28-05-2013, 09:14 PM
The series is being broadcast in the UK now.
As Oiiver Stone is the narrator, the documentaries are structured and framed as historical essays authored by Stone.
There are deliberate stylistic echoes of other great documentary series - the epic feel of the World At War, the deadly curiosity and juxtapositions of Adam Curtis' Pandora's Box.
The content is often brilliant but Stone's delivery is downbeat, matter of fact, frequently articulating shocking thoughts with an absence of emotion.
The effect is strange, curious, disconcerting.
The moral judgements are not made directly in the narration, but usually come from statements of fact about wartime atrocities, or in the juxtaposition of barbaric statements by a leader or a general with imagery of the human cost. Corpses.
The archive footage is frequently breathtaking.
I saw the JFK episode (#6) over the weekend.
JFK is presented as a man on a secret political journey, whose public statements are often diametrically opposed to his private views.
The last 10 minutes of the film frames JFK as a leader who believes the goodness of man can triumph over humanity's inherent evil.
As the motorcade drives through Dallas, the commentary lists - matter of factly - the powerful groups who felt betrayed by JFK. The list contains almost all the false and true sponsors named here on DPF, and the historical "failures" that these groups blamed on Kennedy.
The narrator concludes: "The rage towards (JFK) was visceral."
Then, very deliberately, very tellingly given the small size of the canvas, the limited time available in the documentary, as Kennedy's car glides through Dallas, the film evokes Seven Days In May.
It states that "Kennedy had read the best selling novel which portrays a coup d'etat by a Joint Chiefs of Staff furious over a liberal President's new nuclear treaty with the Soviets".
Cut, in Adam Curtis style, to Burt Lancaster's General calling the President "criminally weak".
Stone's narrator continues by stating that JFK had read Seven Days and told a friend that such a coup d'etat was possible in the US if there were "a third Bay of Pigs".
And so JFK is slaughtered. Cue the music from Stone's movie JFK.
This is outstanding documentary filmmaking - using the shorthand grammar of Curtis' Pandora's Box.
After casting doubt on the Warren Commission, Stone continues:
"We may never know who was responsible (for the assassination) or what their motive was. But we do know that Kennedy's enemies included some of the same forces who would cut down Henry Wallace in 1944 when he was trying to lead the United States down a similar path of peace."
Stone presents overwhelming evidence that JFK was slaughtered for geopolitical reasons but chooses not to say it explicitly. Rather the technique employed is to encourage the viewer to assess the evidence presented and to come to the only possible conclusion.
Then there's a huge juxtaposition to a contemporary newsreel announcing:
"KHRUSCHEV RESIGNS"
Footage of Khruschev's grave - hidden from sight. "No monument was erected for years."
The clear implication is that, like Kennedy, Khruschev was removed from power by the forces opposed to the path of peace.
Stone's narrator continues: "Future generations owe an enormous debt, and possibly their very existence, to these two brave men who stared into the abyss and recoiled from what they saw."
Cut to a black and white photograph of Vasili Arkhipov, with the national anthem of the USSR playing.
"And they owe a special debt to an obscure Soviet submarine commander who single-handedly blocked the start of a nuclear war."
This is astonishing. In an American documentary about the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the climax is not some grand statement about JFK. Instead, the climax is shared between Kennedy, Khruschev and "an obscure Soviet submarine commander".
Whether you agree with the historical argument or not, I maintain that this shows that Oliver Stone has editorial control over the series. No production company Executive Producer would cut away from images of the assassination of JFK to the grave of Khruschev and a very Russian story.
Then the documentary returns to JFK's inaugural 1961 speech, where the new President says that the baton has been passed to a "new generation".
The narrator responds by stating that, with Kennedy's murder, the baton was returned to the "old generation of Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Reagan - leaders who would systematically destroy the promise of Kennedy's last year as they returned the country to War and Repression".
"The promise of Kennedy's last year" - JFK was on a political journey, and was no longer the man who had been elected.
Stone continues: "Though the vision that Kennedy and Khruschev had expressed would fall with them, it would not die. The seeds they had planted would germinate and sprout again long after their deaths."
A brief section on the horrors of the Vietnam War, and then back again to the Dallas motorcade.
The words of the narrator have to be considered against the images flickering on the screen.
The imagery says:
From American Innocence to American Grotesque.
From Cheerleaders to Sinister Forces.
Stone's narrator concludes: "In hindsight, it was on that afternoon in Dallas when John Kennedy's head was blown off in broad daylight, it was if a giant horrific Greek Medusa had unearthed its hideous face to the American people, freezing us with an oracle of things yet to come."
