Oliver Stone

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Oliver Stone

Born William Oliver Stone
New York, New York, U.S.
Other name(s) Minh Duc
Occupation film director, producer and screenwriter
Years active 1971-present
Spouse(s) Najwa Sarkis (1971-1977)
Elizabeth Stone (1981-1993)
Sun-jung Jung (1996-)

William Oliver Stone (September 15, 1946-), known as Oliver Stone, is a three-time Academy Award winning film director and screenwriter.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Stone was born in New York City. He grew up wealthy and lived in townhouses in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. His father was a Jewish stockbroker and his mother a Roman Catholic of upper class French birth. He was raised an Episcopalian as a compromise[1] but has since converted to Buddhism.

Stone attended Trinity School before his parents sent him away to attend The Hill School, an exclusive college-preparatory school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. His parents divorced while he was away at The Hill School, and only then did Stone learn of his father's extramarital affairs with the wives of several family friends. Stone's father took him to a prostitute to lose his virginity, in his midteens. Stone's father was also influential in obtaining jobs for his son including work on a financial exchange in France, where Stone often spent his summer vacation with his maternal grandparents, a job that proved inspirational to Stone for his movie Wall Street. Stone also considered becoming a mercenary in Congo during this time. Stone eventually graduated from The Hill School in 1964, the same year as former JP Morgan & Co. CEO, Douglas A. Warner III. Stone was then admitted into Yale University, where he subsequently dropped out after one year.[2] Stone had become inspired by Joseph Conrad's novel Lord Jim as well as by Zorba the Greek and George Harrison's music to teach English at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam. Stone taught in Vietnam for six months after which he worked as a wiper on a United States Merchant Marine ship, traveling to Oregon and Mexico, before returning to Yale, where he dropped out a second time. Stone eventually graduated from film school at New York University (where he was mentored by director Martin Scorsese) in 1971, after his service in Vietnam.

A veteran of the Vietnam war, Stone served with the United States Army from April 1967 to November 1968. He specifically requested combat duty and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, and was wounded twice in action. His personal awards include the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor for "extraordinary acts of courage under fire", and the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster.

He has made three films about Vietnam —Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and Heaven & Earth (1993). He has called these films a trilogy, though they each deal with different aspects of the war. Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about Stone's experience in combat. Born on the Fourth of July is based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic. Heaven & Earth is derived from the memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, the true story of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese girl whose life is drastically affected by the war.

During this same period, Stone directed Wall Street (1987), which earned Michael Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor, Talk Radio (1988), and The Doors (1991), starring Val Kilmer.

Stone has won three Academy Awards. His first "Oscar" was for Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978). He won Academy Awards for Directing Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July.

For Year of the Dragon (1985) he received a Razzie nomination in the category Worst Screenplay. Other films whose screenplays he participated in are Conan the Barbarian (1982), Scarface (1983), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and Evita (1996). In addition, he has written or taken part in the writing of every film he has directed, except for U Turn (1997). The very first film that he directed professionally was the obscure horror picture Seizure (1974).

A distinctive feature of Oliver Stone's films is the use of many different cameras and film formats, from VHS to 8 mm film to 70 mm film. He sometimes uses several formats in a single scene, as in JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994).

“ I make my films like you're going to die if you miss the next minute. You better not go get popcorn.[3] ”
 
— Oliver Stone

[edit] Recent work

In the past decade, Stone has directed U-Turn (1997), which he describes as a small film that he would enjoy seeing as a teenager, Any Given Sunday (1999), a film about power struggles within and surrounding an American football team, and Alexander (2004), a biographical film about Alexander the Great.

He later said he was stung by the critical pans of Alexander, which was a financial failure (despite being one of the highest-grossing films internationally in 2004); production and marketing costs were not recovered.[1]. Stone has recently said that the film has recouped the cost (over 3.5 million DVDs sold in the U.S. alone). He re-edited the film as the Director's Cut, which was shortened from 175 minutes to 167 minutes. A third version of the film, a 3 hour and 45 minute extended cut, was released February 27, 2007 on the DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD formats.

After Alexander, Stone went on to direct World Trade Center, which centered on two Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) cops during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The main undercurrent of the film is hope through times of trial. The film did not do as well as it was expected, grossing $70 million (as of Nov. 17, 2006), though the film was made on a budget of $63 million. As of December 19, 2006, the worldwide box office for World Trade Center was $161,735,806.

