Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, in which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on contemporary political and cultural issues, often controversially. He has received three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay for ‘Midnight Express’ (1978), and Best Director for ‘Platoon’ (1986) and ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (1989). The British newspaper The Guardian described Stone as “one of the few committed men of the left working in mainstream American cinema.”
Stone was born in New York City. After graduating from school he was admitted to Yale University, but left after the first year to teach English in South Vietnam before returning to Yale, where he dropped out a second time. In September 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army, requesting combat duty in Vietnam. He fought with the 25th Infantry Division, then with the First Cavalry Division, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before his discharge in 1968 after 15 months. While at Yale, Stone and friend Lloyd Kaufman worked on an early Troma Entertainment comedy, ‘The Battle of Love’s Return’ (1971). Both also acted in the movie, Stone in a cameo role. Stone graduated from film school at New York University (where he was mentored by director Martin Scorsese) in 1971.
The very first film that he directed professionally was the obscure horror picture ‘Seizure’ (1974); before establishing himself as a screenwriter for hire. Producing excellent scripts for ‘Midnight Express’ (1978); ‘Conan the Barbarian (with John Milius)’ (1982); ‘Scarface’ (1983); ‘Year of the Dragon (with Michael Cimino)’ (1985) for which he received a Razzie nomination in the category ‘Worst Screenplay’ and ‘8 Million Ways to Die’ (1986). He has written or taken part in the writing of every film he has directed, with the exception of ‘U-Turn’ (1997).
His second film as director was the cult Michael Caine movie ‘The Hand’ (1981). Caine plays Jon Lansdale, a comic book artist who loses his hand, which in turn takes on a murderous life of its own. In 1986, Stone wrote and directed two movies, the first of which was ‘Salvador’, a savage war drama which tells the story of an American journalist in El Salvador covering the Salvadorian civil war. While trying to get footage, he becomes entangled with both leftist guerrillas and the right wing military. He also released the massive critical and commercial success ‘Platoon’.
The movie stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone’s Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989’s ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ which is based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic; and 1993’s ‘Heaven & Earth’ which is derived from the memoir Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese girl whose life is drastically affected by the war. Stone wrote Platoon based upon his experiences as an Infantryman in Vietnam, as a counter to the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne’s awful ‘The Green Berets’ (1968). Platoon won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound and Best Editing.
During this same period, Stone directed ‘Wall Street’ (1987), for which Michael Douglas received the Academy Award for Best Actor; the under rated ‘Talk Radio’ (1988), and vanity project ‘The Doors’ (1991), starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison.
In 1991, Stone courted controversy when he showed his film ‘JFK’ to Congress. The Assassination Records Review Board (created by Congress to end the secrecy surrounding Kennedy’s assassination) discussed the film, including Stone’s observation at the end of the film, about the dangers inherent in government secrecy. Stone published an annotated version of the screenplay, in which he cites references for his claims, shortly after the film’s release. This is somewhat ironic, as JFK presents a highly fictionalized account of persons and events as they pertain to the President’s assassination. Scholars and history buffs alike condemn the film as a fantastically inaccurate re-working of the facts.
The controversy surrounding JFK was nothing to what he was about to face with his next film, ‘Natural Born Killers’ (1994). The film is a black comedy about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and psychopathic serial killers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media. It stars Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as the famous killers. Natural Born Killers is shot and edited in a frenzied and psychedelic style consisting of black and white, animation, and other unusual color schemes, and employing a wide range of camera angles, filters, lenses and special effects. Much of the movie is told via parodies of television shows, including a scene (I Love Mallory) presented in the style of a sitcom about a dysfunctional family. Commercials which were commonly on the air at the time of the film’s release make brief, intermittent appearances. In his DVD Director’s commentary, Oliver Stone goes into great detail about the look of the film, explaining scene by scene why a particular look was chosen for a particular scene.
Stone directed then directed ‘Nixon’ (1995), his biopic of the infamous former president; ‘U-Turn’ (1997), and ‘Any Given Sunday’ (1999), a film about power struggles within and surrounding an American football team.
In 2003 he directed the controversial political documentary ‘Commandante’ about Fidel Castro. He followed that with the extravagant ‘Alexander’ (2004), a biopic about Alexander the Great. After Alexander, Stone went on to direct ‘World Trade Center’ (2006), which centered on two Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) cops during the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2008 he released the under-performing ‘W’, another Presidential biopic that featured an excellent performance from Josh Brolin as George W. Bush. In 2010, Stone directed Michael Douglas in the Wall Street sequel ‘Money Never Sleeps’, which was boring, something Stone had never been accused of until that point.
John Carpenter – Interview
He may be famous for such films as Halloween, Escape From New York and Assault On Precinct 13, but John Carpenter always wanted to make a western. And it seems like he finally might. “I’m right now working on a little gothic western, we’ll see if we can get it set up,” he told the Fright Night Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. “I got into this business to make westerns. And I got typecast as a horror director after Halloween. My dream was to have a career in directing movies and so I went where they wanted me to go.” In 2008 he seemed to have given up on the idea. “I kind of stopped believing in that. You can’t get a western made now. I had a western come along that I liked, but they wanted to turn it into a science-fiction movie!” he told Den Of Geek with a laugh. “They don’t believe that they can sell a western.”
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