With the exception of JFK’s stunning cinematic bravura, arguably Born on the Fourth of July is Oliver Stone’s most accomplished film. The remarkably told story of Ron Kovic, all American boy turned war activist, exemplifies Stone’s ability to create American period nostaglia with impeccable tonal accuracy and also eviserate it with bold uncompromising cinematic force. With expert help from other giants of cinema Robert Richardson, John Williams and editors Joe Hutshing/David Brenner Born on the Fourth of July resounds, argubaly, as the foremost film on the subject of Vietnam.
Platoon (1986) dir. Oliver Stone
Starring: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon
***½
By Alan Bacchus
If we were comparing dick sizes, Platoon doesn’t quite stand up to the strong auteur works of Stanley Kubrick’s or Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam flicks. But few films before or since have captured the unique contradiction of the soldier’s point of view of the war better than Oliver Stone’s. Platoon is both an anti-war political film and a heroic celebration of the brotherhood of soldiers and men in battle.
It’s hard to remember Charlie Sheen as a wide-eyed naive everyman, but before he became hardened and crazy he embodied an American middle-class wholesomeness, which made him ideal for Oliver Stone's self-influenced character. As the audience’s eye into this war, Sheen’s character, Chris, is less a character to study and more a window into the insanity of war.
Platoon opens with Chris landing in the warzone and witnessing body bags being stacked into helicopters to be shipped back home. Samuel Barber’s weeping Adagio For Strings tells us exactly how we’re supposed to feel at this moment – that Chris has stepped onto the worst place on earth in the heart of an unwinnable war where both internal and external conflict has turned American soldiers into beasts of mayhem and destruction.
Stone’s narrative is unencumbered by upper-ranking military strategy or command. Instead, we see with plain simplicity the day-by-day grind of a soldier at ground zero in the war, in the jungle sweating out blood and bullets. For most of the film it’s a taut power struggle between two opposite personalities though equally influential within the platoon, Lt. Barnes (Berenger), the John Wayne-style rugged cowboy who goes by his own rules of the jungle, and Col. Elias (Dafoe), the Henry Fonda-like educated wasp, son of privilege and humanitarian.
Though there’s lots of gunfire, explosions, heroism and bloody horrific violence, Platoon never feels like a set-piece action film. Part of this is Stone’s unexploitive shooting style. It’s unstylistic and realistic but not show-offy like Saving Private Ryan, which, despite its honourable intentions, is a set-piece film. Stone is also clear to rarely, if ever, show the enemy. As such, gunfire feels random, which contributes to a truer feeling of realism.
The Barber music cue heard in the opening is reused as the main theme throughout the film. It sets a tone of sadness from beginning to end. Through this piece of music Stone is clear about his stance on the war, a clusterfuck of massive proportions and a sad stain on the American nation. It’s a terrific and memorable piece, but for cinema history fans it’s important to note that this wasn’t a Stone discovery. While it may be synonymous with Stone’s film, look to David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980), which used this same cue to even more magnificent effect at the end of that marvellous film.
Looking back on the Vietnam War films, from Apocalypse Now to The Deer Hunter to Full Metal Jacket (and maybe even Tigerland), Platoon doesn’t quite stand up artistically to these others. But as a statement on the war, it is no doubt the most influential and arguably the final word about the Vietnam War on film in dramatic form.
Platoon is available on Blu-ray from MGM Home Entertainment.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) dir. Oliver Stone Starring: Shia Laboeuf, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella
***1/2
By Alan Bacchus
Usually these ‘nostalgic’ sequels don’t work. That is, films that continue characters and stories years atfer the original. The Godfather Part III for example, or Texasville (Bogdanovich’s sequel to The Last Picture Show), or The Color of Money. Well, it’s not so much that they don’t work, because these three films are actually pretty good, but considering the immense prestige of the originals they are following, the extraordinary expectations are always too high to live up to.
Wall Street is probably the best of this lot. A film which manages to eschew the nostalgia factor and create a stand alone story relevant to it’s time, without being reliant on the previous work. In this day an age, Stone and company set the world at the time of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the government bailout and those volitile few months which saw some of the biggest financial institutions in the world go out of business. Like he did with JFK, Nixon and W, Stone expertly interweaves compelling characters within real world political conflicts for maximum dramatic effect.
