07/27/2020
Stone’s autobiography is every bit the stylish, unapologetic, and at times self-aggrandizing document one would expect based on his flamboyant films. Stone describes his upbringing as that of a consummate boomer, raised by wildly contrasting parents—a hustling Wall Street broker father and a French socialite mother. Volunteering for service in Vietnam after getting kicked out of Yale (“I remember staring at a long column of F’s—or was it zeros?”), Stone survived some vicious combat, then moved to N.Y.C.’s Lower East Side and drove a cab to support himself. After NYU film school (where Martin Scorsese taught him), he made an early splash as a screenwriter, winning an Oscar for Midnight Express in 1978, before the setback of his Hollywood directorial debut, the ill-received 1981 horror film The Hand. Writing Scarface (1983) was a comeback of sorts, even if the film initially received a poor critical reception. Then he went on a go-for-broke crusade to both write and direct more personal films, finally achieved with 1986’s Salvador. Stone’s subsequent hits, including JFK, Wall Street, and Platoon, receive short shrift here, and fans of those flicks will be left wishing Stone revisits them more extensively in a later volume. However, readers more interested in artists’ early struggles than in their glory days will be fascinated. (July)
2020-05-04
The celebrated and controversial filmmaker chronicles his journey “from the bottom back to the top of the Hollywood mountain.”
Stone knows how to grab a viewing audience—and readers. He begins by describing a complex, dangerous scene he was filming in Mexico for his “epic-scale” Salvador (1986). “It’s everything that made the movies so exciting to me as a child—battles, passionate actions, momentous outcomes,” he writes. This book covers Stone’s first 40 years. Those who read the author’s novel A Child’s Night Dream (1997) will be familiar with his early years: French mother and soldier father who divorced when he was at boarding school; teaching in Saigon; time in the Merchant Marine. After Yale didn’t work out, he enlisted in the Army and went to Vietnam. Stone engagingly describes his harrowing experiences, which included being bombed by friendly fire. At NYU, he learned his first basic lesson in film: “chasing the light.” Teacher Martin Scorsese critiqued Stone’s short about Vietnam: “Well—this is a filmmaker.” After splitting with his wife, Stone worked on a number of screenplays, including one about his fellow soldiers and the “lies and war crimes” he observed: “I had to find meaning in that shitty little war.” His screenplay for Platoon was “good, solid work—maybe some of the best stuff I’d done yet.” Al Pacino was interested, but the time wasn’t right. Stone’s screenplay for Midnight Express won him a Golden Globe and an Oscar, which made him “a commodity in demand.” However, he made errors in judgment with Seizure and The Hand, and he also had a “devil in my closet,” cocaine, which he later kicked. His screenplay for Brian de Palma’s Scarface opened doors and led to his writing and directing Salvador and Platoon. Stone recounts his life of ups and downs well; besides being an accomplished screenwriter, he’s also a fine prose writer. To be continued?
In the often tacky world of movie memoirs, Stone’s will stand out for its hard-earned insights, integrity, and grace.
…the Oliver Stone depicted in these pages — vulnerable, introspective, stubbornly tenacious and frequently heartbroken — may just be the most sympathetic character he’s ever written… neatly sets the stage for the possibility of that rarest of Stone productions: a sequel.” —New York Times Book Review “Fantastic…the dual theme of chasing and being chased by the light is central to Oliver’s life story…there are luminescent passages throughout this book to crack open the reader’s consciousness to a second reality…Chasing the Light is not a superficial trip down memory lane like so many memoirs by famous people; Stone is a wonderful writer, and as with his films, he takes you deep to places you may wish to avoid but are essential for true sanity. The great thing about this memoir is his passion for truth and life that courses through its pages. He seizes the reader by the throat and shouts: Consciousness! Wake up! Don’t let sleep and forgetfulness make you into one of the living-dead!”—Edward Curtin, Global Research "Chasing the Light is a deep book, illuminated and relentless, prose at its best…What Oliver Stone has written will last, because I have never seen anything like his insights into the way the film industry works.."—Werner Herzog “Oliver Stone is a giant provocateur in the Hollywood movie system. His autobiography is a fascinating exposure of Stone’s inner life and his powerful, all devouring energy and genius that drove him to become one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Stone rattles cages. He pricks the bubbles of the namby-pambies. He provokes outrage. He stirs up controversy. He has no respect for safe places. Oliver Stone is larger than life. Chasing the Light says it all.” —Sir Anthony Hopkins “Oliver Stone's narrative, his life story about the heartbreaks, the near misses, and finally the triumphs is a Hollywood movie in itself. I thank Oliver for writing Chasing the Light, especially for my NYU grad film students—or anybody else with artistic dreams of working in this thing called the movie business. Oliver, in honest and sometimes brutal fashion, lays it out—what it took for him to get to where he hoped to be—a successful writer/director working in Hollywood; the road it took is hard AF. Bravo.Bravo.Bravo.” —Spike Lee “…riveting… a gripping read, and it is made all the more compelling by Stone’s incredible honesty about himself as a person; about his feelings, including embarrassing feelings that most people would leave to the therapy couch; and about his triumphs and failures. Oliver Stone, first and foremost, is an amazing human being, and to learn about him in his own words, with all his humor and candor, is a delight.”—Dan Kovalik, CounterPunch "Oliver Stone's story is the story of my generation writ large." —Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Taxi Driver “Oliver takes you on a journey of desire, success and failure and ultimately success, deeply personal, with an uncanny self-effacing vulnerability that is not necessarily associated with Oliver; this is a companionable book of profound, usable insights." —Julian Schnabel "In his gripping memoir, Chasing the Light, Oliver Stone continues to blaze with the light he did so often catch. Even though I already knew a bit how it turns out up to now, I found it hard to put the —
The 73-year-old writer, director, and former actor narrates his memoir in a straightforward warts-and-all manner. Stone’s performance is a bit monotone but is consistently masculine and immersive. The effort is articulate to a fault, embracing the highs and lows of his film projects, which include PLATOON and SCARFACE. The former film student of Martin Scorsese reminds listeners of a time when, apart from a handful of cinema art houses, it required good luck and the happenstance of the leased film libraries of local television stations to see classic films. Stone’s personal triumphs and defeats are delivered with honesty. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
The 73-year-old writer, director, and former actor narrates his memoir in a straightforward warts-and-all manner. Stone’s performance is a bit monotone but is consistently masculine and immersive. The effort is articulate to a fault, embracing the highs and lows of his film projects, which include PLATOON and SCARFACE. The former film student of Martin Scorsese reminds listeners of a time when, apart from a handful of cinema art houses, it required good luck and the happenstance of the leased film libraries of local television stations to see classic films. Stone’s personal triumphs and defeats are delivered with honesty. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
