2012 Movies - Oliver Stone And Tax Policy (... and maybe even the oil business.)

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That I know people like me have never really seen an Oliver Stone movie in the right light (if we have seen one,) mostly because we were too young to comprehend the kind of metaphysics and mysticism that goes into even the most mundane of Stone’s ideas as realized through film, but why make another film about characters as influenced by the counterculture with again a message about right – wing conspiracies, the government, the university system, pot and relationships, the black market for drugs, all of which are ideas used by Mr. Stone to stir our attention to his cosmopolite and quite detailed and complicated view of things?  Mr. Stone, and to his credit, was born into a background in which he resisted the temptations of the vices and other wrongs he illustrates in his productions, even the moral and other character defects of the related roles in the scripts he imbeds on film – you do need to be a “clean” person these days to succeed in the entertainment or media industries.  As well that Mr. Stone fought in a bitter military conflict, and probably blindly as many men did at the time, that was at least in part dedicated to eradicate the illegal streets drugs market as we knew it during the 1960’s and thereafter; a conflict the U.S. officially abandoned, also adds to his illustration of the colorful and sordid as an authority on these who maintains in fact a critical and necessary distance from societal problems and vulnerabilities, and as such one might observe a contrasting reality between the character of an artist and the media he produces.  This trait or set of traits might also be entirely necessary in the oversimplified yet Hegelian world in which he finds himself, and similarly that of his characters, bright and educated and at the same time illicit as many of them are:  But why make a film about pot?

To know the answer to this question for Mr. Stone, as probably no one does, has to do again with the iconic mysticism of many of his productions and the very salient and high – profile themes he decides to address in his movies and interviews, etc., probably even in his relationships with his acting and other film crews.  To illustrate this, try to picture Mr. Stone as a director of a “Barney The Purple Dinosaur” media production, or a “Clifford” the dog feature.  This is impossible and improbable and might even be the subject of humor at his table when he and his major motion picture people talk about it.  The themes he examines, even in the sort of action / drama / mystery films he directs, are even more glaring than the stifling red lights at busy traffic stops during the height of rush hour, or even more attention – getting than having someone shouting in one’s ear(s.)  The issues of Mr. Stone’s productions are also problematical and propose in many instances an incomplete story to his viewers; all of this done with a goal of stirring the moviegoers’ minds out of any torpor or boredom (doldrums) that adds up to modern malaise.  The scope of many of his themes is so important with respect to American society and its issues at this point that one can hardly overlook the object lessons and teaching element in his films, at least insofar as how the movies are viewed today.  It is also something to be wary of and for example to look at a second time in the director’s overall efforts at political and cultural persuasion and in the high impact of much of what he presents that trumps even existential themes themselves sometimes.  That he has chosen to examine dramatically the culture of a simple street drug, as pervasive and insidious as it is, mirrors probably much again the ethical and practical morality he learned as a young person, at Eastern colleges, in national service and then in film school.  His relationship to the work of his mentor, Martin Scorsese, with respect to his continued filmography does indeed show a mirroring of attitudinal, moral, intellectual and other influences upon the man that contrast with who he actually is in his films.  This might be why he has succeeded for so many years in Hollywood as a town full of pitfalls, and as a place probably worse than any capitol as far as “sink or swim” is concerned. 

It does not really matter in and of itself that Mr. Stone has made a movie again about educated people who out of Adlerian and other difficulties do odd things, even blatantly illegal things.  His films going back some ways are probably full of such characters and their illustrated roles.  What does matter is the overall weight of Mr. Stone’s ideas that call for an examination of conscience through his telling of stories in film.  Though I have never really seen his work, maybe only part of one of his war movies, the overall questions provoked by his work and the inclusiveness with which he creates his things for people to experience are remarkably noteworthy.  Maybe all young people need to see at least part of this new movie, “Savages” (book by Don Winslow,) as directed by Mr. Stone, that apparently examines the “party” atmosphere of pot, not from a cult point of view but from its utilitarian and economic consequences; and this might change a popular attitude (or two) about it.  This writing is neither a movie review as admittedly I have not seen “Savages,” and nor is it a review of Mr. Stone’s directing abilities or acumen for better or otherwise.  These few paragraphs do however propose the meritorious courage of a Hollywood person examining social and societal forces that are age – old.  Remember finally that the streets drugs trade is a trade interdicted by state authorities (on every level,) and as the subject of this film should also be looked at in terms of its message and the government expenditures (funded by taxes) in eradicating pot and its related markets.  Mr. Stone might have a phrase or two in his film production here referring to this without allusion for one to the idea that the state has an attitude itself of persecution with respect to streets drugs and their markets.