On August 28, 2007, it was announced Stone would direct Pinkville, a Vietnam war drama set to star Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum. The films plot focuses on the investigation into the 1968 My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians. It will be Stone's 4th Vietnam film, after Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth. The film will be made for the newly reformed United Artists.[4] Oliver Stone had planned to start production on the film titled Pinkville, about the investigation of General Peers into the My Lai Massacre, featuring Bruce Willis (as General William Peers), Woody Harrelson (as Col. Henderson). However, United Artists halted its December 2007 production start because of the writers' strike.

W. is a film in pre-production based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. The film is based on a screenplay by Stone and Stanley Weiser, who had co-wrote Wall Street, (1987). The film, originally titled Bush, was re-titled W.[5] Filming began on May 12, 2008 in Shreveport, Louisiana and will likely wrap in June 20, 2008[6] and could be released for the election in November 2008 or the inauguration in January 2009.

[edit] Controversy

Stone's films often have been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and historical inaccuracies. JFK, for instance, hypothesizes many high-level government officials having a hand in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1991, he showed the film to Congress on Capitol Hill, which helped lead to passage of the Assassination Materials Disclosure Act[7] of 1992. 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.[8]

The film JFK was widely criticized in the media as being a mixture of truth and fiction. Stone published an annotated version of the screenplay, in which he cites references for his claims, shortly after the film's release. Similarly, he published an annotated version of his screenplay for the film Nixon, nominated for four Academy Awards, which was also criticized for its portrayal of President Richard M. Nixon.

Stone's screenplay Midnight Express was criticised for portraying the Turkish people in an overly negative light. The original author, Billy Hayes, around whom the film is set, has spoken out against the film, protesting that he had many Turkish friends while in jail.

Stone's film The Doors received criticism from Ray Manzarek (keyboardist/bass player) during a Q&A session at Indiana University East (in Richmond, Indiana) in 1997. During the discussion Manzarek stated that he sat down with Stone about The Doors and Jim Morrison for over 12 hours. He said none of the content of the discussion - such as details on important events in the history of The Doors and Morrison's personal life - were present in the film. Manzarek went on to say that Stone's film was highly inaccurate about Morrison and The Doors.

Stone has been rumored to use drugs while making films. On the DVD of Natural Born Killers: The Director's Cut, one of the producers Jane Hamsher recounts stories of taking psilocybin mushrooms with Stone and some of the cast and crew and almost getting pulled over by a police officer — a situation which Stone later wrote into the film. Natural Born Killers is filmed and edited in a frenzied style where animation, grainy black and white 8 mm film, color 35 mm film, and VHS are intercut and juxtaposed in a psychedelic montage of images showing not only the story's action, but also conveying the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The film was criticized by some for its apparent glorification of violence. Stone refutes this claim, saying that it is a satire of the American media's glorification of violence and violent people. The original screenwriter, Quentin Tarantino, was unhappy with the end result of the film because of the attention Stone gave to the aspects of the story involving the media, and asked that his name be removed from the credits. Tarantino was credited with "Story By" on the final film.

In 1997, a book about the making of the film, Killer Instinct was written by Jane Hamsher and published by Broadway Books. The book was well reviewed and sold well in Hollywood. It told of an out of control Stone making the film.

In 1999, Stone was arrested and pleaded guilty to drug possession and no contest to driving under the influence. He was ordered into a rehabilitation program. He was arrested again on the night of May 27, 2005 in Los Angeles for possession of a small amount of marijuana.[9]

In 2003, Stone travelled to Cuba where he interviewed Fidel Castro for three days. The result was the documentary Comandante where Stone and Castro talk about philosophy, history, movie stars, Che Guevara, important events from the past 50 years and Castro's views on the future of the revolution. The film was scheduled to air in May 2003 on HBO but was put on hold after an incident where hijackers threatened to kill passengers on a Cuban ferry if they were not taken to the United States. The hijackers were subsequently executed and in response to loud protests from the Miami Cuban lobby HBO pulled the film. To this day it has not been released in the United States and is only available on imported DVDs from Britain. Stone returned to Cuba and shot Looking for Fidel, which is a more politically-focused documentary dealing with conditions on the island and the relationship between Cuba and the United States. That film was aired on HBO in early 2004. Stone has said he admires the Cuban Revolution and supports Cuba's rights as a sovereign nation free from U.S. influence.

