William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946), known as Oliver Stone, is an American two-time Academy Award winning film director, and one-time Academy Award winning screenwriter.
William Oliver Stone | |
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| Born | William Oliver Stone |
| Spouse(s) | Najwa Sarkis (1971-1977) Elizabeth Stone (1981-1993) Sun-jung Jung (1996-) |
Biography
Stone was born in New York City. His father was a Jewish stockbroker and his mother a Roman Catholic of French birth. He was raised an Episcopalian as a compromise[1], but has since converted to Buddhism.
At the age of 14, Stone's parents sent Oliver away to attend high school at 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 graduated from this boarding school in 1964, the same year as former JP Morgan & Co. CEO, Douglas A. Warner III. Stone then attended Yale University and New York University. He attended Yale, dropping out after one year. He then taught English at the Free Pacific Institute in South Vietnam for six months after which he worked in the United States Merchant Marine, and traveled to Oregon and Mexico, before returning to Yale, where he dropped out a second time.
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 based off 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 wrote and directed Wall Street, (1987), which earned Michael Douglas an Academy Award for Best Actor, 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 distinct feature in Oliver Stone's films is the use of a multitude of 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).
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 (despite being one of the highest-grossing films internationally in 2004) was a financial failure; production and marketing costs were not recovered.[2]. 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 format.
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 2006-11-17), though the film was made on a budget of $63 million. As of 2006-12-19 the worldwide box office for World Trade Center was $161,735,806.
On September 30 Stone received the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College Dublin.
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. [1]
Controversy
Stone's films often have been criticized for promoting conspiracy theories and historical inaccuracies. JFK, for instance, hypothesizes about 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 of 1992. The film was discussed by the Assassination Records Review Board created by Congress to end the secrecy surrounding Kennedy's assassination, and Stone's observation at the end of the film, JFK, about the dangers inherent in government secrecy.[3] The film 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, but which was also criticized for its portrayal of President Richard M. Nixon.
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. In fact, the original screenwriter of Natural Born Killers, 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.[4]
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 Guevera, 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." When he realised his joke had gone down badly he said "you're a lovely crowd." [5][6]
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 an almost 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. Stone has called himself a friend and an admirer of Fidel Castro.[citation needed]
Stone is said to be directing a promotional advertisement for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where the games are held.
He was recently admitted permission by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to make a documentary about him.[2]
Filmography
- Last Year in Viet Nam (1971, short)
- Seizure (also known as Queen of Evil, 1974)
- Midnight Express (screenwriter)(1978)
- Mad Man of Martinique (1979, short)
- The Hand (1981)
- Conan the Barbarian (screenwriter) (1982)
- Scarface (screenwriter) (1983)
- Year of the Dragon (screenwriter) (1985)
- 8 Million Ways to Die (screenwriter) (1986)
- 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)
- Freeway (screenwriter) (1996)
- U-Turn (1997)
- Any Given Sunday (1999)
- Persona Non Grata (2003)
- Comandante (2003)
- Alexander (2004)
- Looking for Fidel (2004)
- World Trade Center (2006)
- Pinkville (2008)
See also
1. Riordan, James "Stone: The Biography" (1996).
External links
Bibliographies
References
External links
- Oliver Stone at IMDb
- The first chapter of "A Child's Night Dream" by Oliver Stone at the New York Times site. Registration may be required.
- World Trade Center Interview with Oliver Stone From IGN FilmForce
- Guardian Unlimited interview with Stone; Part two
- DVD Talk Radio Interview with Oliver Stone