Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection (Salvador / Platoon / Wall Street / Talk Radio / Born on the Fourth of July / JFK Director's Cut / The Doors / Heaven and Earth / Natural Born Killers / Nixon / U-Turn / Any Given Sunday Director's Cut)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Oliver Stone Collection (Redux) is the second time out that Warner has trundled this great director's wares on DVD. The first collection was limited to titles that Warner held the rights to. This time we get a comprehensive collection of the master's work; 14 films in all, representing Stone's brilliant work from virtually every studio in Hollywood - save Paramount. The set contains Stone's most prolific masterpieces (Platoon, Natural Born Killers, Born On The Fourth of July, Any Given Sunday), his most ridiculed and underrated set pieces (JFK, Nixon, Wall Street, The Doors) and his largely forgotten precursors to greatness (Salvador, Talk Radio) which, in hindsight, are great masterworks in their own right.

Synopses in brief:
Talk Radio: A hard-edged journey into the spiraling out of control life of a radio shock jock who is on the verge of a crying gag.
Salvador: A burned out freelance photographer's interest in journalism is rekindled amidst the civil unrest in war ravaged El Salvador.
Platoon: A troupe of soldiers enter the hellish nightmare that was Vietnam and lose their souls to the inner struggle that has no heroes or winners.
Wall Street: Martin and Charlie Sheen butt heads after the latter goes to work for unscrupulous corporate raider, Gordon Gecco (Michael Douglas). Heavily dated in its oh, so 80s subject matter.
Born On The Fourth Of July: A no-holds-barred, bare knuckled account of the folly and shame of an ungrateful country that befell returning Vietnam vets.
Natural Born Killers: A seething, scathing attack on the legal justice system and media hype that transforms the terrorizing debauchery of a couple of reprobates - Mickey and Mallory into `Robin Hood-like' vigilantes.
The Doors: The calamitous highs and debilitating lows of rock legend Jim Morrison get the robust treatment in this high octane rock-u-mentory that puts "Rock Star" to shame.
JFK: The stunning conspiracy theory saga that attempts to offer up alternative theories to the Warren Commission's report on President Kennedy's assassination. An eclectic, thrilling roller coaster of a movie with a slam bang finish!
Nixon: A rather straight-forward retelling of Nixon's highs and lows with Sir Anthony Hopkins doing his best to hide the fact that no one is quite like Tricky Dick but the man himself. Paul Sorvino is hauntingly on point as Henry Kissenger and Joan Allen gives a most intelligent read of first lady, Pat.
Any Given Sunday: A hard-edged look at the world of professional sports and how corruption, greed and the competitive spirit collide. Cameron Diaz and Al Pacino stage some rough-house politics to will a ferocious team out of its losing streak. Hot stuff!

This collection gives you a solid batch of transfers; the one disappointment remaining "Born On The Fourth of July" which still has not been anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions. Otherwise, picture quality throughout is superb. Colors are rich and vibrant. "Wall Street" exhibits the most dated picture quality of the lot. Some pixelization is evident on both "Nixon" and "Talk Radio." "Platoon" and "JFK" exhibit a flawless and impeccably balanced transfer quality with very clean, reference quality whites and deep, rich solid blacks. The audio on most films is pristine. Again, the earlier films in the collection (from Salvador to Wall Street) have a more tinny treble and hollow sounding bass, but this is to be expected. Special features vary according to each disc. All come with at least an audio commentary provided by Stone. There's also a host of extra features on Stone himself, his life and life's work, as well as a preview of his latest project, "Alexander." For the price this box set is an absolute must for any collector!

