Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 14 > Entry
A combative panel goes down as one of the best
I knew that the Austin Film Festival/Screenwriter’s Conference panel “In the Trenches: Writing the War Film” with war-film veterans Oliver Stone and John Milius would be terrific, bloated with virile bluster, yet incisive, nuanced, edifying.
It took place Saturday at the Paramount, with Stone (“Salvador,” “Platoon,” “Born on th Fourth of July,” etc.) and Milius (“Apocalypse Now,” “Conan,” “Red Dawn,” “The Wind and the Lion,” etc.) perched in the spotlight on-stage before a decent-sized crowd. It was excellent: smart, funny, sardonic, sad, mean, educational.
I couldn’t absorb it all — I was forced to shut my lap top by a kindly volunteer — and my note-taking skills with a pen long-ago eroded to stick-in-sand curlicues. I did what I could, but mostly sat back, smiling, during one of the best panels I’ve been to.
I arrived a wee late, just in time to hear Stone call “Saving Private Ryan” “absurd.”
“I would have shot Tom Hanks,” said Vietnam War vet Stone, who broke down how phony the film’s story is, how counterintuitive to anything you learn in combat Hank’s character’s actions were.
Stone flat-out does not buy “all that ‘Greatest Generation,’ Tom Brokow b———.”
World War II fighters weren’t heroes for the reasons Spielberg and the media claim they were. “It was a (cruddy), hard existence for them,” Stone said. “They were heroes just for surviving.”
Milius chimed in that WWII vets he’s talked to told him, “I was just doing my job.”
Both men pointed to WWII movies in which the heroes were cowards as the most realistic, and best, such as “Attack” with Eddie Albert.
Other bits, bites:
Both filmmakers love Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line.” Stone called it “a most poetic movie … War was a fever” (as depicted in the movie).
Both men believe every American should have to serve their country, especially in the armed forces. “They should have to have their lives interrupted,” because “it tells you there’s something bigger than you,” Stone said.
“Kids just want to sit at their computer,” Milius said. “They are not engaged with the world.” (Stone didn’t entirely agree with that statement.)
The Bush administration, said Stone, is “Madmen acting sane.” It’s time to get off the blogs and hit the streets in physical protest against the Iraq war, he added.
Problem is, Stone said, and a huge reason we are entangled in the war, is that “Americans worship violence. They worship shock. They worship awe.”
Milius, famously right-wing, hawkish and board member of the National Rifle Association: “I love the Bomb,” which made Stone wince, hard.
When Stone called “Starship Troopers” one of the best war movies of recent years, I clapped loudly and the director said, “Thank you.”
When Milius said he was “never a big fan of ‘The Deer Hunter,’” a man in the audience shouted at him using expletives, then at Stone, and the moderator had to tell him to “please calm down,” which only provoked the nut-head further. He finally shut up.
They despise Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” — Stone for the message, Milius for the craftsmanship.
The Vietnam movie “Hamburger Hill” was “much too pro-American,” failing to show the Vietnamese side, Stone said.
About “Apocalypse Now,” which he likes, and of course Milius wrote, Stone said: “I wish Brando would have done his homework and would have learned his (expletive) dialogue.” Said Milius: “He did the best he could. He hated it out there.”
“Gen. Westmoreland was a stupid, terrible commander,” Stone said. “And we are still not getting at the hearts and minds” of the people during this war.
Stone’s favorite war film ever: “Dr. Strangelove.”
When Stone lavished praise on “Forrest Gump,” Milius was asked if he liked it. “Oh, sure. I like it when he runs down the street. I like how he sits on a bench.” We are pretty sure he was being brutally sarcastic. The frown on Stone’s face said it all. The audience laughed. Milius responded: “I’m not a big fan of Tom Hanks. I would have fragged him, too.”
