I like Oliver Stone movies. Anyone else?

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I think he has made some often realistic, morally complex movies - "Platoon" still moves me, I adore "Born on the 4th of July" and "El Salvador" and quite like "Heaven and Earth" too. "The Doors" is a tad ropey, and so is "NBK" but he went and hung out with Fidel Castro so, you know, respect.

― Film Frank, Saturday, 6 November 2004 21:29 (twenty years ago)

I am a total Oliver Stone whore. I really like the 80's films, but for me it's the 90's material - especially way he works with the editing. The Doors is often unfairly maligned, probably because it's ostensibly a biopic - people wouldn't have as much of a problem with it if Jim Morrison were a fictional character, I think. He's great with his cameos and character actors, and takes chances on people not typically known for virtuoso dramatic acting. He tends to be good at pulling the epic off b/c he is able to sympathize with his characters, even at their worst.

I can go on, but just let me say that Natural Born Killers and U-Turn are both gems, but I suspect that Nixon may be his masterpiece.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 6 November 2004 21:37 (twenty years ago)

th doors was about the crappiest movie of all time. jfk was bollocks. i really hate his pseudo-documentary approach. very close to propaganda.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:00 (twenty years ago)

search engines should reveal how i feel.

i am SO seeing Alexander.

― miccio, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago)

i love oliver stone. he is crazy and heavy-handed and unsubtle, but he is incredibly talented and his movies at least have passion and heart behind them.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:06 (twenty years ago)

i am anticipating Alexander as well. a movie named after me, coming out right after my birthday, directed by oliver stone. yay!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:08 (twenty years ago)

I like him. I have NBK and Wall Street ($10 at Rite -Aid) on DVD.
If you count Scarface, I've got that too.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:11 (twenty years ago)

Alexander looks dreadful. I like U-Turn! If he never made another movie I probably wouldn't miss him.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:13 (twenty years ago)

http://www.indiewire.com/biz/photos/biz_030418comand.jpg

what a dipshit

― moustache makes the man, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:18 (twenty years ago)

Oliver Stone is a witless dung sculptor.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:19 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, i think I agree with you.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:20 (twenty years ago)

ditto

― mark p (Mark P), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:23 (twenty years ago)

Alexander might hold the record for the most uninteresting print campaign of all time ... or it may challange wimbeldon.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:24 (twenty years ago)

U Turn and Nixon are both excellent. I find it interesting his films lean very much to the left and yet James Woods is the star of "Salvador" - a film that digs hard at Republican funding of anti-communist governments in South America.

― Film Frank, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:25 (twenty years ago)

yes but his witless dung mountains are among the most majestic in history. few in recent years could be so grandiose, so absurd, so rife with celebrity cameos, painfully obvious visual metaphors and shameless pontification. he is the auteurist's wet dream as well as the loudest box of animal crackers in history. he is michael moore with twice the cojones, half the shame, and a third of the self-awareness. gays and ethnics are making it hard for older white men to be the kind of liberals they'd like to be (not to mention whiny bitches. can't forget the whiny bitches) and only one man...ONE...has the skills to get their stories heard.

― miccio, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:26 (twenty years ago)

T/S: WHITEST MOVIE EVER

http://alexanderthemovie.warnerbros.com/downloads/onesheet/poster2.jpg

http://www.uip.co.uk/wimbledon/wallpaper/wim800x600.jpg

― Remy (x Jeremy), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:27 (twenty years ago)

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD

ollie's still got it!

― miccio, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:29 (twenty years ago)

Agreed, but Stone himself takes himself and said excrement so deathly seriously that he's just not in on the joke.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:31 (twenty years ago)

HAHAHA otm

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:32 (twenty years ago)

Agreed, but Stone himself takes himself and said excrement so deathly seriously that he's just not in on the joke.

-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), November 6th, 2004.

yeah but thats sort of why hes interesting...he's not very self aware and often borderline inchoherent, but his movies have an undeniable power and energy to them.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:34 (twenty years ago)

see what I said about self-awareness, alex.

http://www.omelete.com.br/imagens/cinema/news/diversos/oliver_stone.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v291/TheManthony/Lenny.jpg

― miccio, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:34 (twenty years ago)

Defend the Indefensible: Oliver Stone's "The Doors"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:37 (twenty years ago)

my favorite quote from that thread:

oh, celebrity cameo in JFK I love that I should also mentioned: Kevin Bacon. Was it really necessary to get a celebrity to play a fascist homosexual Nixon supporter for five minutes? Yes.

