The Danish documentarian was able to spend time with Stone during the run-up to the insurrection, and what he captured on film is not pretty. As Guldbrandsen put it in his director\u2019s statement, \u201cwe went on a wild ride through the halls of power,\u201d a journey that revealed all the smouldering entrails of American carnage in the era of Donald Trump.
Guldbrandsen went on to bemoan the way citizen journalism and social media have failed to live up to their potential to undergird democratic ideals. Instead, he asserts, the new electronic media have spread misinformation and corrosive discourse, threatening the very foundations of democracy itself,
\u201cNow [the Internet] has become the perfect place to overwhelm the truth,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe loudest liar wins.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Storm-Foretold1.jpg\")
@Courtesy of Abramorama\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
In A Storm Foretold<\/em><\/strong>, Guldbrandsen amply shows that one of the loudest liars out there\u2014in addition to Donald Trump, of course\u2014has been Roger Stone, the conservative analyst\u00a0 who has made raw aggression a leitmotif during his half-century career as a Republican strategist. Stone himself described his strategy in these terms: \u201cAttack, attack, attack\u2014and never defend\u201d and \u201cAdmit nothing, deny everything, and launch a counterattack.\u201d Some observers feel that Roger Stone\u2019s role in the January 6 uprising has not received the attention it deserves, and Guldbrandsen\u2019s film goes a long way toward setting the record straight. A Storm Foretold<\/em><\/strong> amply depicts a dyspeptic Stone engaged in his usual machinations. In addition to the conversations with Flynn and Jones, he is pictured in the infamous Willard Hotel meetings and is shown conniving with leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Here’s trailer of the film.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n
An article in the March 4, 2022 issue of The Washington Post<\/em><\/a> put it this way: \u201cDuring his nearly half-century career as a Republican operative, Stone has made himself synonymous with the type of populist showmanship and scorched-earth political attacks that propelled Trump\u2019s 2016 bid for the White House, for which Stone served as an informal adviser.\u201d
As seen in this incisive documentary, Stone rivals Trump himself as a master of name-calling and invective. He is pictured, for example, making crude racist and anti-Semitic comments, blasting Mitch McConnell as having \u201can I.Q. of 70,\u201d and denouncing John McCain as a war criminal, suggesting that the 45th president may have learned a thing or two about crudity from Stone.
The same Washington Post<\/em> article claimed that Stone wanted to be paid for participating in the documentary, and that he initially objected to Guldbrandsen\u2019s \u201cfly-on-the-wall footage,\u201d which captured Stone in candid phone calls with Michael Flynn, Alex Jones, and other key players in the run-up to the January 6 uprising.
\u201cHe didn\u2019t want to do anything observational, where he lost control of the situation,\u201d Guldbrandsen was quoted as saying. \u201cHe wanted interviews and staged situations, which of course from my perspective is very boring and uninteresting.\u201d<\/p>\r\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Storm-Foretold2.png\")
@Courtesy of Abramorama\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Arguably the most interesting scene in the film comes on January 6 itself, when, in the heat of the insurrection, Trump rebuffs Stone\u2019s pleas for pardoning some of their allies. Feeling angry and betrayed, Stone denounces Trump in a phone call to a colleague, suggesting that the former president be impeached again and directing a volley of \u201cfuck these people\u201d remarks against the Trump family.
This scene also reveals a vulnerability and softness about Stone that is perhaps surprising, given his take-no-prisoners combative personality. It only underscores the fact that Cristoffer Guldbrandsen has created a compelling documentary about a character that is more complex and nuanced than appears at first glance.
Though A Storm Foretold<\/strong><\/em> might be faulted for not offering enough background information about Stone\u2019s lifelong activities to put his insurrectionist activities in context, this impressive documentary is yet another fervent testimony to the perilous state of American democracy at this crucial moment in history. If Guldbrandsen were Dickens, he might well have written \u201cIt is the worst of times, the worst of times.\u201d
Rating A-
Check out more of Edward\u2019s articles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\r\n