In December 2006, Stone shocked audiences at the British Comedy Awards by making a joke in reference to the Suffolk Strangler, a serial killer of prostitutes still on the loose. He said "It's great to be back in England. I feel like Jack The Ripper days are back. Nothing ever changes here." In response to the audience reaction he added "you're a lovely crowd."[10][11][12]

[edit] Stone's meeting attempt with the FARC in Colombia

See also: Operation Emmanuel

In a January 2008 interview with The Observer, Stone expressed disgust for the ongoing presumed U.S.-supported paramilitary violence in Colombia's "war on drugs". He accompanied Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president and self-appointed negotiator with the Colombian guerilla group known as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the release of three hostages held for over 6 years, another episode in the Humanitarian Exchange affair.

The visit was part of his research for an upcoming film he will be directing which addresses the crisis.[13] The FARC, designated a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, was described in a 2005 United Nations report as responsible for "grave" human rights violations, including "murders of protected persons, torture and hostage-taking¨ against ¨women, returnees, boys and girls, and ethnic groups."[14] During The Observer interview, Stone refused to condemn the FARC outright, but seemingly supported them. "I do think that by the standards of Western civilization they go too far; they kidnap innocent people. On the other hand, they're fighting a desperate battle against highly financed, American-supported forces who have been terrorising the countryside for years and kill most of the people. Farc is fighting back as best it can and grabbing hostages is the fashion in which they can finance themselves and try to achieve their goals, which are difficult. They're a peasant army; I see them as a Zapata-like army. I think they are heroic to fight for what they believe in and die for it, as was Castro in the hills of Cuba."[15]

Stone made the comments shortly after returning from a trip to Colombia, where he was to have filmed footage of the expected release of three FARC hostages, including a young child named Emanuel. While two of the hostages were liberated after the international commission appointed to oversee it was disbanded because of non-compliance by FARC to deliver the exact location of the three hostages, it was subsequently revealed that the FARC could not have released the child because they no longer held him. Instead the child had been placed in foster care and subsequently adopted by the Colombian welfare system (the ICBF) because of signs of child abuse. Some commentators surmised that the purported hostage release had been a FARC ruse all along.[16] Nevertheless, Stone blamed the Colombian government and the United States for the fiasco.[15]. The incident caused a wave of comments on Oliver Stone's official website, mostly by Colombian citizens who were noticeably upset with what was perceived as his support for FARC.

[edit] Other work

In 1993, Stone produced a mini series for ABC Television called Wild Palms. In a cameo, Stone appears on a television in the show discussing how the theories in his film JFK had been proven correct (the series took place in a hypothetical future, 2007). Wild Palms has developed a moderate cult following in the years since it aired, and has recently been released on DVD. That same year, he also spoofed himself in the comedy hit Dave, espousing a conspiracy theory about the President's replacement by a near-identical double.

In 1997, Stone published A Child's Night Dream, a largely autobiographical novel first written in 1966-1967. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the work published, he "threw several sections of the manuscript into the East River one cold night, and, as if surgically removing the memory of the book from my mind, volunteered for Vietnam in 1967." Eventually, he dug out the remaining pages, rewrote the manuscript, and published it. The book is almost a stream of consciousness telling of his experiences as a child, in college, and in Vietnam.

In 2003, Stone made two documentary films: Persona Non Grata, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Comandante, about Cuban President Fidel Castro. In 2004, he made a second documentary on Castro, titled Looking for Fidel. (See also Controversy, above.)

Stone is said to be directing a promotional advertisement for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where the games are to be held.

He was recently admitted permission by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to make a documentary about him. Stone had been previously refused permission by the Iranian government when the President's media advisor, Mehdi Kalhor, denounced Stone[citation needed] as being part of the "Great Satan" of American culture, despite his opposition to the Bush administration. He said "It is right that this person [Stone] is considered part of the opposition in the US, but opposition in the US is a part of the great satan. We believe that the American cinema lacks culture and art." Stone reacted with outrage, saying "I have been called a lot of things, but never a great satan. I wish the Iranian people well, and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours." However, Ahmadinejad approved permission a month later, saying he had "no objections" provided the documentary was based on accurate facts. Stone is due to visit Tehran to negotiate the production of the film with Iranian officials, possibly the president himself.

He is also set to direct four new movies: a film based on the novel The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand; Memphis, a movie focusing on the events leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968; Jawbreaker, the story of America's response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the invasion of Afghanistan and hunt for Osama Bin Laden; and Son of the Morning Star, a movie about General Custer's battle with President Ulysses S. Grant over military corruption and Custer's potential bid for the White House.

