVE TO HATE |
Film director Oliver Stone is embroiled in another controversy, over his latest film, Nixon. Some say the film rides roughshod over the truth. Winnie Chung meets Hollywood's bad boy.
The Watergate scandal has just broken and White House aide Alexander Haig hands over the damning tapes to Richard Nixon in the darkened Lincoln Sitting Room at the White House. Fumbling with the tapes, Nixon launches into a tirade, ending with: " . . . they jump all over me 'cause it's Nixon . . . they've always hated Nixon."
This is the opening scene from Oliver Stone's 190-minute dramatisation of the life of the 37th President of the United States. That one line probably sums up how unpopular Nixon felt he was in the eyes of the American public, a sentiment Stone can probably relate to. Like Nixon, it seems the controversial director has become America's favourite whipping boy, the man they all love to hate. He cannot seem to do anything right in the eyes of America.
Stone knows it, even if he is a little perplexed by it. "The press has given me a hard time, especially in America," said the director, who flew into the territory for a short, private visit last week. "I've taken a lot of hard knocks. Sure, I feel whipped and I have a lot of scars."
Mixing Nixon and Stone together was a lethal cocktail: America's most controversial president and Hollywood's bad boy director. It is probably fair to say that had any other director made the film, they would never have created the amount of controversy that Stone has.
A lot of it, he feels, is because people have confused the films' messages with the messenger: linking his personality with his movies. "The bad boy tag I can live with. I've become accustomed to it. But . . . the press in America has personalised me and I don't even know why," he said. "In Platoon, I was a macho, tough guy who didn't like women and all that stuff. "In The Doors, I was Jim Morrison - excessive, drugs, I couldn't be reined in . . . they're confusing me with the subject. In JFK I became a conspiracy nut."
Attempts by the press to analyse his psyche amuse Stone at times, but on the whole he wishes the spotlight would swing from him to his work."They talk about other film-makers' works and techniques, but my subject ideas are so subject to interpretation because I tend to choose things that evoke strong emotions."
Perhaps Stone has become bigger than his films? "That may be good at the end of the day when I'm an old man, but it's not good for me now because I make good films."
Despite his long track record in Hollywood, Stone is still stunned by the ferocity of the attacks made against him, ranging from being nutty to unpatriotic. With Nixon, Stone has now become " paranoid", a man who "hated the press" and ran around with "a list of enemies". "They were all saying, 'May Oliver Stone rot in Hell, may Oliver Stone rot in Hell'," he said, with a wry laugh. "They don't want a film-maker to deal with contemporary history. That's a shame.
"The problem with the country is that the historians are all in consensus. They want their tenure at the university, get their awards, be in the Historical Review. They don't want to push the edges of the envelope and be respected in their lifetime so they will never explore the shadows of the Nixon presidency .. . I think the historians of this era are pretty limited."
"Not that I'm a historian, but movie-makers have a right - given the lack of scholarship - to interpret (history) as a dramatist has a right to interpret it, which isn't to say that this is definitive or is history." Much of the fuss over Nixon has been the liberties the two-time Oscar winner took in condensing history and the conjectures he made with regard to events that happened behind closed doors, something he admits to readily. "I don't believe in censorship. We're dramatists and I think a dramatist can distort if he wants to. But I don't think I'm distorting. We're sticking to the spirit of the truth."
"A dramatist is responsible (for doing) his homework, to research and read up everything he can on the subject matter and we have done that." Stone agreed that bringing Nixon to the screen probably opened up a lot of old wounds and reminded Americans of an embarrassing chapter in their history which many would prefer to be swept under the carpet.
"It's a film we found was of limited interest to the public. The mainstream does not come. The kids don't care about Nixon, which is a shame. But for people my age, the psyche problem is that Nixon represents pain. Some people hate him and don't want to deal with him, and some people like him and they think I distorted it," he said. "But my point was, let's go beyond loving or hating Nixon."
The reviews have not all been bad, of course. In fact, Stone said, Nixon has probably received the best reviews he has had since Born On The Fourth Of July, for which he received an Academy Award for best director. Stone meshes real-life footage of the former president with new scenes so masterfully that it becomes difficult to tell them apart.
Anthony Hopkins as Nixon is excellent and gives what may be his best performance since his chilling portrayal of the cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs. Although Hopkins bears little resemblance to the former president, he manages to capture the tortured soul behind the rigid, repressed mask.
James Wood, who plays Nixon sidekick H. R. Haldeman, called Hopkins' performance "pure alchemy" and stage actress Joan Allen matches his performance stroke for stroke as the uptight Pat Nixon.
After the attacks prompted by JFK and Nixon, Stone does not think he will be making another film about US Presidents for a while. "If I do there would be this chorus of 'there he goes again!' I am pre-censored and I hate that because there are so many good subjects that are important to the US. It seems to me now that I should work more with metaphors."
"Maybe I should do period pieces or historical pieces that are farther away so that people don't relate so much to it. I am at a crossroads at the moment. I am cut off from what I do best, which is the melange that I do. I managed to (create) a documentary-kind of look in a drama and people were confused. Instead of going along with the ride and enjoying it, purists get upset. I think I did it too well. I really do."
Source : Adapted from the South China Morning Post, 21.02.96
Vocabulary
hidden from view Return
// controversy
a dispute or argument, especially about something where there is a strong disagreement Return
// roughshod
to run roughshod over something is to act with complete disregard for something, to act in a way that suggests you don't care about something Return
// Fumbling
to handle something clumsily Return
// tirade
a long angry speech Return
// sentiment
feeling Return
// whipping boy
a person who is blamed for errors, a person popularto criticise Return
// perplexed
worried or concerned Return
a dangerous mixture Return
somebody who sees conspiracies around every corner. A conspiracy is a secret plan or agreement. E.g. The theory that President Kennedy was not assassinated by a single gunman but a group of people. Return
// psyche
the human mind or soul Return
// paranoid
a personality disorder, involving delusions. A person who is paranoid finds difficulty in seeing reality for what it is, for example may have feelings that the whole world is against them Return
// definitive
final or decisive. E.g. A definitive version of history is a version which is likely to last for a long time. Return
// conjectures
guesswork Return
// alchemy
a pseudo-scientific discipline that tried to change metals into gold, a strong power or gift. Not a science in the modern sense.(It didn't work!) Used to describe brilliant things. E.g. In sport: The alchemy between the two players was wonderful to watch. Return
// metaphors
a way of describing something which is not literally true. E.g. 'He is a lion in battle.' (meaning, 'He is a good fighter.') Return
37th President of the United States, from 1969 to 1974. He was finally forced to leave office by the US Congress after a scandal at the Watergate building involving the bugging of the opposition Democratic Party's headquarters. Return
// embroiled
involved; caught up in something which it is difficult to escape from Return