Stone Goes South of the Border, Sees Future, Reports Back That "It Works"

Matt Welch points to this profile of Oliver Stone in today's The New York Times, which details the Hollywood conspiracy theorist's plans for a sequel to Wall Street, his 1987 indictment of New York's downtown money men. The Times neglects to mention that Stone is currently in Venice premiering his newest film, the Hugo Chavez hagiography South of the Border. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film, scripted by Marxist writer Tariq Ali, is "a rebuttal of what he views as the fulminations and lies of right-wing media at home and abroad regarding the socialist democracies of South America."

Also premiering in Venice—and also noted by Welch—is Michael Moore's new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, which received a rave reviews and a standing ovation for its brave declaration that "Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil." Huzzah, Michael!

Check out the trailer for Stone's South of the Border:

In the trailer, notice that Stone shows CNN's John Roberts declaring breathlessly that "he's more dangerous than bin Laden, and the effects of Chavez, his war against America could eclipse those of 9/11." For the record, this is a deceptive edit intended to suggest that CNN is irrationally hostile to Venezuela, that Roberts hysterically compares Chavez to Bin Laden. Here is the full quote, from a Roberts interview with Democratic pollster Doug Schoen, author of the anti-Chavez book The Enemy Closer to Home:

"Right off the bat in the very front of the book you quote Otto Reich who was the former ambassador to Venezuela back in the 1980s as saying that he's more dangerous than bin Laden and the effects of Chavez, his war against America could eclipse those of 9/11." (emphasis added)

According to this recent AFP story, Stone recently met with Fidel Castro, subject of his fawning documentary Comandante, and his brother Raul, during which time they lamented that the United States, once a nation of laws, was now attempting to justifying the torture of enemy combatants.

Update: I forgot to note that Stone's celebration of Venezuelan democracy opened the very day that Chavez ordered 29 more radio stations critical of the government shut down.