Stone is also looking into making a biopic about George W. Bush in the near future, indicating that it would be a "fair" film examining the controversial President's childhood, relationship with his father, struggles with alcoholism, subsequent conversion to Christianity, his political career and presidency. Josh Brolin was cast in the role of Bush.[17] and Elizabeth Banks as his wife.

[edit] Filmography


Awards
Preceded by
Alvin Sargent
for Julia		 Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
1978
for Midnight Express		 Succeeded by
Robert Benton
for Kramer vs. Kramer
Preceded by
Sydney Pollack
for Out of Africa		 Academy Award for Best Director
1986
for Platoon		 Succeeded by
Bernardo Bertolucci
for The Last Emperor
Preceded by
John Huston
for Prizzi's Honor		 Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture
1987
for Platoon		 Succeeded by
Bernardo Bertolucci
for The Last Emperor
Preceded by
Woody Allen
for Hannah and Her Sisters		 BAFTA Award for Best Direction
1987
for Platoon		 Succeeded by
Louis Malle
for Au revoir, les enfants
Preceded by
Barry Levinson
for Rain Man		 Academy Award for Best Director
1989
for Born on the Fourth of July		 Succeeded by
Kevin Costner
for Dances with Wolves
Preceded by
Clint Eastwood
for Bird		 Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture
1990
for Born on the Fourth of July		 Succeeded by
Kevin Costner
for Dances with Wolves
Preceded by
Kevin Costner
for Dances with Wolves		 Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture
1992
for JFK		 Succeeded by
Clint Eastwood
for Unforgiven

[edit] Bibliographies

[edit] Interviews

[edit] References

  1. ^ The religion of director Oliver Stone
  2. ^ Yale Daily News - Famous Failures
  3. ^ Oliver Stone: Natural Born Director
  4. ^ Stone headed to 'Pinkville' along with UA
  5. ^ Fleming, Michael. "Oliver Stone casts parents of W", Variety, March 26, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-27. 
  6. ^ Kent, Alexandyr. "Oliver Stone's W. to film in Shreveport", The Shreveport Times, March 26, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-26. 
  7. ^ Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)
  8. ^ Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board
  9. ^ Stoned: Oliver Stone Busted on DWI and Drug Possession :: hightimes.com
  10. ^ "Oliver Stone's 'Ripper' joke backfires". 
  11. ^ "Stone throws caution to wind". 
  12. ^ "Merchant takes top comedy honour". 
  13. ^ The Observer, ¨Stone: My Part in Baby Hostage Drama,¨ January 6, 2008.
  14. ^ ^ Commission on Human Rights, "Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Colombia." February 28, 2005.
  15. ^ a b The Observer, "Stone: My Part in Baby Hostage Drama", January 6, 2008.
  16. ^ Associated Press, "DNA Shows Colombia Boy was Rebel Hostage", Joshua Goodman, January 4, 2008.
  17. ^ Variety

[edit] See also

1. Riordan, James "Stone: The Biography" (1996).

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by Oliver Stone
Feature films
Seizure (1974) • The Hand (1981) • Salvador (1986) • Platoon (1986) • Wall Street (1987) • Talk Radio (1988) • Born on the Fourth of July (1989) • The Doors (1991) • JFK (1991) • Heaven & Earth (1993) • Natural Born Killers (1994) • Nixon (1995) • U Turn (1997) • Any Given Sunday (1999) • Alexander (2004) • World Trade Center (2006) • W. (2008)
Documentaries
Persona Non Grata (TV 2003) • Comandante (2003) • Looking for Fidel (2004)
v • d • e
Academy Award for Best Director

Warren Beatty (1981) · Richard Attenborough (1982) · James L. Brooks (1983) · Miloš Forman (1984) · Sydney Pollack (1985) · Oliver Stone (1986) · Bernardo Bertolucci (1987) · Barry Levinson (1988) · Oliver Stone (1989) Kevin Costner (1990) · Jonathan Demme (1991) · Clint Eastwood (1992) · Steven Spielberg (1993) · Robert Zemeckis (1994) · Mel Gibson (1995) · Anthony Minghella (1996) · James Cameron (1997) · Steven Spielberg (1998) · Sam Mendes (1999) · Steven Soderbergh (2000)

Complete List · (1927–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)
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Scarface
Films
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Persondata
NAME Stone, Oliver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES William Oliver Stone
SHORT DESCRIPTION Academy Award-winning American film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH New York, New York, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH