Oliver Stone has just crossed the line from secret fucktard to official practitioner of fucktardery.
He was still seen, in certain brainless circles, as a compelling storyteller. Even after Wall St 2: The Quickening, Alexander, World Trade Center, W (if you like any of these movies you may enjoy my upcoming devotional literature release: Go Fuck Yourself) he’s still seen as a name in directing. Savages ought to end that.
Before I verbally knock the cock off the man, let me take a moment to put my views on him in perspective. Oliver Stone is an important voice in documentary media. He’s done a couple documentaries on Fidel Castro and Latin America. None of these were particularly good; but what is important is the man can get access to anyone. He’s talked with Colombian revolutionaries, Ahmadinejad, the PLO, Hugo Chavez, Castro, really everyone. Even when I knock his dick off for his shit skill at fiction; I respect the fact that somebody is actually in these places talking to these people in an effort to understand the context of their actions. I can’t really say he’s doing a shitty job, as much as I’d like to, because very few in the media take the sort of personal risk he does so nobody else is really doing what he is. When his documentary series The Untold History of America airs; I’ll watch it. I might, and probably will, hate and disagree with it. But I’ll listen to anyone who gets shot at to make a film.
But, overall, I think he’s a nutcase who can’t be trusted to work with fiction anymore. He likes to make films about actual events and just make shit up. Yes, I’m talking about JFK. If you’re telling a story that people lived through, you need to adhere a little closer to reality. Stone admitted to changing events to suit his movie. He sees no issue with it. I do. It’s fucking lazy. You either have a fictional story, or you don’t. If people see your fictional story and are given the impression that its actually 100% true; you’re an asshole and a bad writer.
And he often has no clue what parts of history are actually compelling. Depicting Alexander the Great’s homosexual relationships was not near as groundbreaking as Oliver obviously thought it was. Everyone knows Alexander boned Hephaestion. We didn’t need to spend 3 hours going “oh my god he was gay!”. I’m pretty sure the movie would have been better served by a sex scene than 3+ hours of man on man droopy eyed romance. People are interested in the man because he conquered the known world at 20something. Who and why he fucked are details, not plot points.
Basically, Oliver is a nutcase who has difficulty not doing stupid, insane things with history. So he should stick to documentaries where what happens can be the narrative. He can’t provide one of his own without going off the retard end.
Anyway, Savages sucks. Here’s what must have happened: “Ok Oliver, after a year of principle filming we’ve got 100 or so hours of footage of these 3 kids fucking and about 10 minutes of Benicio Del Toro walking around with a mullet.” “Ok, shoot Selma Hayak rolling around in an expensive bed for about a week and I think we got this!” A drug war between an American Zeta-type gang and the Mexican cartel with a bunch of sex ought to have been exciting at some point. But at no point was it. And it has the same ending as Wayne’s World. Where you get to pick from among several endings.
The supposed plot is that 2 friends from very different backgrounds start a weed business and also bone the same girl. They are good at their job (one is a business science hippy and the other is an ex-marine or something) and attract the notice (and war!) of the Mexican cartel. Kidnappings and violence ensue. Yet at no time was anything on screen worth watching. I suppose some of the girls might like the fleeting shots of man ass, but you should probably see Magic Mike instead.
Stay away from fiction, Oliver you fucktard.