The movies can drastically change overnight. A single idea, or story, can shift everything. Future theatrical experiences can be forever altered by the power of a single film. Everyone walks away with something – good or bad.
In 1995, Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” was panned and praised, but movies would never be the same. The movie-going world was stirred and torn. High school students were defending freedom of thought against teachers. Audience members walked out by the dozens within the first fifteen minutes. Violence was being blamed on the movies, video games, and music. But “Natural Born Killers” was thought-provoking. What were those thoughts, exactly? The world of cinema was going to learn as Oliver Stone taught.
“Natural Born Killers” satirically portrayed the MTV world by using the MTV style. The fact that a style can be narrowed down to a single station is just as preposterous as using the style against itself. Confused? Well, the point was Stone wasn’t intimidated by Quentin Tarantino’s success with “Pulp Fiction.” He was going to take Tarantino’s modern “Bonnie and Clyde” script of “Natural Born Killers” and make it his own. A complicated endeavor, but Stone was the man to do it.
Since his collision of black and white, grainy images and rich colors in “JFK,” Stone had been perfecting his attack on the reality TV world before reality TV would take us over. The MTV style was now Stone’s style.
By this time, Stone was already known for altering history (“The Doors”), combining conspiracy theories (“JFK”), and taking a stab at our reasons for being in the Vietnam war whenever he could (almost every movie he’s made references Vietnam). But we were okay with that. Stone was a crazy man who made up whatever world he wished in the movies. We awarded him for it, and he has brought out some of the best performances over the years. There was a sense of humor, or a design on how to mix truth, not only with fiction, but with humorous scenarios. Nothing was to be taken seriously except the cinematography.
“Nixon” was next to come out, and it was absurdly long. He cut it down. It didn’t get as much recognition, but it went deeper than Watergate. “U Turn,” Stone’s lower-budgeted simple story starring a frenzied Sean Penn, followed. The wacky editing and characters were consistently despicable. When everything slowed down, you could almost smell the sun outside a mahogany office. The sand of the desert was in your eyes. The lies jerked you to an extreme close up on a mouth. That’s why Stone hasn’t let go of his style! He hasn’t completely lost his mind, he’s just growing and mastering a tempo. Directors like Tony Scott have since been inspired and guilty of putting their own spin on the same quick-cut style.
Sad to say, by the time “Any Given Sunday” was released in 1999, many had had enough of his psycho editing. Some said it was cheesy and overdone. Overdone cheese. However one phrased it, he was becoming yesterday’s news. The NFL didn’t like how they were represented, so Stone went ahead and made up his own teams. Watching “Any Given Sunday,” you think you get it. The whole gladiator analogy and how we’re a bunch of idiots who thirst for blood and money. Yeah, yeah, that’s funny. Good one, Oliver. But then Jamie Foxx (who starred in “Any Given Sunday” and was simultaneously becoming a pop artist) had music videos which were similar to the ones you believed were bashing the no-talent pop idols. Could there be a kind of phoniness going on here? Nah. That’s Jamie Foxx. Life imitates art, and art imitates life. It has nothing to do with Oliver Stone being a hypocrite or … dumb. (You’ll get back to this.)
Movies changed drastically in 1999, and Stone wasn’t present after “Any Given Sunday.” Maybe you read his novel or tried to reread the first hundred pages twice and gave up and attempted to sell it at a yard sale for 50 cents where no one bought it (as I did). Perhaps you went back and saw “Heaven and Earth,” and “Salvador,” in addition to his other films, and were convinced he had branched out. Everything will be okay. Stone likes to play around, and you were momentarily caught up in the real world, mixing fact and fiction. It will be okay.
As you were placing Oliver Stone near the top of your list of favorite directors, he went a little nuttier, and returned to the movies with “Comandante” a documentary about Fidel Castro. But that’s okay. It was 2003, and anyone in the spotlight wanted to make a difference. Relax.
