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The Oliver Stone Experience
Stone himself serves as guide to this no-holds-barred retrospective—an extremely candid and comprehensive monograph of the renowned and controversial writer, director, and cinematic historian in interview form.
Over the course of five years, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone ( Midnight Express , Scarface , Platoon , JFK , Natural Born Killers , Snowden ) and New York Times bestselling author Matt Zoller Seitz ( The Wes Anderson Collection ) discussed, debated, and deconstructed the arc of Stone's outspoken, controversial life and career with extraordinary candor. This book collects those conversations for the first time , including anecdotes about Stone's childhood, Vietnam, his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, and his continual struggle to reinvent himself as an artist. Their dialogue is illustrated by hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and documents from Stone's personal archive , dating back to Stone's personal snapshots, private correspondence, annotated script pages and storyboards, behind-the-scenes photography, and production files from all of his films to date —through 2016's Snowden , and including Stone's epic Showtime mini-series Untold HIstory of the United States . Critical commentary from Seitz on each of Stone's films is joined by original essays from filmmaker Ramin Bahrani; writer, editor, and educator Kiese Laymon; writer and actor Jim Beaver; and film critics Walter Chaw, Michael Guarnieri, Kim Morgan, and Alissa Wilkinson .
At once a complex analysis of a master director’s vision and a painfully honest critical biography in widescreen technicolor, The Oliver Stone Experience is as daring, intense, and provocative as Stone’s films —it's an Oliver Stone movie about Oliver Stone, in the form of a book.
Both this book and Stone’s highly anticipated film, Snowden , will be released in September 2016 to coincide with Stone’s seventieth birthday (September 15, 1946).
Also available from Matt Zoller Mad Men Carousel , The Wes Anderson Bad Dads , The Wes Anderson The Grand Budapest Hotel , and The Wes Anderson Collection .
Over the course of five years, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone ( Midnight Express , Scarface , Platoon , JFK , Natural Born Killers , Snowden ) and New York Times bestselling author Matt Zoller Seitz ( The Wes Anderson Collection ) discussed, debated, and deconstructed the arc of Stone's outspoken, controversial life and career with extraordinary candor. This book collects those conversations for the first time , including anecdotes about Stone's childhood, Vietnam, his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, and his continual struggle to reinvent himself as an artist. Their dialogue is illustrated by hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and documents from Stone's personal archive , dating back to Stone's personal snapshots, private correspondence, annotated script pages and storyboards, behind-the-scenes photography, and production files from all of his films to date —through 2016's Snowden , and including Stone's epic Showtime mini-series Untold HIstory of the United States . Critical commentary from Seitz on each of Stone's films is joined by original essays from filmmaker Ramin Bahrani; writer, editor, and educator Kiese Laymon; writer and actor Jim Beaver; and film critics Walter Chaw, Michael Guarnieri, Kim Morgan, and Alissa Wilkinson .
At once a complex analysis of a master director’s vision and a painfully honest critical biography in widescreen technicolor, The Oliver Stone Experience is as daring, intense, and provocative as Stone’s films —it's an Oliver Stone movie about Oliver Stone, in the form of a book.
Both this book and Stone’s highly anticipated film, Snowden , will be released in September 2016 to coincide with Stone’s seventieth birthday (September 15, 1946).
Also available from Matt Zoller Mad Men Carousel , The Wes Anderson Bad Dads , The Wes Anderson The Grand Budapest Hotel , and The Wes Anderson Collection .
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480 pages, Hardcover
Published September 13, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 2, 2017
"I am not trying to be a historian and a dramatist; I'm a dramatist, a dramatic historian, or one who does a dramatic interpretation of history."
Though not exactly in these words, this is a refrain that comes up many times in the book The Oliver Stone Experience, a book that is meant to be, according to author Matt Zoller Seitz, an "Oliver Stone movie about Oliver Stone but it's a book." I can get what he means by the presentation as it's a MASSIVE book. It makes what he put together for The Wes Anderson Collection two years ago seem tiny by comparison, though they're both big books. It's not a coffee table book so much as like one of those long, long dining room tables that probably weighs 400 pounds and rests in some old monarch's castle from the medieval era.
But to get back to that quote, Stone faces the questions from Seitz - in an honest look at his career of dozens of films over 40+ years in the movies, certainly honest as possible, he has little choice to do otherwise - that bring up the many, many, many, many, many criticisms he has received over his work, not so much artistically (though I'm sure there's some film critic still catatonic over Natural Born Killers out there) but in the ideas put forward, can't help but bring up this response.
