Frankly, film has missed Oliver Stone. The original button pushing infant terrible, the caustic controversy causer who loved to stir things up as well as entertain and engage, has been creatively MIA for far too long. It’s been only two years since his last film (the vastly mediocreWall Street sequel) and yet it seems like he’s been out of the cinematic limelight for twice as long, if not longer. Granted, he may have misfired through most of the Aughts, choices like Alexander and World Trade Center arguing for a man missing his main muse, but when you consider how brightly his contentious star burned throughout the ’80s and ’90s, a little post-millennial malaise can be expected. In fact, to believe that Stone will ever be as creatively powerful as 1986 through 1996 is an aesthetic fool’s paradise.
With the opening of his latest work as co-writer/director, Savages, it’s time to look back at a motion picture catalog so dense and yet so diverse. Stone seems to have favorite subject matters — war and remembrance, crime and (the lack of legitimate) punishment, the conspiracy behind the veil of social reality — and when he stays within those limits, he’s luminous. It’s only when he strays from his considered comfort zone — pro football, ancient history, talk radio — that he falters, sometimes fatally. With this in mind, we have decided to pick through the 28 films he’s been responsible for either at the typewriter, behind the lens, or both, and pick our favorite ten. For the most part, the usual suspects are present, but as with the man who we’re celebrating here, surprises are par for the course, beginning with:
It seemed like an unlikely topic for someone like Stone to take on: a real life tale of survival inside the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil… ever. Indeed, when NYC policemen John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno found themselves trapped in the rubble of 9/11, they probably couldn’t have imagined their story becoming a hit film for a man more geared toward exposing the reasons behind the atrocity than the heroics within. Still, with the skill of a surgeon, Stone set up the horrible day, using inference and insight where sensationalism could have ruled. The result is a testament to the resolve of these brave men and all who died that horrible day.
For many, this is a seminal Stone effort, but for me, it’s as dated as a synthpop dirge by Duran Duran. The notion of ‘celebrating’ someone like Gordon Gekko was wrongheaded back then, a lesson learned with the release of the recent unnecessary sequel. Still, Stone does such a good job of explaining the almost unfathomable intricacies of leverage buyouts that we can forgive the frightening lack of a moral compass. What should have been a denouncement of the trickle down Greed Decade instead became its celebrity poster child. It’s a repugnant reality that Stone has yet to fully answer for.
Our first selection for Stone as screenwriter only may seem insignificant, but one simply has to remember the impact of this film to gauge the work of the artists involved. This thriller was a true eye-opener, a view into the horrifying world of international law enforcement without the veiled exploitation angle and/or naked girls in bondage sleaze. Instead, Stone took the true story of Billy Hayes and his arrest in Turkey for drug smuggling, and turned it into the ultimate story of survival and escape. With the help of criminally underrated director Alan Parker, Stone established his creative credentials, winning his first Oscar in the process.
With his status as effectual/ineffectual Commander in Chief in full blown flux, Stone stepped up to deliver a definitive dramatization of the Bush era White House. With more targets to take down than the typical Presidential overview, the filmmaker found a way to make his subject sympathetic while thoroughly demonizing those around him. Of course, the rush to war is the main focus, as is W’s devotion to his Christian causes. While not up to the level of his previous high office exposes, it was proof that Stone could still deliver on a high level.
After the success of Platoon, Stone decided to become the ultimate chronicler of the Vietnam experience. Eventually, an uneasy trilogy would result, this amazing middle movie making up for the less than stellar finale, Heaven and Earth. The choice of Cruise was controversial at the time, many seeing him as nothing more than a mainstream pretty boy with box office appeal and little else. Stone managed to turn him into an Oscar caliber actor… and the resulting epic a stinging denouncement of the treatment of our Vets by an angry, unsettled society. Another near masterpiece in the man’s intriguing oeuvre.
5 – 1
For many, this is the first real and final serious word on the police action that came to be known as Vietnam. For others, it was a showboating parable with all the good and evil elements wrapped up in an authentic if fictional package. To this day, few films on the subject have felt so knowing and inside. On the other hand, the byplay between Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe feels forced and unfocused. Still, as Stone statements go, this one transcends itself to become both a personalized journey into Hell and a window into a tumultuous time for America.
After taking Quentin Tarantino’s script about celebrity serial killers and turning it into a diatribe about the media, Stone delivered one of his most shocking, sentient works. Like Network on steroids and speed, he took the opportunity to mix his various obsessions with the recent outcry his film on a certain Presidential assassination caused. Always eager to stir some shit, Stone even went so far as to turn Rodney Dangerfield into a vile, foul-mouthed pedophile who enjoys raping his own daughter. For that alone, the movie deserves it earns its negative notoriety. For everything else, it becomes a classic.
He’s a hot button historical figure that turned the US into his own corrupt playground (and sparked one of the most significant government scandals ever – Watergate). Stone’s look at perhaps the most controversial US President is actually a very moving, fully realized biography. Still using his collage style to capture many meanings and moments in one, we get the story of an underappreciated politician who, when finally given the reins of power, takes far too full advantage of them. With superb supporting work from his incredible cast and a brilliant lead performance from Anthony Hopkins, this remains one of Stone’s strongest.
Yes, Brian DePalma directed this. True, Al Pacino’s over the top Cuban characterization still makes many a film fan giggle. But it was Stone who took the ’30s story of a mobster with a massive familial flaw’s rise to power and contemporized it, using the recent Mariel boatlift as a backdrop. As much a comment on immigration and crime as it was on South Florida and the booming cocaine trade in and around Miami, it’s current status as a hip-hop badge of honor is odd, if wholly understandable. Tony Montana is the marginalized America dream, and it was Stone who saw that potent parallel.
Here’s all you need to know about this undeniable masterpiece: Stone may have the truth all screwed up, but the historical significance of his subject (the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the controversial findings of the Warren Commission) cause a major uproar among scholars and supporters, so much so that long unreleased documents on the event finally saw the light of day. It requires chutzpah the size of a city block to take on the Federal Government’s desire for secrecy and survive, let alone win. This magnificent epic may not have solved the crime, but it certainly raised many of the right questions. A true work of genius.