The connector between the 1987 version and Wall Street and this 2010 Wall Street is Gordon Gekko, the bombastic caricature of predatory investors of the 1980’s as realized in his Oscar-winning performance by Michael Douglas. The opening is a comical wink to the audience showing Gekko being released from prison in 2001 and accepting the possessions he went in with, including his giant boxy ‘cellular’ phone.
The main story takes place in 2008 following a talented investor, Jake Moore (LeBoeuf), who’s interest and experience in energy industries has made him a fast ladder climber. In fact, his mentor Louis Zabel (Langella), founder of a big investor firm not unlike Lehman Bros, has given him a bonus cheque of $1.5million. But when Zabel finds himself crashed and stomped out of business by his competitor Bretton James (Brolin), owner of a rival investment firm, Moore finds himself out of job, near broke, and stressing our his new fiance Winnie (Mulligan). Soon James comes knocking on Moore’s door and the two, despite their conflicts over Zabel, work together, until the subprime mortgage occurs rendering them bitter enemies, on track for a bitter stock market battle not unlike the frenetic market rally which closes the original film.
Moore’s girlfriend Winnie is also Gordon Gekko’s estranged daughter. For good and bad Moore tries to engineer a get together to mend their relationship, which means Moore having to ‘trust’ the notorious swindler whose motto is ‘Greed is good.’
Well, there’s actually a few other fun connectors which are more subtle. One of the visual techniques for instance, the rapid fire split screen effect which helps craft the fantastic montage scenes, are expertly moved over into this film. One of the thrilling aspects of Wall Stone was the cacophany of technical information thrown at us. The schemes of Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko are crafted with perfect pace in these montage sequences. As with the original these montages have enough of a dizzying effect without being confusing.
Listen closely and you’ll notice the soundtrack consists of primarily David Byrne/Brian Eno songs, who contributed some memorable music in the original film. Byrne’s voice isn’t quite what it used to be, but it sufficiently enhances the tone and changing moods of the film.
Shia Leboeuf gives one of his most mature performances. If you were scared off by the possibilities that the Leboeuf/Douglas dynamic would tread on the familiar hot shot/mentor relationship of films like ‘The Color of Money’, Stone admirably sidesteps these expectations. Shia’s portrayal as a gifted and passionate investor holds it’s own, and trumps Charlie Sheen’s arguably weak and one-note performance as Bud Fox. Carey Mulligan is terrific once again as the tortured daughter of Gekko. Her emotional reconciliation with Gekko on the steps outside the restaurant in which the meet for the first time in 20 years is one of the best and most emotional scenes of the year, of ANY film.
But the most satisfying moment is another conversation, which I won't reveal, but makes for the type of closure all Wall Street fans needed to have. Thanks Oliver Stone for making it happen.
Natural Born Killers (1995) dir. Oliver Stone Starring; Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr. Tom Sizemore, Tommy Lee Jones
****
By Alan Bacchus
It's about time this disc arrived. In fact, why Warner decided to release the now irrelevant and obsolete theatrical version of this film on Blu-Ray last year remains a mystery; we all knew this director's cut edition wasn't far off.
The term "director's cut" is not what it used to be. What was once a badge of honour for filmmakers, a rare triumph of their creative vision over the tinkering hands of studio execs, has become an overused marketing tool. Despite the diluted power of the term, the fact is this version of Natural Born Killers is one of the best-ever director's cuts out there. The Blu-Ray disc essentially repackages the same collection of extras from the mid-'90s laserdisc and double VHS set ― audio commentary from Oliver Stone, featurettes, some truly awesome deleted scenes, a Charlie Rose interview and an alternate ending. A couple of mediocre new additions in high definition include an introduction from Stone reflecting on the relevance of his film 15 years later and a silly featurette postulating what kind of celebrity Mickey and Mallory might have achieved in the age of the internet.
The real treasures are the 150-plus reinstated cuts and shaved frames Stone needed to make to achieve a theatrical R-rating. Though the two cuts differ only by three minutes, these small edits skyrocket what was an enjoyable, thought-provoking, violent romp into the stratosphere of cinematic chaos. The restored scenes include more throat-slashing, body mutilation, blood splattering and, towards the end, the sight of Tommy Lee Jones's head on a stick waved around by the rioting prison mob ― moments perhaps too quick to notice but that add up to an even greater sense of nihilistic mayhem.