As Oiiver Stone is the narrator, the documentaries are structured and framed as historical essays authored by Stone.
There are deliberate stylistic echoes of other great documentary series - the epic feel of the World At War, the deadly curiosity and juxtapositions of Adam Curtis' Pandora's Box.
The content is often brilliant but Stone's delivery is downbeat, matter of fact, frequently articulating shocking thoughts with an absence of emotion.
The effect is strange, curious, disconcerting.
The moral judgements are not made directly in the narration, but usually come from statements of fact about wartime atrocities, or in the juxtaposition of barbaric statements by a leader or a general with imagery of the human cost. Corpses.
The archive footage is frequently breathtaking.
I saw the JFK episode (#6) over the weekend.
JFK is presented as a man on a secret political journey, whose public statements are often diametrically opposed to his private views.
The last 10 minutes of the film frames JFK as a leader who believes the goodness of man can triumph over humanity's inherent evil.
As the motorcade drives through Dallas, the commentary lists - matter of factly - the powerful groups who felt betrayed by JFK. The list contains almost all the false and true sponsors named here on DPF, and the historical "failures" that these groups blamed on Kennedy.
The narrator concludes: "The rage towards (JFK) was visceral."
Then, very deliberately, very tellingly given the small size of the canvas, the limited time available in the documentary, as Kennedy's car glides through Dallas, the film evokes Seven Days In May.
It states that "Kennedy had read the best selling novel which portrays a coup d'etat by a Joint Chiefs of Staff furious over a liberal President's new nuclear treaty with the Soviets".
Cut, in Adam Curtis style, to Burt Lancaster's General calling the President "criminally weak".
Stone's narrator continues by stating that JFK had read Seven Days and told a friend that such a coup d'etat was possible in the US if there were "a third Bay of Pigs".
And so JFK is slaughtered. Cue the music from Stone's movie JFK.
This is outstanding documentary filmmaking - using the shorthand grammar of Curtis' Pandora's Box.
After casting doubt on the Warren Commission, Stone continues:
"We may never know who was responsible (for the assassination) or what their motive was. But we do know that Kennedy's enemies included some of the same forces who would cut down Henry Wallace in 1944 when he was trying to lead the United States down a similar path of peace."
Stone presents overwhelming evidence that JFK was slaughtered for geopolitical reasons but chooses not to say it explicitly. Rather the technique employed is to encourage the viewer to assess the evidence presented and to come to the only possible conclusion.
Then there's a huge juxtaposition to a contemporary newsreel announcing:
"KHRUSCHEV RESIGNS"
Footage of Khruschev's grave - hidden from sight. "No monument was erected for years."
The clear implication is that, like Kennedy, Khruschev was removed from power by the forces opposed to the path of peace.
Stone's narrator continues: "Future generations owe an enormous debt, and possibly their very existence, to these two brave men who stared into the abyss and recoiled from what they saw."
Cut to a black and white photograph of Vasili Arkhipov, with the national anthem of the USSR playing.
"And they owe a special debt to an obscure Soviet submarine commander who single-handedly blocked the start of a nuclear war."
This is astonishing. In an American documentary about the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the climax is not some grand statement about JFK. Instead, the climax is shared between Kennedy, Khruschev and "an obscure Soviet submarine commander".
Whether you agree with the historical argument or not, I maintain that this shows that Oliver Stone has editorial control over the series. No production company Executive Producer would cut away from images of the assassination of JFK to the grave of Khruschev and a very Russian story.
Then the documentary returns to JFK's inaugural 1961 speech, where the new President says that the baton has been passed to a "new generation".
The narrator responds by stating that, with Kennedy's murder, the baton was returned to the "old generation of Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Reagan - leaders who would systematically destroy the promise of Kennedy's last year as they returned the country to War and Repression".
"The promise of Kennedy's last year" - JFK was on a political journey, and was no longer the man who had been elected.
Stone continues: "Though the vision that Kennedy and Khruschev had expressed would fall with them, it would not die. The seeds they had planted would germinate and sprout again long after their deaths."
A brief section on the horrors of the Vietnam War, and then back again to the Dallas motorcade.
The words of the narrator have to be considered against the images flickering on the screen.
The imagery says:
From American Innocence to American Grotesque.
From Cheerleaders to Sinister Forces.
Stone's narrator concludes: "In hindsight, it was on that afternoon in Dallas when John Kennedy's head was blown off in broad daylight, it was if a giant horrific Greek Medusa had unearthed its hideous face to the American people, freezing us with an oracle of things yet to come."
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war