<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="right" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="right" border="0" width="35.6%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1012422.cms" alt="/photo/1012422.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">Director Oliver Stone during a photocall to promote ''Alexander'' in Rome.
(Reuters Photo)</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Mr Stone, </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">The Times of India </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">reported that ‘Alexander’ had over 30 minutes of cuts. Besides the obvious copyright issues involved, how do you feel as an artist, that your work is being substantially altered - without your permission - before it is screened to audiences? Our paper even labelled it ''Aestheticide''.</span><br /><br />It’s appalling to me, and it apparently happens in many forms, sometimes abroad. When I got your article I enquired of our foreign sales chief Patrick Wachsberger, at Summit Pictures, who sold the movie internationally. They did not have any details about this. <br /><br />In general, I''ve responded quite quickly to requests from local distributors to modify pictures in their countries for various reasons, whether it is sex, local codes of conduct or violence. <br /><br />For example in Korea, the distributor for <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Alexander</span> asked me if he could make some adjustments for homosexuality – which is a strong taboo there.<br /><br />We worked it out over Christmas and I gave them several minutes of cuts. On the other hand, at the last second, they decided to go with the original version and it ended up making quite a fortune there.<br /><br />You see, they at least had the courtesy to ask me about this, and so it''s depressing to hear of what happened in India, which has more civilised sort of laws, and they didn''t even enquire with Summit Pictures or me. It would take a day or two or three at most, and I would not be averse to changes for such reasons.<br /><br />But if it’s coming from the exhibitor and distributor that would be less excusable. That would be an act of complete local banditry. <br /><br />I mean cutting 25 minutes of the movie and making it look like the Indian king killed him is ridiculous. If that were the cheapest way to make a Hollywood movie for India, then maybe it would be perfect; it would then look like the Indian king was the ''good guy''. This is debasing history too.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="61.8%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1012413.cms" alt="/photo/1012413.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">In fact, when our movie critic saw the movie she came away with exactly that impression, that you had changed the known history of Alexander. But the fact is, neither of you were to blame, it was, as we pointed out, someone else''s fault - some vested interests.</span><br /><br />You know, it''s outrageous. They never told anybody about it. Your newspaper was the only way we got to know. It''s a real shame, because India is not a small insignificant country. <br /><br />There''s a lot of piracy going on in the world, and this is a form of that. In fact, it''s even worse than piracy. Pirates at least respect the film and leave it intact. I would have worked something out for India if they had any real problem with the movie. <br /><br />India is a lot like China for the distributors, and they have similar problems because they are both large markets. There tend to be problems with the collection and distribution process. But this is banditry, sheer banditry. <br /><br />I hope to hell that the people responsible for cutting it have some sense of decency to tender an apology. This really is a dangerous trend. <br /><br />And to ask you a question, I was just wondering that if movies in India are long, 2 1/2 to 3 hours long as I''ve heard, and audiences are used to that, why cut this movie from 3 hours to 2 and a half? I mean, were they thinking that the audience wouldn''t understand the parts they cut? Do they do this with Indian movies too? <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="61.8%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1012427.cms" alt="/photo/1012427.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Coming back to the movie and its changed form. You stated in England that you could alter and re-edit ''Alexander'' for its DVD release. This is a case where the creator himself decides to change a work of art after it has been seen by the world. What are your views on that? Is it all right for artists to do that?</span><br /><br />That''s a good question. Well, I believe it''s always an ongoing process. It’s like, if a composer writes a piece or an opera and he''s not happy with it, he''ll go back and change parts of it. He can, and will, do so. <br /><br />This is even truer of playwrights like, if I remember some instances correctly, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, who did this. It''s the nature of time. I think you can carry on and change something you did, say every 5 years, as your perspective changes...correct? <br /><br />It’s true with every art form. Let’s say Guernica was very different as seen by Picasso at 30 or 40 or 50. So it just goes on. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">So DVD''s now allow you to do such things with movies? Are they also changing the way we receive them?