This filmmaking collection is almost perfect, but not quite superior to, the previous Oliver Stone collection that was released. All of his directorial efforts starting with Salvador are included, and they are packaged similar to the way television series dvd sets are packaged (like Grey's Anatomy and Lost), with two overlapping discs per side of the package. Platoon is the special edition that was released by MGM/UA many years back, it is not the most recent special edition. Salvador, Wall Street, and Talk Radio are all the single disc special editions that are available separately. Born On The Fourth of July is the remastered version that was released not too long ago (picture is vastly improved with more natural hues and tones). The Doors, JFK, Nixon, and Any Given Sunday are separately available as two-disc editions and only the first discs of each (basically only the movie) are available in this set. Heaven and Earth and U-Turn are the same as what is available separately, and finally Natural Born Killers is the RATED version of the film, not the Unrated released by Trimark. The picture is much better than the Trimark Unrated release of the film but it is missing up to three minutes of footage needed to achieve an R rating. The NBK disc does include deleted scenes, commentary, and a theatrical trailer. I'm not sure why Warner Bros doesn't release the Unrated version since it does with all of its other films (except for Eyes Wide Shut, I suppose) but whatever. The extra disc on this set includes Stone's recent documentaries Persona Non Grata and Looking For Fidel. It does not included Comandante which is still not available in this country (you can get a Region 2 copy on Amazon.co.uk but you'll need a region free player to play it). There is also a little blurb about Alexander included. Oh, and the documentary Oliver Stone's America is also included including the full version of his student film Last Year In Vietnam. So, all in all this is a great buy. If you really end up wanting the two-disc editions of some of the films after you watch them, you can always buy them later. If you buy this, Alexander (either or both versions), and his upcoming World Trade Center, you will own almost all of Oliver Stone's directorial efforts for a pretty cheap price all things considered. Enjoy!

Are you kidding me ???Where can you get 13 GREAT movies and EXTRAS for this price?? I cant believe people that find fault with a set containing so much for so little!!!!Each of these movies is highly entertaining in its own way. A diversified group of films you'll never find in a single collection!!!!I cant believe this doesnt cost$150 or more!!!

The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection (Salvador / Platoon / Wall Street / Talk Radio / Born on the Fourth of July / JFK Director's Cut / The Doors / Heaven and Earth / Natural Born Killers / Nixon / U-Turn / Any Given Sunday Director's Cut) Oliver Stone is not my favorite director, but all these movies are very good and four of them are excellent: Salvador, The Doors, JFK and Nixon. Salvador is my favorite. I was working in San Salvador around the time frame of the movie (a bomb went off just outside my hotel room the first night I was there). James Woods,who should have won as best actor at the Oscars, and James Belushi are excellent in the title roles. Roger Ebert rates JFK as one of the 100 best films of all time. Kevin Costner is outstanding; my only problem with JFK is the movie runs 205 minutes. I have the same problem with Nixon: Anthony Hopkins, who was nominated for best actor at the Oscars but didn't win, is convincing as Nixon, but 212 minutes is just too much Nixon. Val Kilmer IS Jim Morrison. And the music in The Doors is great.
All the other films are worth viewing at least once, and they all look great on a HDTV. 4 1/2 stars.

This DVD set consists of one outer and two inner Boxes, each has 4 glassy DVD case, 3 double, 1 single. DVDs are not indipendent in this set, so if you want to buy it used, beware of the condition of the box. some movies like "THE DOORS" and "Nixon" are originnaly two discs editions but only first discs are included in this dvd set and worse is, there is a word "disc 1" printed of them which indicates that these are the first DVDs of a 2 disc set and that makes you feel there is something crude about this box set! and there is something really crude!
the quality of boxes and print is low. outer box could easily be damaged or worn and it's very loose. it's not a good deal, specially at the price of 116 dollars!

I got this entire collection for about 2 dollars a movie..! There are 12 movies and two bonus disks, and I only paid 27 dollars or so for it here on AMAZON......I cant believe how great a deal it was for me....the movies are great, extras are great, bonus discs are just icing on the cake......good packaging....Im very pleased...

Thanks, Amazon, for the great service on the used DVD set I ordered of Oliver Stone's films.

if you like oliver stone, or even one or two of his movies, this is a set for you. the movies are excellent, this is a great item for collectors of all kinds as well as any plain ole joe like me! The movies are awesome, they are displayed nicely, and it is a great deal for the price! A must have for a movie buff!!

What a boxed set of 12 DVD films and 2 Dvd's of extras. You can't beat the price of this collection and you get an assortment of classic films by one of america's greatest directors. I encourage eveyrone to buy this DVD set.

This is an absolutely amazing box set. It has many iconic films from Platoon to JFK. I actually just picked this up at my local Mall (Suncoast) and I was amazed that it was only $14.99!!! I would definetly give your Suncoast a call and see if they have it and what the cost is. I normally wouldn't try to take business away from Amazon as they are an awesome company and I buy a lot through them. This is just too expensive if I can find it for under $15.