Slate publishes a hilarious but scary interview with Oliver Stone. Kudos to Ann Louise Baradach for getting her facts straight and asking Oliver Stone the hard questions. Read it.
ALB: Now, when you were talking to the prisoners who tried to hijack a plane, one told you he was a fisherman, and you said, "Why then didn't you take a boat?" Why did you ask that?
OS: Well, it seemed to me that if they were familiar with boats, it seemed to be the best way.
ALB: Did you know that in Cuba there are virtually no boats? The boats that are used for fishermen are tightly controlled. One of the more surreal aspects of Cuba, being the largest island in the Caribbean, is that there are no visible boats.
OS: I see.
Like many in Hollywood, Stone is a Castro apologist. But, for a guy who seems to have formed his opinions pretty strongly, he doesn't seem to know a lot about his subject matter.
Even more interesting is his continued defense in the face of uncomfortable facts he now clearly has been shown. One issue of discussion is a show trial that Castro has put on for Stone, involving men who attempted to leave the island. They are taken from prision, put in front of Stone and Castro, and asked how things are going. Observe Stone's responses:
OS: Let me give you the background. He obviously set it up overnight. It was in that spirit that he said, "Ask whatever you want. I'm sitting here. I want to hear it too. I want to hear what they're thinking." He let me run the tribunal, so to speak.
ALB: But Cuba's leader for life is sitting in front of these guys who are facing life in prison, and you're asking them, "Are you well treated in prison?" Did you think they could honestly answer that question?
OS: If they were being horribly mistreated, then I don't know that they could be worse mistreated [afterward].
ALB: So in other words, you think they thought this was their best shot to air grievances? Rather than that if they did speak candidly, there'd be hell to pay when they got back to prison?
OS: I must say, you're really picturing a Stalinist state. It doesn't feel that way. You can always find horrible prisons if you go to any country in Central America.
ALB: Did you go to the prisons in Cuba?
OS: No, I didn't.
ALB: So you don't know if they're any different than, say, the prisons in Honduras then?
OS: I think that those prisoners are being honest.
ALB: What about when you ask them what they think is a fair sentence for their crimes, and one of them starts to talk about how he'd like to have 30 years in prison?
OS: I was shocked at that. But Bush would have shot these people, is what Castro said. … I don't know what the parole system is.
ALB: There is none unless Fidel Castro decides to give you clemency.
Sure, those prisoners were telling the honest truth, right there in front of Castro, knowing they were going back to their cells shortly. In contrast, Bush would have shot those people.
I see terrified prisoners facing a totalitarian system. Stone seems comedy, and Castro, the loving father:
ALB: Did it strike you as interesting that at one point in the scene with the prisoners, Castro turned to the prisoners' defense lawyers, who just happened to be there, and he says, "I urge you to do your best to reduce the sentences"?
OS: I love that. I thought that was hilarious. Those guys just popped up.
ALB: Is there a show-trial element here?
OS: Yeah. I thought that was funny, I did—the prosecutor and Fidel admonishing them, to make sure they worked hard. There was that paternalism. I mean "father knows best," as opposed to totalitarianism. It's paternalism, that's what I meant. It's a Latin thing.
Telling. Very telling. Castro isn't oppressive, he's a loving father. And latinos are meant to live under these kind of conditions -- show trials like this, you now. It's a latin thing.
Racism? No, of course not.
Stone's just very culturally sensitive. Some of us think of Castro's Cuba as a totatitarian state. We're wrong, and just don't understand the way latinos prefer, need to be treated:
Fidel is not the revolution, believe me. Fidel is popular, whatever his enemies say. It's Zapata, remember that movie? He said, "A strong people don't need a strong leader." ... These people [Cubans] are committed. Castro has become a spiritual leader. He will always be a Mao to those people.
Yes, the Chinese all sincerely love Mao, too, don't they? Another telling admission.
And here's yet another admission that Stone, the leftist, is a totalitarian himself:
ALB: In the first film, Comandante, he asked you, "Is it so bad to be a dictator?" Did you think you should have responded to that question?
OS: I don't think that was the place to do it. … You know, dictator or tyrant, those words are used very easily. In the Greek political system, democracy didn't work out that well. There were what they called benevolent dictators back in those days.
And how we long for those days, eh?