Watching it again, it’s hard to believe the script started off as a Quentin Tarantino film. Though the visual style and statement-making satirical tone is wholly Oliver Stone, some of the Tarantino hallmarks remain. The murderous duo, Mickey and Mallory, on the road and on the run, contain many of the humorous dialogue interaction and genre-reverence as Tarantino’s scripts for “True Romance”, “From Dusk till Dawn”. But in the hands of Stone, and his co-writers it became a beast through he could make his type of grand statements. Since it's a satire the extreme flourishes are necessary and make the statement stronger.
None of the freneticness would work if the film wasn't entertaining. Harrelson and Lewis make a wonderful fun loving couple of psychotics. If anything Juliette Lewis’ character treads too much on the performances from her other films (ie. “Kalifornia”), but Harrelson who is cast against type has the screen presence and confidence to pull off his conflicted character.
Around every corner is a number of wonderful scene stealer supporting performances. Tom Sizemore’s extreme ‘bad cop’ Jack Scagnetti and Tommy Lee Jones’ prison warden Jack McClusky are even more repulsive than Mickey and Mallory. But it’s Robert Downey Jr.’s Aussie TV talk show host Wayne Gale who shines. It's one of Downey's best characters. Although Gale is manic, absurd and goes over the edge his TV interview with Mickey brings out a sharp intelligence to his character.
The amount of media coverage the ridiculous "balloon boy" story recently garnered clearly renders Natural Born Killers as relevant today as yesterday. But even those turned off by Stone's sledgehammer statement making should still marvel at the quality of his technical experimentation in mainstream storytelling. It's one of the last films in a remarkably productive ten-year run of filmmaking for Stone, which saw him hone and perfect his bold and innovative multi-format, multi-media techniques. Natural Born Killers achieves a state of nirvana for this style; it's a monumental achievement to create coherence from the almost random cornucopia of imagery and sound mashed together. In fact, in the DVD audio commentary, Stone ends his discussion by giving extra special thanks to his negative cutter, who had the hardest job on the production, assembling the final film from over 3,000 edits from multiple format sources.
Heaven & Earth (1993) dir. Oliver Stone Starring: Hiep Thi Le, Tommy Lee Jones, Joan Chen, Haing S. Ngor
**
Oliver Stone's “Heaven & Earth,” a film made at the creative height of his career, is one of those admirable grand failures. Every great filmmaker has one or two of these in their filmography. Like David Lean’s “Ryan Daughter” or Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate” after the acclaim and success of 'JFK" Stone seemed to have been given carte blanche and a big fat cheque to make this intensely personal film, which unfortunately suffers the fate of drowning under it’s own bloated excess.
After numerous films about the Vietnam War there had never a film dramatized from the point of view of it's own people. So with "Heaven & Earth", the premise was a decent starting place. Hiep Thi Le plays Le Ly, a young Vietnamese girl who narrates the story of her tumultuous life. She starts off an innocent rice farmer idolizing her mother and her peaceful way of life. We get to see the pre-colonized lifestyle of the Vietnamese people, who lead simple lives, connected to nature and family. But of course we watch as the French take over the country, and then the Communist Viet Cong and then the ugly Americans.
Along the way Le Ly gets corrupted by these aliens in her society. She’s sold into a job housekeeping the estate of a rich businessman, whom she’s eventually raped by and thus impregnated. After shaming her family she takes to the streets, becoming a hustler and parttime street prostitute. Eventually the heroic and love-smitten figure of US soldier Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones) appears, sweeping her off her feet . He brings her back to the US and into another alien and ironically even more corrupting environment. Unfortunately Butler turns out to be sadistic psychopath who turns devilish very fast, becomes abusive, beating her, and threatening to kill her. But Le Ly is a survivor, overcomes the culture shock and makes good on the American dream, achieving wealth and success, but her life can only be fulfilled completely when she returns home to reconcile with her mother.
“Heaven and Earth” is only interesting for Oliver Stone buffs who want to follow the path of his career. The visual style fits in well with the language he established with his post Wall Street films – 'The Doors', 'Born on the Fourth of July' and 'JFK'. Robert Richardson’s photography is top notch, beautifying everything he shoots. His photography of the Vietnamese landscape, with carefully chosen compositions' heighten the colour green, providing an ironic counterpoint of the beauty of the land with the horrors of war.
