Chasing The Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game
I am a regular listener of the excellent Late Night Live, presented by veteran news broadcaster Phillip Adams, on ABC National Radio. In August 2021, I heard him discussing the autobiographical book Chasing the Light with author and movie producer, director and screen writer extraordinary. Hear it for yourself at https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/latenightlive/oliver-stone/13492948
Is there anyone who has not seen at least one of Stone's many wonderful films or TV doco series?
I immediately went out and bought the book, but it is only in the last few weeks (Nov 2023) that I have bitten the bullet and read it. First to the blurb:
An intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, and Scarface. Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life.
The book, which ends on his Oscar-winning Platoon, was praised by The New York Times: "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."
I found the first half pretty slow reading but by the time he came to describe his troubles and challenges in making Salvador and Platoon and his finally "making it" in Hollywood at 40 years of age, it became wonderful reading.
It's is a story about making a dream at all costs, even without money. It’s about cutting corners, improvising, hustling, cobbling together workarounds to get movies made and into theaters, not knowing where the next payday is coming from, or the next monsoon or scorpion bite.
The book ends at that stage, with so many of his wonderful films yet to come - Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Natural Born Killers and Nixon. And it does not even mention any of his subsequent TV doco series like The Untold History of the United States which is truly a great analysis of America and its many moral and world leadership failings.
Is he a likeable character. I'll leave that for others to decide. As a film maker and screen writer, he is superb.
Definitely recommended.
