WILLIAM OLIVER STONE, A CONTROVERSIAL FILMMAKER

Today, The Grandma has been watching some films directed by Oliver Stone, the American filmmaker who was born on a day like today in 1946. 

William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American filmmaker.

Stone is known as a controversial but acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War, and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas. 

He has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.

Stone was born in New York City and later briefly attended Yale University. In 1967, Stone enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He then served from 1967 to 1968 in the 25th Infantry Division and was twice wounded in action. For his service, he received military honors such as the Bronze Star with V Device for valor, the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with one Silver Service Star. His service in Vietnam would be the basis for his later career as a filmmaker in depicting the brutality of war.

Stone started his film career writing the screenplays for Midnight Express (1978), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Scarface (1983). He then rose to prominence as writer and director of the Vietnam War film dramas Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), receiving Academy Awards for Best Director for both films, the former of which also won Best Picture. He also directed Salvador (1986), Wall Street (1987) and its sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), The Doors (1991), JFK (1991), Heaven & Earth (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995), Any Given Sunday (1999), W. (2008) and Snowden (2016).

Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. 

Stone has been critical of American foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by nationalist and imperialist agendas. He has approved of politicians Hugo Chávez and Vladimir Putin, the latter of whom was the subject of The Putin Interviews (2017). Like his subject matter, Stone is a controversial figure in American filmmaking, with some critics accusing him of promoting conspiracy theories.

More information: Instagram-Oliver Stone

Stone was born in New York City, the son of a French woman named Jacqueline and Louis Stone, a stockbroker.

Stone graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film in 1971, where his teachers included director and fellow NYU alumnus Martin Scorsese. The same year, he had a small acting role in the comedy The Battle of Love's Return.

Stone made a short, well received 12-minute film Last Year in Viet Nam. He worked as a taxi driver, film production assistant, messenger, and salesman before making his mark in film as a screenwriter in the late 1970s, in the period between his first two films as a director: horror films Seizure and The Hand.

Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. They often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as demonstrated in JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994) and Nixon (1995).

Stone listed Greek-French director Costa-Gavras as an early significant influence on his films. Stone mentioned that he was certainly one of my earliest role models,...I was a film student at NYU when Z came out, which we studied. Costa actually came over with Yves Montand for a screening and was such a hero to us. He was in the tradition of Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers and was the man in that moment... it was a European moment.

Oliver Stone is a vocal supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Stone signed a petition in support of Assange's bid for political asylum in June 2012. In August 2012, he penned a New York Times op-ed with filmmaker Michael Moore on the importance of WikiLeaks and free speech.

Stone called Saudi Arabia a major destabilizer in the Middle East. He also criticized the foreign policy of the United States, saying: We made a mess out of Iraq, Syria, Libya, but it doesn't matter to the American public. It's okay to wreck the Middle East.

Stone has had an interest in Latin America since the 1980s, when he directed Salvador, and later returned to make his documentary South of the Border about the left-leaning movements that had been taking hold in the region.

Stone has criticized the U.S.-supported Operation Condor, a state terror operation that carried out assassinations and disappearances in support of South America's right-wing dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

More information: The Guardian

When you look at a movie,
you look at a director's thought process.

Oliver Stone