Unfortunately everything else in the film stinks. Stone’s decision to have all his Vietnamese actors speak English exclusively is a fundamental fault. Sure, he was going for a mass audience, thus removing the need for subtitles, but his integrity for the culture of the country is lost and the acting abilities of the actors with the foreign language do not hold.
Stone races through the events of Le Ly's life with such speed it feels like one disastrous confrontation and event after another. And so when she starts to achieve her success as an American, the irony of this hits a hammer even blunter even by Stone’s own standards.
Though Stone's reach was much larger than his grasp, it's a risky venture which great filmmakers need to take , a mistake which cinema history quickly forgave. "Heaven & Earth" was certainly not a career-breaker as Stone would go on make "Natural Born Killers" later that year, and "Nixon" two years later.
Nixon (1995) dir. Oliver Stone Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, James Woods, J.T. Walsh, Paul Sorvino
****
Certainly the last great film from Oliver Stone is “Nixon”, which came at the end of a remarkable 10-year streak of diverse and provocative films that both commented on and became hallmarks of contemporary culture and politics. It's a bold 192mins sprawling epic which never loses sight of the intimate complexities of its main character.
The film begins in 1974, towards the end of his quick decline and before his impeachment. We get to see Nixon drunk in his private study listening to those wiretap recordings and destroying the famed 18 1/2 mins gap of tape which some assumed to be his smoking gun. Through a number of ongoing flashbacks Stone moves back to chart the course of his life from his humble childhood in Whittier CA, where we see Nixon’s family life and how the expectations of his family affect his decisions in the present to his failed Presidential attempt against Kennedy in 1960 to his two terms in the White House and the Watergate scandal.
“Nixon” makes a great accompany piece to 1991’s “JFK”. Stone’s “Nixon” is less concerned about conspiracy as creating a composite of his political life and a character study of an admirable but flawed man. While the extensive hallucinatory multi-media editing of archival footage in “JFK” compliments the conspiratory and hypothetical nature of that film Stone uses just the right amount of restraint with his technique in “Nixon”. While similar stylistically it never feels like Stone repeating himself.
The cavalcade of talented actors who fill the shoes of real life characters is a treat to watch. Stone smartly identifies each character with his role in the opening credits to give us all a head start (ie. David Hyde Piece as John Dean) allowing Stone to jump right in without labouring us with exposition.
The actors playing these characters 'sing' their often complex political jargon dialogue with complete honesty and conviction. We get to see James Woods as H.R. Halderman at the top of his acting career, in one of his best performances, and as his compatriot John Erlichman, J.T. Walsh, then one of the best character actors working in Hollywood. Walsh would sadly die only 3 years later robbing us of more fine performances. A roll call of great character actors too numerous to count make every scene in “Nixon” a delight.
The character of Richard Nixon seems to have enough complexities as to warrant repeated tellings of his story. Both Frank Langella’s Nixon and Anthony Hopkins' version explores the man's internal self-loathing and inferiority complex which allowed him to think he needed to cheat win his election. From two different stories Ron Howard’s film and Stone’s film show the crafty intelligence of Nixon and his supreme work ethic to maintain power.
"Nixon", in many ways, captures the best and worst of the American dream, the story of a poor farmer’s boy from Whittier California who rose to the top of the world through his shear will power and desire to win, but fell hard from the exploitation of that dream. Enjoy.
Natural Born Killers (1994) dir. Oliver Stone Starring: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones
***1/2
One of the most controversial films of the 1990’s is Oliver Stone’s psychedelic parable of violence and the media, “Natural Born Killers.” With 14 years of hindsight the film stands up as a powerful, in-your-face statement about the public’s obsession with violence and true crime.
Watching the film, it’s hard to believe the script started off as a Quentin Tarantino film. Though the visual style and statement-making satirical tone is wholly Oliver Stone, some of the Tarantino hallmarks remain. The murderous duo, Mickey and Mallory, on the road and on the run, contain many of the humorous dialogue interaction and genre-reverence as Tarantino’s scripts for “True Romance”, “From Dusk till Dawn”. But in the hands of Stone, and his co-writers it became a beast through he could make his type of grand statements. Since it's a satire the extreme flourishes are necessary and make the statement stronger.
