IT TAKES Oliver Stone just 15 minutes to get on to his favourite topic: conspiracy theories. No, the man who made a film claiming that John F Kennedy was the victim of a right-wing plot doesn't believe that the World Trade Centre was brought down by a similar cabal. For Stone, the conspiracy came later, with the hiring of Republican-friendly companies to benefit from the aftermath.
'The press had a conspiracy theory right in front of their noses,' he says. 'The words 'conspiracy theory' are ridiculed all the time, but here we just had one of the biggest conspiracies of all time. It's a bull's eye - but these morons in the press can't see what's in front of them.'
Stone's in-your-face filmmaking is well known for getting up the noses of those in power. He even thinks that after his film Nixon, the CIA launched, well, a conspiracy to smear his name in the media.
By contrast, politics play little part in World Trade Center, an account of the September 11 attacks. This real-life story of two policeman trapped under the rubble of the Twin Towers avoids any comment on the wider politics of the attack. Instead, Stone focuses on the bravery of the entombed men and the fears of their families outside.
World Trade Center tells the story of two Port Authority cops, John McLoughlin (played by Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pe?a). Like many emergency workers, they rushed into the burning towers to help with the evacuation. The towers collapsed, and the two were trapped under the rubble, protected by a steel lift shaft. Stone focuses wholly on these two characters and the reactions of their distressed families. Aside from a story about a religious ex-marine vowing revenge, the politics aren't addressed at all.
This lack of political analysis has led some to dub it an 'anti-Oliver Stone film'. But Stone says the movie isn't meant to be political. Instead, it's intended as a memento mori: 'It's a movie about the events in microcosmic form,' Stone says. 'The idea is to demythologise the moment. The moment has become so politicised. The politics have taken America into an area we have never been in before - a bad area. So this film is a memory, it's a memorial, it reminds people to just remember that day. It says, go back to the origin, don't bring your politics, don't bring anything, just watch, feel and remember.'