In his new documentary, the American filmmaker defends the use of atomic energy to respond to the climate challenge. Nuclear Nowa film to see this Sunday May 5 at 9 p.m. on Paris Première.
A new fight. A new movie. After having explored the alternative theories of the Kennedy assassination in JFK, the investigation, having painted the portrait of Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez, Oliver Stone offers a documentary in the form of a plea in favor of nuclear energy. Neither the lukewarmness of American distributors, who did not want his film, nor the refusal of Netflix scolded him. The cause is close to his heart. He recently went to Paris and then to Brussels, where he showed it to the European Parliament, in order to defend Nuclear Now.
The director of Platoon makes no secret of it, he made it to convince. Convince his fellow citizens and the American public authorities that years of green activism have blinded them. “From the beginning we were taught to fear nuclear power », he regrets in the film, in his stentorian voice. For him, the atom suffers from a bad reputation born after the shock of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, consolidated by disaster films until the recent Oppenheimer and by the predictions of Greenpeace. In the 1970s, the fight against the Vietnam War was often combined with anti-nuclear campaigns. Actress Jane Fonda stood at the head of the protests. “I appreciate her, but she was seriously mistaken on this point,” assures Oliver Stone during his meeting with the French press.
The strength of the French model
His awareness came gradually. Reading A Bright Future, by international relations professor Joshua Goldstein, was the trigger. He decided to adapt it into a documentary. Nuclear Now begins by recounting the nuclear adventure. The work of Pierre and Marie Curie, Eisenhower’s founding speech for the atomic industry in 1953, the birth of the first reactors in the United States… Oliver Stone recalls the scientific prowess represented by the handling of uranium. He fears neither Epinal images in illustration nor lyrical flights of fancy in narration.
“I don’t understand that nuclear is still a bad word, I think it’s a very pretty word “, he declared to journalists. A magic word even, for the future. The director unfolds his reasoning: the planet is warming, electricity consumption is exploding (it will be two to three times higher in 2050), and the energy transition cannot be achieved only with wind turbines and solar panels. Even less by opening or maintaining coal-fired power plants, as Germany, the largest European polluter despite its billions invested in sustainable development, is doing.
German Greens dressed for winter
“We no longer have time to be afraid », declares Stone, who in turn praises the vitality of the Russian nuclear industry, points out the role of the American oil lobbies, and dresses the German Greens for winter and all other seasons. And highlights France which, with 75% of electricity produced by power plants, constitutes a model.
He sweeps away the dangers. The civilian atom, he recalls, has never killed. The Fukushima deaths were linked to the tsunami, not the plant explosion. On the other hand, coal causes the deaths of 500,000 people per year. As for atomic waste, burying it constitutes a challenge that can be easily mastered, according to the Hollywood outsider, who now hopes to see nuclear power plants spring up around the world. Who will finance them? He doesn’t dwell on the question. His rich struggle sometimes shows a certain idealism. When told, the filmmaker replied: “Of course it’s idealistic. But we have no choice but to be… »
