Cubadebate

  Oliver Stone junto a Fidel Castro  

The film director Oliver Stone has warned that the
independence of British news media would be destroyed if US
conglomerates were allowed to buy into them. The maker of
such films as Platoon and JFK, whose documentary on Fidel
Castro, Commandante, was pulled "indefinitely" from the
cable station HBO's schedules as America went to war with
Iraq, said British politicians were naively courting
disaster.

The communications bill enables foreign companies to buy
terrestrial channels such as ITV and Channel Five for the
first time. Stone, who screened Commandante at the Edinburgh
Film Festival, said he feared the change would undermine
standards. "I was shocked at how superficial and sentimental
the American coverage of the Iraq war was - all Private
Jessica Ryan, and no coverage of civilian casualties. In
Britain, you have a wider view, and people are more
independent.

"Goebbels said the bigger the lie, the more people will
believe it, and I am afraid that is the American case. In
America the media is amazingly conformist.

"We are living in an age of spin. Now there is a law before
parliament which would allow the US media to buy into your
media. That'll be the end of the independent British media."

Stone was scathing at the withdrawal of his documentary,
after the Cuban leader executed three men who tried to
hijack a plane and imprisoned 75 dissidents in the spring,
saying it had become a football in George Bush's re-election
campaign. Mr Bush, he alleged, was reliant on the Cuban
American lobby in Florida who had helped engineer the
state's much-disputed vote that took him to the White House.

"I just pray that the American people have a chance to see
Fidel Castro through his own words, because it need not be
filtered by anybody, particularly the Cuban American lobby.
The American people are sufficiently mature to see it
without being guided or having cards put up saying this is p
ropaganda."

Stone returned to Havana to grill Mr Castro on the
executions and his treatment of internal protest in Cuba. He
hopes that HBO will eventually show the resulting film,
Looking for Fidel, together with Commandante.

Having been given unfettered access to the Cuban leader for
more than 60 hours of interviews, Stone claimed he was much
more of a "human being" than Mr Bush.

"I see George Bush as a synthetic person. He's a C student
at Yale, an ex-alcoholic who believes in Jesus - what could
be more dangerous?"

"Castro believes there is a new Bush policy against Cuba,
fomenting hijackings and supporting dissidents with money,"
Stone alleged. "I believe the Republicans are very concerned
about the 2004 election, which plays into the Castro
situation very deeply."

Stone is in Britain to make his film of the life of
Alexander the Great, starring Irish actor Colin Farrell.
Another Alexander film is to be directed by Baz Luhrmann,
but Stone is starting shooting next month.

"It is the biggest movie of my life," Stone said. "It's a
great story, I hope I can do it justice.

"No doubt Baz, whom I admire, will do something amazing,
extravagant and beautiful."

Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Monday August 25, 2003