</span><br /><br />Absolutely. I did this with my last film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Any Given Sunday</span>. It was about American Football and as I took it around the world, we saw that some things wouldn''t work for European and Asian audiences. I did a European version of the movie besides the American one. The DVD version was an amalgam of the two and my experiences with them. <br /><br />So in effect, the DVD is an international version. It''s a new form. Now you have more people seeing the DVD than the actual movie and it''s certainly changing the movie watching experience.<br /><br />At the end of the day for <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Alexander</span> – and here''s my point – I view the life of Alexander with a certain passion. The movie that we shot used a mountain of material. <br /><br />There''s so much in this mountain that the first theatrical version is like going up the north face of the mountain – the fastest way up. We edited the whole thing in 6-7 months, and it was a massive job on three continents. <br /><br />I believe in the movie. It may have some flaws but I stand by it. And it''s done well around the world, as you may know. Except the US and the UK, its done well everywhere else, and I''ve been told that it played well in India. <br /><br />An Indian friend told me that it played to packed houses in New Delhi, but she didn''t mention the cut. (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Laughs</span>) Maybe she didn''t realise it.<br /><br />The point is, if the mountain is rich, I can do a west face ascent and then for the DVD I could do a south face and then maybe in 5 - 10 years I could do a third version which is also valid. You see, a mountain can have several approaches and all of them can work in a different way. And I''m trying to make the DVD in this way by making it a simpler climb and make it easier to get to the top.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">So there''s a lot of work going into the DVD release and it will be different in some respects?</span><br /><br />Yes, that''s what I''ve been working on these last few weeks.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="right" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="right" border="0" width="35.6%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1012446.cms" alt="/photo/1012446.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">So, do you believe history will be kinder to the movie, as it was to Alexander himself?</span><br /><br />I tell you this, history has not been unkind. I mean abroad ... it''s done very well. No one is going to get hurt financially. At the same time, we''ve dealt with a subject of enormous historical importance. <br /><br />The story of Alexander is continuing. It''s an original story that history has served up for us. And what''s in that movie is generally accurate and that''s been acknowledged.<br /><br />So, I don''t know what harm it has done for those people to tear it apart so viciously in America and England. And there was neatness to it... that I suspect it had not so much to do with the film, as it had to do with something in the underlying mien of Alexander. <br /><br />Honour and Glory were the big issues of his life and these characteristics are obviously looked down upon now, as if honour and glory were suspect motives. <br /><br />It seems, if you do characters like that, critics especially savage that kind of person. I see that again and again in the English-speaking world. <br /><br />In the Mediterranean it''s only slightly different. But it (the movie) did so well in Korea and Japan that I think perhaps, there''s something in the Anglo-Saxon languages that''s condemnatory of Alexander. <br /><br />I''ve read so many ''<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Alexander</span> the Monster'' reviews, which say he was a cold, bland, rabid killer. Clearly, there are no contexts to those statements – of the history of the time, or his influence. <br /><br />Even in India, the Indian king Chandragupta Maurya, who came after Alexander, I believe he unified much of what''s now India. Could Alexander have inspired him? Was that a direct consequence of Alexander reaching India? There are so many such layers.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section5"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script></span></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="0" width="61.8%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><img src="/photo/1012442.cms" alt="/photo/1012442.cms" border="0" /></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">If I may just move away from the movie, since you mention honour and glory, and talk about war. You served in Vietnam and made seminal movies about that experience. Do you see any shades of that conflict in Iraq today? Will future filmmakers use the Iraqi experience to draw shades of meaning about war and the human condition?</span><br /><br />Do I compare Iraq to Vietnam or Alexander to Iraq? (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Laughs</span>) Interesting question...so lets step Alexander out of the equation. War was a different phenomenon in his day. We must understand that there were no lands, as we now know them now, back then and there were no borders. Like in India, where all the tribes and kingdoms constantly fought each other. There was no sense of nationhood and people are constantly confusing that with modern times.