STONE

Oliver Stone's professional achievements and personal demons are captured in this explosive biography of the outspoken, Oscar-winning filmmaker--his spoiled but neglected childhood, his tour in Viet Nam, his struggle as a screenwriter, and his incredible acclaim as a director.

Despite a nominally independent stance, Riordan (Break On Through), who consulted on Oliver Stone's 1991 rock fantasia, The Doors, has hardly a discouraging word to say about Stone's increasingly controversial films and notorious cage-rattling behavior in this admiring portrait of the Hollywood director. As what seems like a cast of thousands?friends, actors, Hollywood insiders?steps up to the mike to pay tribute to Stone's artistic greatness and personal goodness, Riordan chimes in with surprisingly few of his own ideas, beyond the oft-repeated mantra that Stone is a Method director who uses film to "exorcise his madness." After chapters on Stone's chaotic childhood and harrowing Vietnam experiences, Riordan deals only glancingly with Stone's personal life, most notably the womanizing that led to the breakup of his marriage in 1994. But the often facile psychologizing aside, fans will appreciate the detailed, behind-the-scenes accounts of Stone's films.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Midnight Express to Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone has built a reputation by pursuing controversial subjects and risky, on-the-edge filmmaking. The author considers Stone "a mass of contradictions held together by enormous willpower." In this book, which had the cooperation of Stone and most of his colleagues, Riordan discusses Stone's difficult relationship with his father, his Vietnam experience, periods of drug use, marriage, and his immense immersion in each film, in which Stone almost always becomes the main character. The book examines each film in detail, outlining major themes and providing vivid anecdotes. A listing of Stone's early screenplays and producing credits are also given. Far superior to Norman Kagan's The Cinema of Oliver Stone (LJ 5/15/95), this is highly recommended for all film collections.
Stephen Rees, Bucks Cty. Free Lib., Levittown, Pa.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.