In my opinion, from the middle of the 1980s until 1992, when Quentin Tarantino made his directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs, there were only three directors who almost always released at least one film per year, and whose name demanded the attention of the entire movie going public. Steven Spielberg, who along with producer/director George Lucas has seemingly defined how a motion picture should be handled since the mid 1970s; Spike Lee, one of the pioneers in films directed by minorities; and the man who seemed to only associate himself with controversial material, Oliver Stone (director of the films Salvador, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and Nixon).
Probably Stone’s most controversial film (at least until the release of his autobiographical satire of a US President still in office, W.) was Natural Born Killers in 1994. Peter Travers, Rolling Stone’s premier film critic offered this quote to praise the film and director:
This is one of my all time favorite movies, and it put Oliver Stone on my list of 'Best Directors Ever,' right along with Stanley [Kubrick].
With few exceptions, Kubrick’s films were always controversial, but he never had the same output of Stone, and based on these negative reviews of Natural Born Killers, it may lead one to claim that Oliver Stone is really the classless equivalent to Kubrick:
· “1 and a half stars,” film historian Leonard Maltin
· “Stone calls this bile satire. But satire takes careful aim; Killers is crushingly scattershot. By putting virtuoso technique at the service of lazy thinking, Stone turns his film into the demon he wants to mock: cruelty as entertainment,” a staff writer for Rolling Stone
· “One merely leaves puzzled and wondering: Is that it? He's not telling us anything. He's riffing on a theme and--intentionally or not--contributing to the junk pile he supposedly decries,” Desson Howe, Washington Post staff writer.
Stone definitely seems to have a knack for controversial subject matter in films, but film that he undoubtedly got the most acclaim for was 1986’s Vietnam War film, Platoon. It may have lacked controversy because The Deer Hunter (1979) was regarded at the best film about the conflict through the exploration of trauma incurred by American participants, but was inspired by Stone’s first hand experience of being a baby boomer who served in the Far East. It implies the long term effects of the war (Stone an example of the negatives being a cocaine addicted writer before a sober director), but focuses on the struggle of surviving a year in the war.
Through avoiding controversy, Platoon’s reviews may make a viewer now wonder why Stone is so dependent upon rattling the cage of more conservative movie goers. Like Leonard Maltin who praised the film as being, “Harrowingly realistic and completely convincing,” and the Washington Post critic calling the film, “A triumph! A staggering study of war…a dark, unforgettable memorial.”
I agree with the praise because it is brilliantly directed, and Stone left it at that. His later films seem to be dependent on what seems to be a goal of his to be considered cutting edge. Having many friends who are like Travers, I have seen Natural Born Killers more times than I cared to have. Yes, I enjoyed that film, and feel he is closer to the point of his satire than most young, up and coming writers and directors, but a side from the scene about incest that was filmed with a sitcom’s approach, the film itself was like looking at vomit of celluloid.
Leonard Maltin is absolutely dead on in his description of the film, and when it comes to taking a serious approach to recreate history, Stone delivered with brilliant crane shots of the battlefield, poorly lit night battles. These make the viewer feel that they are seeing the war through the prospective of Chris, the films main character portrayed by Charlie Sheen.
Another great touch was the claustrophobic feel the viewer may get when Chris is being introduced to the marijuana den where the pacifist and crusaders would spend their time at base camp. In contrast, the gung-ho grunts poker den was shot in a way that the viewer is not suppose to feel like one of them.
Aside from the great directing, Stone’s story is one that does not have to be set in Vietnam to deliver. Chris could have been the uptight Godfrey Parker who became a forgotten man known as Godfrey “Duke” Smith, instead of the college drop out who thinks war should not be fought by the people of the lowest class as the Senator’s son is conveniently left from the draft lottery.
It also seems to be a common theme of films about the mean streets where our main character must decide whether to be idealistic or a survivalist. The fact that these classic archetypical elements are delivered by the outstanding supporting cast of Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger (both received Oscar nomination for the Best Supporting Actor), secure this film is definitely worth anyone’s while.
Platoon is a textbook example on how to make a perfect film. It was perfect for the audience that saw it in 1986 because it was about the experience many of the audience members went through. As stated earlier, brilliant direction, story, and acting allows any movie to stand the test of time in only good ways (as long as it is not tasteless like Stone’s Killers, Spike Lee’s blacks in blackface classic Bamboozled, or even D.W. Griffith’s homage to the KKK, The Birth of a Nation).
This film won the Oscar’s for Best Picture and Director, so I do not know how anyone cannot claim this film as a failure. Not until 1993 did Spielberg win his first Oscar’s in these categories (Schindler’s List), Stanly Kubrick’s films never won an Oscar outside of special effects (2001: A Space Odyssey), and Spike Lee has yet to receive a nomination since Do The Right Thing (1989) with the exception for the documentary 4 Little Girls (1997).
Some say controversy prevented success for Kubrick and Lee with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and when one watches Platoon, they maybe right. This was Oliver Stone’s story from Vietnam, a dark time in American history, and it is the dark times that a society cannot afford to forget. The film may relate to many viewers now with the paranoia of Middle Eastern conflicts becoming the current generation’s Vietnam.
Controversy, may have prevented this film from being a must see part of motion picture history, and more importantly, may have deterred people from remembering “Those who fought and died in Vietnam,” the dedication Stone placed at the end of his finest film, Platoon.Russ Stevens,
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