13-11-2012, 07:40 PM
Oliver Stone's long-awaited premium cable TV series, Untold History of the United States, premiered on Monday, November 12, 2012 on Showtime.
The series is touted thusly:
"There is a classified America we were never meant to see. From Academy Award®-winning writer/director Oliver Stone, this ten-part documentary series looks back at human events that at the time went under reported [sic], but that crucially shaped America's unique and complex history over the 20th century. From the atomic bombing of Japan to the Cold War and the fall of Communism, this in-depth, surprising, and totally riveting series demands to be watched again and again."
Based upon the content of the first episode, "The Birth of the American Empire," Stone will end up delivering nothing more than watered down, mainstream history that scrupulously avoids examination of the "untold stories" that the filmmaker so dramatically promises to reveal.
ITEM: Stone's high school survey of FDR's presidency avoids all mention of the 1934 so-called "Business Plot" to overthrow the Roosevelt government and of American hero Smedley Butler's single-handed thwarting of that coup.
ITEM: Nowhere does Stone challenge the conventional wisdom regarding the rise of Adolf Hitler or address the thesis of Guido Preparata as set forth in his seminal Conjuring Hitler.
ITEM: The possibility of conspiracy and cover-up related to the Pearl Harbor attack is not referenced, let alone addressed.
ITEM: Stone tacitly accepts the official argument for the necessity of the atomic bombing of Japan.
It appears that FDR's replacement of Henry Wallace will be a main focus of the second episode. This is promising.
But as far as the first episode of Untold History of the United States is concerned, Oliver Stone today seems content to wade aimlessly in the shallow end of the deep politics pool.
The series is touted thusly:
"There is a classified America we were never meant to see. From Academy Award®-winning writer/director Oliver Stone, this ten-part documentary series looks back at human events that at the time went under reported [sic], but that crucially shaped America's unique and complex history over the 20th century. From the atomic bombing of Japan to the Cold War and the fall of Communism, this in-depth, surprising, and totally riveting series demands to be watched again and again."
Based upon the content of the first episode, "The Birth of the American Empire," Stone will end up delivering nothing more than watered down, mainstream history that scrupulously avoids examination of the "untold stories" that the filmmaker so dramatically promises to reveal.
ITEM: Stone's high school survey of FDR's presidency avoids all mention of the 1934 so-called "Business Plot" to overthrow the Roosevelt government and of American hero Smedley Butler's single-handed thwarting of that coup.
ITEM: Nowhere does Stone challenge the conventional wisdom regarding the rise of Adolf Hitler or address the thesis of Guido Preparata as set forth in his seminal Conjuring Hitler.
ITEM: The possibility of conspiracy and cover-up related to the Pearl Harbor attack is not referenced, let alone addressed.
ITEM: Stone tacitly accepts the official argument for the necessity of the atomic bombing of Japan.
It appears that FDR's replacement of Henry Wallace will be a main focus of the second episode. This is promising.
But as far as the first episode of Untold History of the United States is concerned, Oliver Stone today seems content to wade aimlessly in the shallow end of the deep politics pool.