-- manthony m1cc1o (anthonyisrigh...), October 4th, 2004.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:41 (twenty years ago)

Alexander looks so terrible - Colin Farrell giving Brad Pitt's speech from Troy, ugh.

But Any Given Sunday was a fine, fine film. Poor Jessie from Saved By The Bell, they won't even let her into a movie without requiring gratuitous nudity.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:49 (twenty years ago)

I agree, he's terribly bombastic and over the top. I don't see this as a problem, though. (At least not in his case.)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:54 (twenty years ago)

I just saw Jessie in the only episode of Without A Trace I've seen in my life.

Jamie Foxx was great in Any Given Sunday (people who act like he suddenly took actor pills this year are sleeping on his work in this) but Pacino's speeches really lacked focus and Ollie was tripping his balls off (shockah) the whole time. Random shots of the earth during football plays? Practically digitally imposing Foxx and Pacino into a scene from Ben-Hur while they debate? Cameron Diaz learning her places is with drunken mommy screaming "GO! TEAM! GO!" and Lauren Holly slapping Dennis Quaid around cuz, like, that's what whiny bitches do?

― miccio, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:54 (twenty years ago)

That's because FOOTBALL IS WAR and THEY ARE GLADIATORS and THE WORLD DEPENDS ON THIS MOMENTOUS CLASH and... okay, yeah, the editing was sort of crazy.

The only part that bothered me was Foxx's commercial/music video, it was kind of evident that Stone has never seen a hip-hop music video in his life.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:57 (twenty years ago)

"The Doors" is a tad ropey, and so is "NBK" but he went and hung out with Fidel Castro so, you know, respect.

HANGING OUT WITH DICTATORS MAKES BAD MOVIES GOOD

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:20 (twenty years ago)

WHY IS CALUM SO STUPID?

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:20 (twenty years ago)

Calum is kinda sorta funny sometimes if you read him in the voice of Ali G.

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:23 (twenty years ago)

Pacino's problems in AGS are Pacino problems, not Stone problems. See my thread on Angels in America.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:05 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I have problems with Pacino too, trust me.

― miccio, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:09 (twenty years ago)

I dunno, Girolamo, it seem Ollie's utterly absorbed in Pacino's performance -- and lets him have a ridiculously free reign of the flick, to the point of unwatchability.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:12 (twenty years ago)

Hanging out with dictators?

When did Stone hang out with Bush?

― Film Frank, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:21 (twenty years ago)

I really like Wall Street, Platoon, Salvador, 8 Million Ways To Die, Conan The Barbarian, Scarface, The Hand, U-Turn, Any Given Sunday, Midnight Express, and Talk Radio.

I LOVE Natural Born Killers.

I like Born On The Fourth Of July okay. (like it more now then when it came out.)

The Doors and JFK have some great moments.

Other than that, I have no opinion.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:23 (twenty years ago)

Bitches deserve respect too, innit?
x-post

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:25 (twenty years ago)

what about Year Of The Dragon, Scott? ROURKE! CIMINO! STONE! *gunshot*!

― miccio, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:26 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I do love Year Of The Dragon. Beats Kinjite:The Forbidden Subject by a mile.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:27 (twenty years ago)

actually i think that's just "Forbidden Subjects".

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:29 (twenty years ago)

I love the first part but it gets to bogged down in drug negotiations at the end. Stone seems to think that when two chinese people get together they'll immediately start spouting metaphors about how the wind blows west only when the dragon is high or whatever.

― miccio, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:30 (twenty years ago)

maybe they do. He might have done research.

― miccio, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:31 (twenty years ago)

did you ever see abel ferrara's China Girl, Anthony? romeo & juliet in chinatown. it's a keeper.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:32 (twenty years ago)

i can defend almost any abel ferrara movie for hours on end. it's an ugly sight. ms.45, driller killer, it doesn't matter. i've got a thesis ready in my brain.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:33 (twenty years ago)

China Girl aint bad. Not seen it in some time though. Ferrara's films have the unenviable ability to never make me want to re-view them. Check out Brad Stevens new book on him.