None of the freneticness would work if the film wasn't entertaining. Harrelson and Lewis make a wonderful fun loving couple of psychotics. If anything Juliette Lewis’ character treads too much on the performances from her other films (ie. “Kalifornia”), but Harrelson who is cast against type has the screen presence and confidence to pull off his conflicted character.
Around every corner is a number of wonderful scene stealer supporting performances. Tom Sizemore’s extreme ‘bad cop’ Jack Scagnetti and Tommy Lee Jones’ prison warden Jack McClusky are even more repulsive than Mickey and Mallory. But it’s Robert Downey Jr.’s Aussie TV talk show host Wayne Gale who shines. It's one of Downey's best characters. Although Gale is manic, absurd and goes over the edge his TV interview with Mickey brings out a sharp intelligence to his character.
Key to Stone's statement is his bold cinematic style. Stone exaggerates his innovative multi-format, multi-media techniques he used in 1991's "JFK". It's a monumental achievement to (arguably) create coherence from the almost random cornucopia of imagery and sound mashed together. In the DVD audio commentary Stone ends his discussion by giving extra special thanks to his negative cutter who had the hardest job on the production, assembling the final film from over 3000 edits from multiple format sources.
"Natural Born Killers" was one of the last films in a remarkably creative, productive and innovative 10 year run of filmmaking for Stone. Between 1986 and 1995 he made 10 films ("Nixon" is last). The effect of such concentration probably burned him out creatively and we may never see Stone reach the cultural relevance he achieved in this period.
W. (2008) dir. Oliver Stone Starring: Josh Brolin, Richard Dreyfuss, Toby Jones, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, James Cromwell
***
W. is kind of an unprecedented film – the political story of a U.S. President currently in office. Mike Nichols’ “Primary Colors” would perhaps be the only comparison. Oliver Stone’s film is even more ambitious and risky. There are no pseudonyms or alter-egos to hide behind, it’s about real people and real events still in progress.
"W." is not the Stone from those really ambitious days in the 90's when he gave us some truly risky studio films. The absence of Robert Richardson behind the camera, Pietro Scalia's editing and John Williams' music, is a big loss in innovation, but it's by far Stone's best film since "Nixon".
The story begins after 9/11 - 2002 in fact, just when Iraq becomes the next target for the Bush administration.We're immediately thrown into the Oval Office roundtable discussing the term "Axis of Evil". There's Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condolezza Rice, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet. All of them are familar actors doing remarkable impressions of these familiar names and faces. As these events lead up to the invasion of Iraq and the search for the infamous WMDs Stone periodically flashes back to Bush's youth and traces the steps which have led to the decisions he's making in the present.
Key to the Bush personality, persona and character is Bush Sr. - the former President, Yale grad, oil man, and CIA Director whose expectations for dubbya are just too big to handle. For the decade of the 70's it's a trainwreck lifestyle, always with a drink in his hand. When he decides to shape up his life, he finds God and kicks his alcoholism. Nothing seems to satisfy the elder Bush, until W. joins his 1988 Presidential campaign and shows his teeth as a fighter and a surprisingly astute right-hand man. Since the real story is not yet complete Stone leaves us with a question mark, but not before he paints for us a unique picture of one of the most 'misunderestimated' figures in American politics.
Stone’s film is first a satire and second a political statement. Unlike “JFK”, there’s little controversy to spark other than the mere fact of making a film about the current President in office. Bush is depicted exactly as he is perceived – a kid born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who sailed through his youth as a drunk-driving wildcat then got in shape, found God and followed in his Dad’s footsteps to the White House. Much of the humour comes from his common man’s personality, mis-pronunciation of words, confident swagger and his general affability as leader of the free world.
Stoner never gets any deeper than that, and so as an analytical examination of history he fails to reaches the supreme highs of his earlier political gems “JFK” and “Nixon”. Stone does give us two hours of fun engaging entertainment though.
Josh Brolin, currently on one of the most surprising runs of great films in recent Hollywood memory, turns in a truly great performance, carrying every ounce of the film. It takes about a third of the way through before the novelty of Josh Brolin doing a George W. Bush impression wears off and he disappears into his new skin.
