Product Details

• Actors: Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene, Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Charlie Sheen
• Directors: Oliver Stone
• Writers: Eric Bogosian, Christopher Wilkinson, Daniel Pyne, David Veloz, James Hayslip
• Format: Box set, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 10
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: January 16, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000055WIS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #396,474 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While this monumental retrospective of Oliver Stone's directorial career doesn't include Salvador or Platoon--Stone's early, acknowledged masterpieces of history and remembrance--it certainly sheds light on the more controversial arc of his work ever since.

Beginning with 1987's Wall Street, Stone's barbed tragedy about corporate raiders and blinding greed during the Reagan years, this cinematic 10-pack represents a curious odyssey of generational touchstones, outright obsessions, and feverish experimentation. The minor, 1988 Talk Radio, for instance, introduced Stone's then-evolving critique of inflamed media in a society of hapless onlookers. But it was 1994's Natural Born Killers that exploded the theme in a wildly ambitious farce concerning two lovers who defy manufactured perceptions by becoming notorious murderers. Killers pushes the limits of screen violence, visual literacy, and the mixed-media technique (juggling film stocks, incorporating video, etc.) that Stone introduced in JFK. If the result is cold and forced, it's also brazen.

Most significant is the way this collection underscores Stone's drive to fuse historical drama with lingering emotions about the past. Stone, a Vietnam War veteran, revisits that haunting debacle here in the masterful Born on the Fourth of July and the moving Heaven & Earth. Yet some of his most famous efforts still draw heaps of scorn for narrative hubris and factual recklessness. (Does anyone really believe John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a Lyndon Johnson coup d'état?) But time is on Stone's side. Eventually, JFK, The Doors, and Nixon will be seen not as a failed objective history, but as the experience of a tumultuous era in the imagination of a man who lived through it all and can't shake it off.

The collection concludes with the flawed contemporary noir U Turn and the unexpectedly entertaining football saga Any Given Sunday. Stone bided his time following this extraordinary body of work, until the humanitarian relief drama Beyond Borders (not included) found the director on familiar footing. As Stone's legacy continues to grow, there is a remarkable career here to revisit with these 10 films. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stoned Americans, January 30, 2001

By 

Abe J. Flores "htuttle" (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oliver Stone 10 Feature Collection (DVD)

Clearly Oliver Stone is not your average film-maker. He is a man guided by passion, rebeliousness, and a burning sense of what is right and wrong. This 10-DVD set really strikes out and reveals the man for what he is, warts and all.

This set represents each of the films in the best condition available, which is both good and bad. The new Transfers of Nixon, Natural Born Killers and Heaven & Earth are stunning, and the extended cuts and bonus materials included with Doors, JFK, Nixon, and Any Given Sunday are more than any fan could possibly have asked for.

However there are flaws, fortunately most of them minor and probably exagerated by the contrast to what the set does actually achieve. Commentary tracks are lacking on Talk Radio and U-Turn, and not all the films are anamorphic widescreen. As noted those flaws are minor. A larger problem is Born of the Forth of July. While I wanted significantly more bonus material, something matching what is or will soon be available with the rest of the Viet Nam trilogy, the real problem is that the print is nearly unwatchable. In transfering this film they set the edge enhancement feature way too high. every scene is filled with images that have a white halo "Ringing" effect surounding the actors or the background. This is a side effect of a bad transfer and is present in many DVD's which have been "Cleaned" or "re-mastered" but I've never seen it this bad ever. It is so distracting here that one wonders if quality control ever checked this disc.

Given the attention to detail that went into several other of the Discs (See Heaven & Earth, Nixon, and Any Given Sunday) from the various studios involved, Universal really dropped the ball here. Director Stone, Ron Kovic, and this film all deserved substantially better than what Universal put in

But like I said, other than this glaring flaw the rest of the package is a real winner!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biggest bang for the buck, January 23, 2001

By 

R. Wilson (North Bend, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oliver Stone 10 Feature Collection (DVD)

If you like Stone, this set is a must. It may seem like a lot of money, but the special features are incredible and numerous (remember we were once expected to shell out $. . . for each of the NBK and Doors special editions on laserdisc!). JFK's 2-disc set it great-- with almost an hour of deleted scenes. There are commentary tracks for everything but U-Turn and Talk Radio (sadly), but still, it's more material than we've seen on any other director. The Any Given Sunday 2-disc set has a ton of deleted scenes and a gag reel which is hilarious. Nixon's 2-disc set has a new director's cut and there's a one-hour Charlie Rose interview with Oliver on it. One thing to keep in mind-- the bonus disc Oliver Stone's America is well-done, but it's not so much a documentary as a conversation with Stone. Overall, this raises the bar on director collections and is well worth the money considering it will take a month to get through everything. Imagine if they did this for Scorsese or Cassavetes!! MGM is supposed to release Platoon and Salvador special editions later this year, so that will wrap it up for Mr. Stone-- on to the other directors we love!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultmiate collection - nearly!, March 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Oliver Stone 10 Feature Collection (DVD)

If you can afford it then this is a great collection to get. I bought a multi region dvd player just so I could watch it in the uk!

The set contains great commentaries and superb extras - notably on the JFK and Doors 2 disc sets.

The only disappointment was that Platoon and Salvador did not feature in the set, but the special editions of the two films are on the way.

Overall, the set is highly recommended to die hard stone fans, and I recommend the documentary to anyone interested in film. This is a legendary set and not one to be missed. Lets just hope Stone works for long enough to be able to produce another set of this magnitude.