Oliver Stone: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Paperback)

~ Charles L. P. Silet (Editor) "THERE'S NOTHING WORSE THAN to mislead a horror fan," says Oliver Stone, speaking of his new film, The Hand, "and I truly believe that any..." (more)
Key Phrases: dramatic license, Wall Street, Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Stone started his career in film as a screenwriter and has since then had major accomplishments as both director and producer. His work is known for being provocative, and many of the interviews concern the controversies surrounding such films as JFK . No matter his outlaw status, he has racked up two director Oscars, for Platoon (1987) and Born on the Fourth of July (1991) and one for his Midnight Express (1978) script. So much for so-called controversy. The interviews and articles here have appeared in such publications as Sight and Sound , American Cinematographer , Entertainment Weekly , Positif , and Film Comment . Bonnie Smothers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Throughout his career Oliver Stone (b. 1946) has broken traditions and challenged audiences with a series of daring, angry, violent, and often confrontational films. Politically charged movies such as Nixon (1995), JFK (1991), and Wall Street (1987), and his Vietnam trilogy of Platoon (1986), Born on the 4th of July (1989), and Heaven and Earth (1993) provoke and enrage critics and audiences from all ideological walks. In a short time, Stone has established himself as one of the most admired and most reviled directors in American cinema.

Ranging from 1981 to 1997, the fifteen conversations featured in Oliver Stone: Interviews reveal a man frustrated by what he sees as the hypocrisies of American politics, of conservatism, and of the Hollywood film industry. But the conflicts and tensions these issues generate spellbind him.

In the interviews, Stone comes off as a man as brash, outspoken, confident, and complicated as his movies. His obsessions -- the 1960s, the ways in which Vietnam shaped the country, the nature of violence, and the role of the media in shaping it -- resurface again and again, no matter what film Stone is discussing.

Though the subjects of Nixon, JFK, Born on the 4th of July, The Doors (1991), and Heaven and Earth are rooted in the turbulent 1960s, Stone as interviewee and filmmaker is firmly entrenched in the present. He fiercely discusses how the attitudes and political effects of the 1960s have defined later decades and generations, as he talks about his satire of the stock market (Wall Street, 1987) and media exposure (Natural Born Killers, 1994). Bolts of the director's raw wit and enthusiasm for the cinema shine through all of Stone's ferocious rage.

Stone loves writing as well as directing. Whether discussing his screenplays written for other directors -- which include Scarface (1983), Midnight Express (1978), or Conan the Barbarian (1982, with director John Milius) -- or his own films, Stone emphasizes how crucial screenwriting is to making great movies. "Directing is a natural extension of writing," he says in a 1987 interview with Michel Ciment. "A director can always pull through with noise everywhere and his colleagues around. I don't think a good director can make a good film with a bad screenplay, but a bad director can deliver an acceptable film if he has a good screenplay. So for me, that's the number one priority."

Charles L. P. Silet is a professor of English at Iowa State University.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (January 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578063035
• ISBN-13: 978-1578063031
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,018,163 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)