Brolin and Stone continually walk a dance of complete buffoonery and genuine sympathy and understanding of the man. The strongest depth of character is his lifelong battle with his father George H. W. Bush (James Cromwell). One of the key dialogue scenes in the film is when Bush confesses to his pastor that people don’t understand the burden being born a Bush. As we get into the mind of W. we see the insecurities of a young man with enormous expectations. His dalliances, though irresponsible and careless are the work of a young man struggling to find his identity - something everyone can identify with. And so Bush's journey, well planned out by screenwriter Stanley Weiser, is about his acceptance of himself and not from his father.
Behind Brolin is a long list of great supporting actors as his aides. Jeffrey Wright's Colin Powell, the only one against the war in Iraq, is distinguished and honourable; Richard Dreyfuss, a spitting image of Dick Cheney is the villain - a crafty war monger who directs traffic quietly in the background. It's Dreyfuss' best role in over 10 years. The other standout is Toby Jones, as Karl Rove, the man who was with Bush the longest and who 'trained' him to win his campaigns.
Some may see this portrayal as too strong, some may see it as not challenging enough. But by the end, what is the point Stone's trying to make? While Stone is tough on him he leaves his reputation in tact. Considering the ballsy ambitiousness of such a project, Stone succeeds admirably. It's a fine place-in-time portrait of a simple man who happened to rise to the most influential public figure in the world. Enjoy.
The Doors (1991) dir. Oliver Stone Starring: Val Kilmer, Kyle Maclachlan, Meg Ryan, Kevin Dillon, Frank Whaley
***
For ten years between 1985 and 1995 Oliver Stone produced a remarkable amount of culturally significant and highly creative cinema endeavours. During this time he set standards, broke rules and established new ones as his storytelling skills evolved. Smack dab in the middle is “The Doors” his dreamlike rollercoaster ride through the late 60’s of Jim Morrison and his L.A.-based psychedelic superstars.
The film opens in the mid-60’s during Morrison’s time at UCLA film school. Even there he was a rebel poet misunderstood by his fellow students and teachers. We see him connect with one though, Ray Manzarek (Kyle Maclachlan). While walking on a beach philosophizing about art and politics they come up with the idea of a band called The Doors. Stone then fast-forwards through an influential six-month period where the band is formed, songs are written and their first gigs are played.
When they become famous we see a number of their benchmark career moments – the famous Ed Sullivan show where Morrison was asked to sing ‘girl you couldn’t get much better’, instead of higher; Morrison’s arrest at the New Haven show; and his experiences with the New York Andy Worhol scene. Morrison is torn between two women in his life, Pam (Meg Ryan), whom he falls instantly in love with on sight, and Patricia (Kathleen Quinlan) a journalist who introduces Morrison to sadomasochism and witchcraft. But it’s the boozing and excessive behaviour which causes the most conflict in his life, something which would eventually cause his self-destruction and untimely death in 1971.
Part and parcel with Stone’s successful films is his key collaborators. Namely, his trusted director of photography Robert Richardson. Stone’s style evolved alongside Richardson’s skills with lights and the camera. The psychedelic subject matter allowed Richardson to experiment with colours, exposures and film stock and push all kinds of cinema-boundaries. Watch for his trademark hot overhead highlights, rimmers and hotspots around the frame and watch his colours dissolve in and out of his frames. On Blu-Ray Richardson’s detailed brushstrokes are glorious to behold.
Stone worked with a number of editors many of who started off as assistants and got promoted over the course of these ten years. They include David Brenner, Joe Husting, Pietro Scalia who all worked on “The Doors.” With this film, watch for the seeds of their innovative montage style of editing which Husting and Scalia would win an Oscar for later that year for “JFK.
At 135mins it’s a lengthy journey. But we are always kept interested and stimulated with either the kaleidoscope of lights or the hypnotic trance of the Doors’ music. What starts to go limp is Stone’s characterization of Morrison. We don’t really get a chance to know or love the man while outside of his stage personality. In fact, Stone portrays his on stage and off stage personas as one in the same. It’s Stone’s interpretation, but it results in a monotony of dazed behaviour and flakiness.
But “The Doors” succeeds over its faults, because as a music biopic it successfully visualizes the power and influence of the music against the time, period and location. And few have done that better than Oliver Stone. Enjoy.