With the exception of the documentaries that Stone has made in the past 15 years, on the Middle-East conflict, Castro, South American presidents and, in what may be his most impressive and towering work since Nixon, The Untold History of the United States (and even there he still uses the "D" word), Stone emphathizes he makes dramatic movies because he LIKES drama and wants to put forward these topics like JFK, Jim Morrison, Vietnam, violence and the media, presidential power, drugs, even feminism occasionally (i.e. Heaven & Earth), into the framework of drama: characters dealing with conflicts both internal and external, and sometimes those two get more twisted than a pretzel factory.
One of the things I like about this book very much is how Stone and Seitz not so much spar but have a spirited debate over certain issues: how women are depicted in his work; how drugs are meant to be represented; what does it mean to have conspiracy theories (Stone is uncertain in the book about 9/11 but stops short about calling that a conspiracy - he notes that he is most concerned about the effects, what's come of it, which is certainly more troubling to me); and what certain things *mean* as far as critical analysis. In hindsight this sort of thing maybe couldn't be helped, but in the Wes Anderson book there seemed to be at times when the author might look for things in the work that may (or may not) be there, and there'd be a repetitive "Hmm" response. That may just be the way it was, but it's a case where an artist comes clean only sometimes and it doesn't make for the most fascinating interviews (again, no one's fault exactly, just different temperaments or a case of fishing too far for themes and running things).
Here, Stone is open as can be and can be challenging, but in a way that's never unpleasant. There are many times he wants clarifications from Seitz, and it makes it into much more of a conversation usually than an interview, and the challenges come from both ways. It makes for a reading of an entire life and career where callbacks can happen in the latter chapters and notions brought up that make more sense, and in the earlier chapters things may come up about Stone personally or how he grew intellectually that will pay off later on. Some interview books are only about gathering trivia information about a filmmaker or artist. This is about seeing into an entire worldview; certainly some may not *agree* with all Stone says (there's times where things look so fucking bleak to him it's amazing he can get up in the morning, politically/foreign-power-militarily-industrial-complex speaking), but seeing it all laid out makes for a page-turner.
And part of it being so BIG and so fascinating to read through is that in-between the interviews are essays from Seitz (not unlike last time in the Anderson book, only here there's *footnotes from Stone* about certain things, maybe like the "vertical editing" of Stone's style in the 90's where a black-and-white clip comes in to bring other context to a moment), there's page after page of fantastic stills, special materials from Stone's archives, newspaper clippings, posters, pieces of propaganda, screenplay excerpts (Stone's notes add some extra context for movie junkies), and even bits of scripts we've never seen before like from "Break", the script ironically meant for Jim Morrison in 1971(!) And there are other essays with deeper analysis into, say, Stone's accuracy on Vietnam by Jim Beaver, or another essay dealing with the spiritual dimensions of his work that are hard to see (Hell, even THE HAND, his 1981 horror movie obscurity with Michael Caine, gets some love in an essay)
At the center of it all is this man, Oliver Stone, who has been called many things - a genius, a crackpot, a hero, a villain, an asshole, a nut, a dangerous man, a provocateur (believe it or not he doesn't want to be called this term - hell, he even apologized for comments he's made in the past, this comes up too) - but he's never disingenuous. There's not many moments, though there may be one or two I'm sure I glossed over on a first reading, where he doesn't lay it out on the line about possible faults in his character, or that may have come from his parents - they're such a big part of his book that also can't be overstated - but there's one more thing I appreciated very much: dealing with rejection as an artist and what that does to one's character.
It's one thing to see a Kevin Smith dealing with his critics (or not dealing with them), but with Oliver Stone, a man who has won four Oscars and had at least five films that, adjusted for inflation, made over 100 million (including NBK), it's something that sticks out when he says how much it chips away when things don't turn out like they should in the evolution of a career. Imagine an MLK biopic from Stone, or a movie about the My-Lai massacre. Those haven't happened. Snowden, his latest film, barely got made after some massive rejections, and Platoon and Born on the fourth of July took 10 years each(!). And it's not even that he has thin skin - surely, by reading him here, he has skin like a rhino - but it made Stone seem more humbled, less like some Mad Anti-American Super-Crazy-Director-Man like he's been made out (or, on occasion, he makes himself out to be, whether intentional or not).
Deep down, he's just like many other directors and artists and actors: being in a commercial medium AND getting what you want or need to say out there, if it doesn't immediately conform to the time, can be very, very, very hard. That's one of the things in reading this book that made me like the man more, and made for a completely absorbing reading experience.