Saturday Night Live has a skit where Will Ferrell plays Oliver Stone as a crazy Vet director. Everything involves a helicopter. The rerun was funnier than you remembered. You can get on board, chuckle at the crazy man. Stone’s eccentric and mixes up his facts, but he knows how to tell a story and get you to feel for those troubled characters. The film world is still intact.
2004. Finally, Stone is coming back. His first fictional feature in five years is about Alexander the Great and starring the up-and-coming, captivating actor Colin Farrell. Funny, you were going to name your son Alexander.
The movie is a no-nonsense disaster. A blunder. It mocks … something, and you don’t give a damn what it’s mocking. Alexander reminds you of a hairdresser. The giant, unstoppable, god-like, legendary military leader is a drug addict. The scenes of war are senseless, and you dozed off three times. Maybe some of the stories and secrets of Alexander are true, but why use Alexander the Great to remake “Blow”? The clincher, the element that made you sweat with anger, was the camera setups. (Single example is the laughable slow-mo drop of Alexander’s arm that resembles a spoof shot of “Braveheart.”)
Maybe it was time to take a look back at Stone’s past work. But before you had time, Oliver Stone dared his audience again with the TV-movie-like “World Trade Center.” You skipped it.
Two years later, “W” is released. The trailer is not only enticing, but brilliant. George W. Bush is going to be bashed or misunderstood by Oliver Stone, the wizard. While facts are fresh in our head, Stone is probably going to alter back-stories and events! We love the wild idea! Perhaps Stone is a mastermind and has had some kind of relapse. Everyone makes mistakes.
Josh Brolin was amazing as Bush. Congratulations! But what the hell was Thandie Newton doing with that face and cartoon over-the-top accent? How could Richard Dreyfuss pull off his little Dick Cheney speech without cracking a smile and ruining every take of an asinine scene? Why was that dog so hoppity? There were blatant metaphors overlapping vague ones. Serious insight was glazed with oversights. Or was it oversights darkened insight? Satirical moments were rendered as fact. Fact was a cardboard cutout, and scissors were plastic and rubbing at the edges of a cardboard cutout reality. Something like that. A baseball was involved.
Oliver Stone had done the dirty deed; he used his film to express his opinion. Like or dislike a president, celebrity, or legend, Stone has lost all credibility and altered our respect for a visionary.
Take a looksy back at “Any Given Sunday,” and it’s ruined. The eye of enlightenment (often used in his films) is nonsensical. Music blaring over a sky shot was supposed to be ironic. Nope. It’s rushed MTV filler. Is this why you never purchased the Oliver Stone collection? Were you never convinced Stone was worthy of that amount of space on your DVD rack?
The talent or messages he may have once possessed were never clear enough to defend today. Double standards are flashed about in all his films, and for what purpose? No one can deny Oliver’s track record, but he’s been tattooing his films with contradictory statements all along. There’s nothing worth fighting for, something you’d think he’d be able to relate to, since these may be his thoughts on our involvement of the war in Vietnam. But we’re not even sure about that. How could we have been so stupid? Why did we waste time deciphering your artistic voice? We followed you through the muck, through “Nam,” and you’ve bailed on us. You stand for nothing, Oliver Stone.
(I’m choosing to ignore his last documentary and go directly to his sequel for my final bashing.) Since Stone’s next picture “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” is not yet released, I’ll hope that the movie can’t possibly be worse than the title. The fact that he’s making a sequel in this day and age of money-making sequels has to top the idiotic title. He cast Shia LaBeouf (who was promising in “Holes” in 2003) and that risky decision has to distract from, and top, any other problems the movie may have.
Picture a Saturday Night Live phony trailer for a sequel to a movie that should not be made. We’ll say, “Wall Street”. Pick a cast member to play Michael Douglas becoming a best-selling author because of his phrase Greed is good. (That should get a laugh.) Then (for this phony trailer) pick America’s most hated rising star (presently Shia LaBeouf). How about slapping a title which suggests that a part of the human’s daily routine is experienced through an inanimate object? SNL doesn’t have to do a skit on this one; Stone’s done it for himself.
Thank you for fighting for our country, Oliver boy; but perhaps it’s time for you to leave our theaters … alone.
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