― Film Frank, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:34 (twenty years ago)

what about scarf ace?

― d.arraghmac, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:34 (twenty years ago)

haven't even heard of it. if I see it I'll check it out. I've only seen two Ferrara films. I love King Of New York but I hate Bad Leuitenant.

― miccio, Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:34 (twenty years ago)

How about R-Xmas?

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:35 (twenty years ago)

You have to see Ms.45, Anthony. It's da bomb.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:37 (twenty years ago)

i've seen King Of New York at least a zillion times. Me and the Wu Tang Clan.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 7 November 2004 00:39 (twenty years ago)

i really liked "jfk" when i was a budding film geek (i.e., about 17 - it's REALLY a well-edited movie) and would probably still like it, but i really can't stomach the rest of his rubbish. i think he pretty much sums up everything i hate about modern hollywood.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:48 (twenty years ago)

that simpsons thing is priceless!

ferrara is godlike, except when he sucks.

oliver stone is... i dunno. i give his films credit for being stylistically distinctive and in some respects genuinely transgressive. but they are also bloated and boring. i think he's a big influence on baz luhrmann. both have furious editing rhythms which aren't usually very purposeful, but often achieve interesting effects.

― amateur!!st, Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:50 (twenty years ago)

he doesn't really epitomize modern hollywood at all! love him or hate him, he's sort of off doing his own thing, although i guess this new one is him in blockbuster mode (i'll have to see it).

― amateur!!st, Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:50 (twenty years ago)

if anyone epitomizes modern hollywood it'd be like antoine fuqua or garry marshall or something.

― amateur!!st, Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:51 (twenty years ago)

someone should link to that slate interview where oliver stone is proved to be totally politically naive.*

*um, if you needed proof beyond his movies, that is.

― amateur!!st, Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:54 (twenty years ago)

I say Commandante - I'm a member of Cuban Solidarity, and I though it was awful. That said, I like him at times, dislike him at others.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:54 (twenty years ago)

do you mean "¡cuba sí! ????

ok i just wanted to make one of those upside-down exclamation marks.

― amateur!!st, Sunday, 7 November 2004 02:57 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i actually agree with you that he's not typical of modern hollywood - he's sort of a maverick in his way. i guess what i should have said is that he epitomises what i hate about MOVIES.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 7 November 2004 06:36 (twenty years ago)

nine years pass...

anyone see the Untold History documentary series? if so; any good? not sure if it's been mentioned anywhere else on ilx.

― piscesx, Saturday, 15 March 2014 21:33 (eleven years ago)

two months pass...

really not jazzed about this

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jun/02/edward-snowden-nsa-film-oliver-stone

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 4 June 2014 14:47 (eleven years ago)

Would be a nice meta touch if he cast Jesse Eisenberg in the lead.

― That's So (Eazy), Wednesday, 4 June 2014 14:49 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

rumored: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 22 September 2014 19:16 (eleven years ago)

four months pass...

this is really happening

Oscar winner Melissa Leo, “Star Trek’s” Zachary Quinto and “Selma’s” Tom Wilkinson are in negotiations to play Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill in Oliver Stone’s untitled Edward Snowden movie, multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.

http://www.thewrap.com/melissa-leo-zachary-quinto-tom-wilkinson-to-play-citizenfour-trio-in-oliver-stones-edward-snowden-movie-exclusive/

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 17 February 2015 20:39 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

Trailer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlSAiI3xMh4

― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 27 April 2016 14:44 (nine years ago)

four months pass...

really no interest in seeing this one if El Tomboto isnt in it

― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 21 September 2016 13:51 (nine years ago)

Twilight Time put out Salvador on Blu-Ray recently, but it's already out of print, so check eBay.

― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Wednesday, 21 September 2016 14:00 (nine years ago)

two years pass...

Watching Wall Street and amazed that there are long portions of 2 cuts from My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts in there. It's where I first heard This Must Be The Place too I think bitd.

― piscesx, Tuesday, 20 November 2018 03:10 (six years ago)

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