One nice thing about Fora.TV is that they provide a transcript which you can access on their website just below this video clip of this interview. Here is my favourite bit -- of the many interesting bits -- that I've pulled from the transcript and dressed up a bit:
Interviewer: Talking about an Iraq... when do you think you will make a film about the debacle?
Stone: I am not qualified to... I mean... there is so much Internet stuff. It's so edgy and hot... you know... I have lost interest in trying to be on the edge. I am into something else right now. These kids will make a movie about Iraq. It will be good... I think the contractors are much more interested in subjects for an older guy like me. Because I know a lot of guys who went back to Iraq. Not a lot... I know three or four guys... not a lot... they are all Vietnam vets and they say "Hey, Oliver, this is like a second Vietnam... this is cool... we make a lot of dough" You know, they are pulling $300,000 to 400,000 a year to keep some police station in Ramala... to be cops and then at night it's a whore house... but during the day they pretend to be cops... you know... it's like typical Vietnam stuff... Money... Iraq is about money... and these guys are going back to score. That's an interesting story to me. That would be wages of fear American style, you know. But I couldn't do the soldiers because I've lost touch with that generation. I mean... they are different than we were. Most of us were draftees, or volunteers because of the draft. These guys come from another ethic... they grew up in the 1980s, 90s... a lot of them saw the films I made... but it didn't change one iota their belief in what the government says.
Interviewer: Continuing on the one theme... Platoon took the United States and the world by storm... many critics thought another film on Vietnam was destined to fail. Can you explain what was so different about Platoon and why did it universally capture the audiences around the world? Briefly...
Stone: I think it hit an emotion... an emotion of a confused young man who went into a situation that was above his head. He didn't understand what he was into until it was too late... a classic situation like all of us, and I think he saw due two extreme sides of the conflict and the behavior that was possible to him... and I think people follow that story. It's a classic formula in the sense, you know... the classic novels are about the young man goes to sea... or young man goes to war... or young man goes west.
Interviewer: Seeing that how did "Born on the Fourth of July" and Platoon come about?
Stone: "Born on the Fourth of July" is completely different. It was written by Ron Kovic and I adapted the book 10 years before it was made. It was not made in 1978 with Pacino... ironically was made 10 years later by me directing it, I only had written it at first. But then I directed it with Cruise.
Interviewer: And "Platoon"...
Stone: 10 years later too... I wrote it. It was not made. I thought the world was against me. I went into other things, and then 10 years later miraculously it came around again, and it got made as did the "Born on the Fourth of July". So it was like a miracle.
Interviewer: Do you think it would have been the same exact product if you had made it.
Stone: I was not the director on either one I was the screenwriter. But it was fortuitous that it came around to me. Absolutely...
Interviewer: Tom Cruise gives an impressive performance as Ron Kovac... that you actually just mentioned. How did you decide on Tom in the casting of the film? My father actually went to school with Ron in Massapiquot...
Stone: If your father told you about Ron, then you know, Ron is competitive, he was, he's a very strong man... a very pure... American boy. Let's say, really a Polish immigrant, very strong and he believed in the war. He wanted Tom Cruise... In his foundation, what I knew of him, was that he very much liked Ron Kovic. I think Tom's behavior you can see is very willful and determined. He gets, you know, he gets what he wants and I think that was what Ron Kovic was. But the beauty of the film was that we were able to put Cruise into a position where he didn't get what he wanted in the end, you see. He sets out to be John Wayne and then of course he is shot, paralyzed and and basically castrated for the rest of his life. So he has to deal with being an hero, in another way, and I always thought that was the crux of the film: How do you get Tom Cruise in a wheel chair? How do you get him powerless? And how does he get to keep his powers? These questions. That's what made it effective for me.
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