So Oliver Stone *Hated* The BREAKING BAD Finale

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For most Breaking Bad fans, the series finale could be best described as “fitting” with moments of perfection. I mean I could watch that scene between Walt and Skyler a hundred times and it just won’t get old.

But famed director Oliver Stone sees the Walt’s last hurrah a little differently, calling it “a joke” and “ridiculous.” I’ll just let the comments he made in Forbes speak for themselves for a moment:

There’s too much violence in our movies – and it’s all unreal to me. I don’t know if you saw the denouement [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.

Okay, so Stone didn’t watch the series but tuned in for the finale, so you can pretty much dismiss his comments outright. Obviously he missed the point that the man has stupidly dumb luck combined with serious intelligence. It may seem ridiculous from the outside, but for regular Breaking Bad viewers Walt pulling that off is par for the course. Plus, his luck does catch up with him in this case, so there is consequence.

Fantasy violence or not, it narratively makes sense. And really, that’s all you can ask for in cinematic storytelling.