Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

See the Conversations with History Blog See a webcast of this interview: Stone See also Stone's commencement address to UC students.

This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas. Archival photos in this interview are courtesy of Oliver Stone.

Archival photos are courtesy of Mr. Stone.

Welcome to a "Conversation with History." I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest is Oliver Stone, who makes movies as a producer, screenwriter, and director. His movies, Platoon, Born of the Fourth of July, JFK, Nixon, Between Heaven and Earth, and Salvador, to name a few, are in a sense, conversations with history. Intense, provocative, thoughtful, they are cinema which jolts our senses and stretches our imagination, forcing us to confront our delusions about who we are. Mr. Stone has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and has won 3 Oscars for writing Midnight Express and directing Born of the Fourth of July and Platoon. Mr. Stone served in Vietnam, was wounded twice, and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

1. Movie Magic ... influences ... elements of a great movie
2. A Distinctive Art Form ... compression of time ... individual interpretation ... the collective unconscious ... chemistry
3. Experience, Sensation, and Catharsis ... history in the movies ... beyond conventional opinion ... film and authentic feelings
4. Forgotten Chapters in History ... Capra and the Depression era ... telling the story of Roosevelt's last term
5. Dramatizing History (1) ... telling the Vietnam story ... historical context ... dramatic narrative vs. historical narrative ... the movie as a "first draft" of history ... movies as illusions
6. Dramatizing History (2) ... research ... selecting the facts ... Stone and the establishment ... political philosophy .... the great man in history and the strength of the people ... "the beast" ... conspiracy ... Kennedy
7. Characterization and Structure ... character vs. plot development ... tearing down the veil of television's "reality" ... the Zapruder film ... Nixon as Richard II
8. Artistic Purpose and Tradition ... warring interpretations and the vanity of historians
9. Conclusion ... role of the filmmaker ... role of movies

© Copyright 1997, Regents of the University of California

Photo by Audrey Ichinose. Site questions: Email iis_webmgr at berkeley.edu.

Oliver Stone Interview: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by Audrey Ichinose

Page 1 of 9

Movie Magic

Mr. Stone, welcome to Berkeley.

Thank you, Harry.

What directors have most influenced you?

I always get asked that question, What are your favorite movies? Which movies most influenced you? And my answer is, there are a few names of people that certainly stand out but to name them would hardly be fair to the huge body of work that I've seen that belongs to many different people. By that I mean that there's a tradition that I feel that we inherit on coming to the business. You could say the "auteur" theory is over-hyped; there are many talented people who work in the business. It's a mistake to get into this list-making. That's what critics do. They make "ten best" lists and unfortunately that's not always fair and it hurts people who deserve inclusion.

What would you identify as key to making a movie great?

There is the magic that occurs, very Frankensteinian, actually. The director is Dr. Frankenstein, if he's a good director. He is the doctor, playing, experimenting with the chemicals, and trying to bring them into some kind of collusion where they match, where they complement one another. You can have everybody very talented in your chemistry set, you can have the best cinematographer, the best designer, the best actors, the best script, and miss. I do think the scientist can screw up the experiment by misapplying the chemicals in the right quantities.

So we have the chemicals and the body parts, but there is that indefinable electric spark that transfers the gluten into life. When, where, angle of attack, trajectory, and just plain luck control the spark and whether it does or does not come to full, blooming life.

There is this magic thing, but based, I believe, on fundamental basics of good writing, drama, and character.

Among the body parts and chemicals: social breadth; galvanic excitement; burning commitment; a well-written if not great script; tolerant yet urgent direction; lighting that is both body and shadow and brings forth a rounded humanity; a camera that sees with the eye of someone, the god in the tapestry; actors that add the "je ne sais quoi" to the script, that added dimension of popping it off the page, making the audience feel they care more about these particular faces than people in their own life; and finally, a presence in time, a rightness to your moment, which is part marketing but mostly an indefinable moment of the zeitgeist -- which in other words is "destiny." Each filmmaker has a destiny, each filmmaker of merit, I believe, has in him a few films that will strike that chord with destiny.

Lastly and above all, it is like sperm getting up the uterine canal and making it -- that is to say, the odds are long, but if the desire for life is powerful, it will somehow emerge.

Next page: A Distinctive Art Form

© Copyright 1997, Regents of the University of California