Oliver Stone on the U.S.: "We're A Sick Country"

Oliver Stone on Jun 21. 2010. (AP Photo)

NEW YORK (CBS) Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone has some heavy words for the United States.

The outspoken filmmaker spoke with CBSNews.com's Ken Lombardi in New York on June 21 about his new documentary "South of The Border" and the current state of United States politics.

A vocal critic of the Bush administration, he is cautiously supportive of President Obama.

"I'm rooting for it," says Stone of the Obama administration. "I'd like to see him turn this situation--he inherited a miserable situation. We're playing this game of empire."

"We don't want to allow any competitors or adversaries to challenge us; we are trying to fight for something we can't afford and really we can't pull off. We can't win in Afghanistan, we can't win in Iran and we can't win in Iraq."

"It's the same paranoia that goes through American life," he said.

"We're a sick country as long as we're going to think like that. We have to rethink our priorities. We have to be equal."

"South of the Border", a cinematic road trip through five countries to explore the cultural and political movements of South America, opens at the Silverdocs Festival in Washington on Monday.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

[peter_graminiano]

Oliver Stone is an American hero.

[peter_graminiano]

Oliver Stone is an American hero.

[extremophil]

If the country is indeed sick, Oliver, it doesn't help that morons like you make ludicrous movies and pass them off as documentaries.

[omnibus66]

Sick and getting sicker all the time. The symptoms are radical right wing Republicanism, tea-baggers and Fox News. The prognosis is, unfortunately, terminal.

[citizenusa-2009]

Finally, someone speaks the truth, honestly and unafraid to say what we've all known for years. We ARE a nation of sickos. With all the advancements in technology we are STILL barbaric people who did in fact elect little George Bush, who (and it was predicted), nearly DESTROYED our country.

His legacy? Two bloody, unwinable and (in the case of Iraq) UNPROVOKED wars. Yes, we are SICK to have allowed the tyrants to drag us into ANOTHER WAR.

Obama is a man with a conscience and a brain. I hope and pray he can fix some of our problems. God knows, he is trying.

P.S. - You rednecks who say "USA all the way" no matter HOW we F up, are unbelievably ignorant and in the worst kind of denial imaginable. Better you tend to your "stills" and your "cousins" and leave the rest to us. LOL.

[jasperlily]

Amen. That's exactly the way it is. Unfortunately, there's still the good ole boy mentality and the far right bent only on lining their pockets mentality, with their feet stuck firmly in their own multi-generational muck who refuse to see anything beyond their own denial.

[erasmus111]

It's good to see that there are some Americans living in reality.

[leftcoastconservative]

Must be so terrible here, you made a lot of money doing nothing but making propaganda movies, so just leave Ollie, go move in with your lover Hugo

[steveneisenpreis]

Anybody who calls the good old US sick IS sick!

[erasmus111]

: I