Oliver Stone and the Real Truth

Director Oliver Stone was raked over the coals by the national news media in 1991/1992 after the November 22, 1991 release of his blockbuster biopic JFK, which (like this movie TRUTH) also rearranged facts to make the film more cinematic.

Stone had to appear alone on ABC News's Nightline to defend his masterpiece, where he was pilloried by reporter Forrest Sawyer, who was following the Establishment line that Oswald was the lone assassin; end of conversation. Stone also appeared before the National Press Club, which aired on C-Span in January 1992. There he was grilled by reporters from Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, Time Magazine, and the New York Times, among others for leading an entire generation astray into conspiracy paranoia.

Among the journalists leading the charge against Stone on many CBS nightly newscasts (which clearly bumped up sagging ratings) was the squeaky clean Dan Rather, who was no friend of the sitting President, his fellow Texan George H. W. Bush. Stone's film was responsible for putting many JFK conspiracy books on the New York Times best-seller list. Topping that list was the book on which Stone's movie was based, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs, which like the rest of those best-sellers, put the creepy machinations of the all-powerful Central Intelligence Agency back on the nation's front burner. This was bad news for the President who was a former head of the C.I.A.

Stone's film clearly helped convince many young people to register to vote, many of them for the first time, hence the ROCK THE VOTE teaser which was released on JFK's VHS tapes sold that year. Most of these youngsters voted for Bill Clinton, who won in a landslide, but who never wanted to give Stone credit for anything although he clearly benefited from the national mood prompted by so controversial a film.

The Bush family was furious with the fact that a redneck (albeit an educated Ivy League bubba) would ascend to the White House, and remained bitter forever after. They despised Dan Rather, railed at Oliver Stone's propaganda, and blamed the news media for electing the newest President (which, in a way, they always do).

How ironic it is then that these enemies of Stone (also a child of the Establishment) finally waged war with one another in 2004 over fake documents. If it didn't matter to Dan Rather that these forged documents were not the real story, why would it matter to him that Oliver Stone did not tell the total truth in JFK? TRUTH is not the whole truth, but it is still a great film, as is JFK. The acting is of the best caliber, and it is one of the finest films of 2015. What a pity that it will never have the wide audience that JFK had, and will never receive a major award.

I think that Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett were wonderful in this film. I don't agree with the movie's implication that Mapes and Rather were above reproach, however. I will always have respect for Redford although I think he brings his liberal politics into any arena he enters. He doesn't look like Rather anymore than he ever looked like Bob Woodward in All The President's Men, but he clearly captured some essence of the famed broadcaster.

I lost respect for Dan Rather ages ago when he tried to deep-six Oliver Stone for telling the truth about the Kennedy assassination. It is unfortunate that he couldn't go out in a blaze of glory like his predecessor Walter Cronkite, but then Cronkite always had integrity, which Rather rarely possessed.

I continue to be amazed with the complete audacity of the news media which will protect its corporate interests (like maintaining the myth of the single bullet theory and watching the bottom line). This was something the clueless Dan Rather forgot, having been perched for twenty-four years at the top of the CBS News Division. He spent most of his adult life at CBS News since the age of thirty-two in 1963 and probably felt that he would be there forever; a virtual untouchable. Rathergate proved to be his undoing and they finally sent his sorry rear-end packing just to save face. Good for them. The one who was really hung out to dry with no golden parachute was the unfortunate Mary Mapes, who was not retired in old age like her boss, but ruined in the prime of her Emmy-studded career.

I also remain in complete awe of Oliver Stone, whose courage, honesty, and perseverance continue to leave me speechless with abundant admiration. He probably watched this fallout with no small amount of deep satisfaction. Seeing the hypocritical Dan Rather go down in flames at the behest of the Bush dynasty, which itself imploded in 2008, was surely a shock, but not a surprise. This was a House of Cards built on a false foundation with many cracks which he saw coming decades ago. He has now been vindicated many times over. That he has refused to gloat over the demise of either Rather or the decline of the House of Bush is yet another testament to the man's sense of decency and fair play. He had the character as a young man to drop out of Yale and volunteer to serve as a combat soldier in Vietnam, something that George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, and Dan Quayle did their utmost to avoid like the plague. Even John Kerry only served four months, while Stone served the full tour of duty for eighteen months. Former Vice-President Al Gore was in Vietnam, but did not serve in the jungle but rather as an armed-forces combat journalist in Saigon, hardly the dangerous frontline service that Stone endured.

On an ironic note: Oliver Stone directed JFK starring Kevin Costner, who nine years later starred in Thirteen Days (directed by Roger Donaldson) with Bruce Greenwood as President John F. Kennedy. Greenwood appears in TRUTH as CBS News President Andrew Heyward. TRUTH also has Stacy Keach in a cameo role as Bill Burkett, the thankless fool who came up with those phony documents the Rather/Mapes team wanted to burn G.W.B. with. Keach likewise had a small pivotal role as the preacher Earl Hudd (real name Arthur Levitt) in the movie W. (also directed by Oliver Stone) who brings George W. Bush to pasture as a Christian who finally sees the light of God, but who remains clueless about the real world filled with geunine Christians who had to put their boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan so that all of these fat cats in the Establishment could get rich from oil profits.

James Vanderbilt has done a fabulous job on this film TRUTH, but this would have been an Academy-Award-winning blockbuster if Oliver Stone had directed it. Just some thoughts.