Sunday, July 10, 2005
Stoning 9/11
So Oliver Stone is planning to make a film about September 11. Mickey Kaus is not impressed:
By the way, this is story that Stone is likely to butcher:
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Is Oliver Stone really the person to direct a big-budget film about the rescue of Officers McLoughlin and Jimeno from the rubble of the World Trade Center? Stone has shown he has trouble leaving history alone (most famously in JFK); he'll probably have some wacky, conspiratorial left-wing theory to add into the script. ... The McLoughlin rescue is a surprising, moving, and patriotic story if you just tell it as it happened. Do you trust Stone to do that? I don't. ... Is Hollywood so out of touch it thinks Stone's version of 9/11 is what America is clamoring for? After Alexander, at that?Neither is Glenn Reynolds, who answers Kaus's question:
Hollywood probably is that out of touch with America, which may have something to do with its falling revenues. But hey, the inevitable scene of Jewish office workers staying home will be well received in some other parts of the world.And Roger Simon follows the money:
Hollywood, for whom foreign ticket sales are greater than those at home, is ever mindful of how its movies play abroad. Even given his string of recent failures, who better to choose if you're going to make a film about an American tragedy and don't want to offend foreign sensibilities than delusional Oliver? Indeed, he can be relied upon to pander to them.Personally, I think the movie will be worthwhile only if Stone portrays bin Laden as a blonde-streaked, impulsive homosexual who spends his whole life trying to escape the hissy feats of Momma bin Laden.
By the way, this is story that Stone is likely to butcher:
Only 12 survivors were pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center after the towers fell on Sept. 11, despite intense rescue efforts. Two of the last three to be located and saved were Port Authority police officers. They were not discovered by a heroic firefighter, or a rescue worker, or a cop. They were discovered by Dave Karnes.Sort of like "Platoon" meets "Wall Street". Hopefully with production values of "JFK", but unfortunately also likely with its politics.
Karnes hadn't been near the World Trade Center. He wasn't even in New York when the planes hit the towers. He was in Wilton, Conn., working in his job as a senior accountant with Deloitte Touche. When the second plane hit, Karnes told his colleagues, "We're at war." He had spent 23 years in the Marine Corps infantry and felt it was his duty to help. Karnes told his boss he might not see him for a while.
Then he went to get a haircut.
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