<br /><br />Between Vietnam and Iraq, I think there are tremendous parallels. We''re not even allowed to discuss that properly. I mean, for example, when we went to war my three war films were ignored and were not shown on television. <br /><br />They were not discussed and sadly, in some other way, they''ll (the wars shown) happen again. There''ll be the same loss, grief, heartbreak and violence. It goes on and on and it''s sad because we didn''t learn anything from Vietnam. <br /><br />And certainly, judging from our last election, we don''t want to talk about it. Mr Kerry could not even discuss Vietnam and its lessons properly. He could not say things like, yes I did protest Vietnam and that our opinion at the time, and on Iraq, was wrong. So, for half the population it seems the war was right. <br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Yes, the media in India did follow the US elections very closely and that was quite sadly evident.</span><br /><br />Yes, I see. I was out of the country then. All I can say is that Alexander would never have gotten into this mess (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Laughs</span>)<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section6"><div class="Normal"><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Speaking of violence, and the media. Your ''Natural Born Killers'' was both, an indictment of violence and evidently an even more scathing critique of the media and the reality it chooses to portray. So what was your primary aim with ‘Natural Born Killers’? Critiquing violence or the media''s role in engendering it?</span><br /><br />Well...you''re asking for intellectual themes. I think a movie is like building something over a period of time. You''re not just building one theme. There''s a primary motivation, a secondary and a tertiary too. <br /><br />I primarily set out to make a biography, and like <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Alexander</span>, there were a lot of historical parallels. With <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Natural Born Killers</span>, I did set out, frankly, to do my first action-adventure genre film, but by the time I finished it became other things. <br /><br />The entire cultural landscape was changing in America in 1993-94. For example, we had the OJ Simpson case, and more and more, the private became public for money. Television was clearly taking over the country and I felt that had to portray that in the movie. In our society, TV is primarily determined by the need for commerce, not bound by ethics<br /><br />Since, the circus is all about the money, so you can put up anything if it''s well funded. And now you can even beat the (TV) news by putting up anything online, so they resort to these things, however ugly they may be – like reality TV. <br /><br />You know, in the entertainment industry too, it''s become television driven financial spending. Even movies suffer. Every other time it''s put on the air we have to pay television fees. <br /><br />These are huge exorbitant costs we bear to make the movie acceptable to the public Movies and television are converging and moving closer, so a lot of the movies that you get in America are going to end up as television movies. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section7"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Yes, that''s happening in India too. Could I, in fact, ask you about India? In your opinion, does India figure anywhere on the map – as an area of interest to filmmakers or studios – as far as Hollywood is concerned, or will it in the future?</span><br /><br />I think it already has become an area of interest. The beauty of India is that it''s ...just the opposite of what we experience –the ways in which Indians make movies for instance. We have very different work cultures. <br /><br />I''ve personally seen the Bollywood experience, I was in a car with a famous Indian actor – this was many years ago – and he stopped off at 3 different movies in one day! (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Laughs</span>) He''d change his costume and makeup in the trailer, and the car, and everybody would be waiting for hours for him. He''d do the shoot in one or two takes and then go on to the next shoot (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">laughs</span>). It was unbelievable. <br /><br />I obviously admire their resourcefulness and it reminds me of the old Hong Kong cinema, and possibly American cinema in its earliest days. The system is clearly working very well and that''s good, but it''s very different<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">So do you think there will be any convergence between the world''s largest film industry and the world''s biggest one?</span><br /><br />I don''t know, I really don''t know. It''s a different culture and I hope the cultures of the world remain different and unique. You know, when I see MTV, I see that convergence – more and more of Michael Jackson kind of moves everywhere. But in this case, I really don''t know where it will lead.<br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section8"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">You''re in a league of your own with 3 Academy Awards. At the risk of sounding a little trite, which one of these Oscars means the most to you? ''Platoon'', ''Born on the Fourth of July'' or ''Midnight Express''?</span><br /><br />Well...they all meant something important at the time. But <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Platoon</span> would have to be the dream one. It was the one that was the justification after many years of hardship. It was written and directed by me, even if that was not the first one (Oscar). <br /><br />But it''s not about winning an Oscar really; it''s about making a movie and having an effect on the world. <br /><br />And coming back to your earlier question on versions of movies, it''s the same with the story of Alexander. It will always remain relevant. It''s no ordinary one, its one of the most unique human stories and the DVD will look to further bring that out. Its something we mustn''t forget.</div> </div>
