Jun 14, 2022

Controversial filmmaker, who is fluently bilingual, will discuss what he calls "the greatest crime in American history at this point in the last century." Author of the article: Article content There have been few more talented filmmakers over the last half-century than Oliver Stone. And few more controversial, either. Advertisement 2 Article content Try refreshing your browser, or Brownstein: Oliver Stone to talk JFK theories at Quebec City film fest Back to video His body of work as a director, screenwriter and producer stands up to the best in the business. Stone has garnered 11 Academy Award nominations and three wins for such films as Midnight Express, Born on the Fourth of July, Salvador, The Doors, Wall Street, Natural Born Killers and Nixon. And, of course, there was Platoon, based on the Vietnam War, in which he served as an infantry soldier. It won four Oscars, including best director for Stone and best picture. And, oh yeah, there was JFK, where within the context of a drama Stone put forth his theories on the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Although the film was made in 1991, Stone has been dogged with criticism and has been accused of perpetuating conspiracy theories for taking umbrage with the Warren Commission findings and the so-called magic-bullet or single-bullet theory about Lee Harvey Oswald being the sole shooter in Dallas back in 1963. Advertisement 3 Article content Nor has Stone relented in his opposition since. In his recent documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, Stone probes declassified files related to the assassination to further cast doubt about the veracity of the original findings and to shed more light on the possibilities of government coverups and complicity. And so the controversy surrounding Stone continues. It keeps his fires burning unabated at 75. Stone now takes his case and views to the Quebec City Film Festival Wednesday evening at the Théâtre Diamant. Count on the fluently bilingual Stone — his mother was from France — not to hold back in his discussion with journalist Jean-François Lépine. He never does. The fact of the matter is that most anybody could put forward the notion that the Warren Commission seemed suspect on many levels and get away with it. But no doubt due to the volume level he brings to his theories, Stone often gets assailed. Advertisement 4 Article content “Or I get ignored,” Stone says in a Zoom interview. “The (JFK Revisited) documentary was not covered by the mainstream media. It’s demoralizing. I’ve done so much other work, and to always be categorized and cheapened by this association. “Furthermore, I feel very strongly that the JFK assassination is the greatest crime in American history at this point in the last century, and it directly affects our behaviour today. Since President Kennedy, no American president has really been able to challenge the system, as we haven’t challenged the intelligence agencies or challenged the military and the State Department. We’re always at war in our country. We’ve always had a very strong military lobby that has taken up a huge amount of our defence budget into this fear of an enemy. It’s mind-boggling. Here we are on a roller-coaster ride into history that makes very little sense to me. And I am a victim of it, among others.” Advertisement 5 Article content Stone cites similarities to the situations of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. “What did they do? They brought out the secret machinations of government behind the scenes, of what goes on. So did (district attorney and JFK assassination investigator) Jim Garrison. There have been few whistleblowers like that. That’s the problem: we don’t get the truth.” On hand for our interview is Stone collaborator and writer James DiEugenio, on whose book Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba and the Garrison Case, as well as newly declassified evidence, JFK Revisited is based. “One thing we tried to prove was that Kennedy was killed in a crossfire, that there was an ambush and that there was a conspiracy, and I think we did that,” says DiEugenio, to whom Garrison told his story and who will be accompanying Stone to Quebec City. “The second thing we tried to do was to show that Kennedy’s foreign policy in Vietnam was severely reversed after his assassination in a remarkably short period of time with new documents that the public has not been allowed to see. And Vietnam ended up being a disaster after Kennedy was killed.” Advertisement 6 Article content Stone’s visit to Quebec City is not totally random. One of the commentators in JFK: Revisited is Quebec City native Paul Bleau, a CEGEP Champlain-St. Lawrence professor and a Warren Commission skeptic who wrote a series of articles exploring possible prior plots to kill Kennedy. Just in case Stone hasn’t angered or alienated enough people with his views on the JFK assassination, he has also come under attack for what was perceived to be a revealing but overly generous take on the Russian president in The Putin Interviews (2017). He was called out for not taking a tough stance on Putin’s attitude toward the LGBTQ2+ community and while he has criticized Russian aggression in Ukraine, some have called him a Putin apologist. Advertisement 7