Oliver Stone, former auteur responsible for Platoon and, of late, political hack responsible for Alexander, World Trade Center, W., Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Savages , felt that he needed to speak up against the much-heralded final episode of Breaking Bad. Now taken out of context, Stone’s accusations of unrealistic, aggrandizing violence may have some credence but he admits to not “watch[ing] the show very tune” and that he “tune[d] in and saw…15 minutes”. That’s like sporadically tuning in and out of The Sopranos for six seasons and catching the last scene and calling it a masterpiece. In short, it makes the commenter sound uneducated and, well, like a bit of an idiot.

Not only does Stone’s denouncement of Breaking Bad hint at a touch of jealousy (creator Vince Gilligan’s star is on the rise as Stone’s career has been plummeting for years) but it’s very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black. 1994’s Natural Born Killers is one of the most sadistic and twisted films I’ve ever seen and in no way is less aggrandizing of violence than Breaking Bad. In a lot of ways, Stone’s comment kind of sounds like the desperate plea of an aged talent who wants to make his way back into the public eye, even if it is for these type of misinformed comments.

Take into account that the following quotation from Stone contains major spoilers for the finale of Breaking Bad so only read on if you’ve finished the series:

“There’s too much violence in our movies – and it’s all unreal to me. I don’t know if you saw the denouncement [of ‘Breaking Bad’], I happen to not watch the series very much, but I happened to tune in and I saw the most ridiculous 15 minutes of a movie – it would be laughed off the screen. Nobody could park his car right then and there and could have a machine gun that could go off perfectly and kill all of the bad guys! It would be a joke.

“It’s only in the movies that you find this kind of fantasy violence. And that’s infected the American culture; you young people believe all of this sh*t! Batman and Superman, you’ve lost your minds, and you don ‘t even know it! At least respect violence. I’m not saying don’t show violence, but show it with authenticity…

“If people think that bringing a machine gun to your last meeting is a solution to a television series that’s very popular, I think they’re insane. Something’s wrong. It’s not the world we know.”

It seems that ol’ Mr. Stone is suffering a bit of late-term amnesia, forgetting about the violent films that made his career what it is today. Honestly, I think that starting an intelligent debate about violence in pop culture is all well and good but to do it from an uninformed standpoint is a major waste of words. My words to Stone: Go back, watch the series in its entirety, and then make some public comments.