Though not exactly in these words, this is a refrain that comes up many times in the book The Oliver Stone Experience, a book that is meant to be, according to author Matt Zoller Seitz, an "Oliver Stone movie about Oliver Stone but it's a book." I can get what he means by the presentation as it's a MASSIVE book. It makes what he put together for The Wes Anderson Collection two years ago seem tiny by comparison, though they're both big books. It's not a coffee table book so much as like one of those long, long dining room tables that probably weighs 400 pounds and rests in some old monarch's castle from the medieval era.
But to get back to that quote, Stone faces the questions from Seitz - in an honest look at his career of dozens of films over 40+ years in the movies, certainly honest as possible, he has little choice to do otherwise - that bring up the many, many, many, many, many criticisms he has received over his work, not so much artistically (though I'm sure there's some film critic still catatonic over Natural Born Killers out there) but in the ideas put forward, can't help but bring up this response.
With the exception of the documentaries that Stone has made in the past 15 years, on the Middle-East conflict, Castro, South American presidents and, in what may be his most impressive and towering work since Nixon, The Untold History of the United States (and even there he still uses the "D" word), Stone emphathizes he makes dramatic movies because he LIKES drama and wants to put forward these topics like JFK, Jim Morrison, Vietnam, violence and the media, presidential power, drugs, even feminism occasionally (i.e. Heaven & Earth), into the framework of drama: characters dealing with conflicts both internal and external, and sometimes those two get more twisted than a pretzel factory.
One of the things I like about this book very much is how Stone and Seitz not so much spar but have a spirited debate over certain issues: how women are depicted in his work; how drugs are meant to be represented; what does it mean to have conspiracy theories (Stone is uncertain in the book about 9/11 but stops short about calling that a conspiracy - he notes that he is most concerned about the effects, what's come of it, which is certainly more troubling to me); and what certain things *mean* as far as critical analysis. In hindsight this sort of thing maybe couldn't be helped, but in the Wes Anderson book there seemed to be at times when the author might look for things in the work that may (or may not) be there, and there'd be a repetitive "Hmm" response. That may just be the way it was, but it's a case where an artist comes clean only sometimes and it doesn't make for the most fascinating interviews (again, no one's fault exactly, just different temperaments or a case of fishing too far for themes and running things).
Here, Stone is open as can be and can be challenging, but in a way that's never unpleasant. There are many times he wants clarifications from Seitz, and it makes it into much more of a conversation usually than an interview, and the challenges come from both ways. It makes for a reading of an entire life and career where callbacks can happen in the latter chapters and notions brought up that make more sense, and in the earlier chapters things may come up about Stone personally or how he grew intellectually that will pay off later on. Some interview books are only about gathering trivia information about a filmmaker or artist. This is about seeing into an entire worldview; certainly some may not *agree* with all Stone says (there's times where things look so fucking bleak to him it's amazing he can get up in the morning, politically/foreign-power-militarily-industrial-complex speaking), but seeing it all laid out makes for a page-turner.
And part of it being so BIG and so fascinating to read through is that in-between the interviews are essays from Seitz (not unlike last time in the Anderson book, only here there's *footnotes from Stone* about certain things, maybe like the "vertical editing" of Stone's style in the 90's where a black-and-white clip comes in to bring other context to a moment), there's page after page of fantastic stills, special materials from Stone's archives, newspaper clippings, posters, pieces of propaganda, screenplay excerpts (Stone's notes add some extra context for movie junkies), and even bits of scripts we've never seen before like from "Break", the script ironically meant for Jim Morrison in 1971(!) And there are other essays with deeper analysis into, say, Stone's accuracy on Vietnam by Jim Beaver, or another essay dealing with the spiritual dimensions of his work that are hard to see (Hell, even THE HAND, his 1981 horror movie obscurity with Michael Caine, gets some love in an essay)
At the center of it all is this man, Oliver Stone, who has been called many things - a genius, a crackpot, a hero, a villain, an asshole, a nut, a dangerous man, a provocateur (believe it or not he doesn't want to be called this term - hell, he even apologized for comments he's made in the past, this comes up too) - but he's never disingenuous. There's not many moments, though there may be one or two I'm sure I glossed over on a first reading, where he doesn't lay it out on the line about possible faults in his character, or that may have come from his parents - they're such a big part of his book that also can't be overstated - but there's one more thing I appreciated very much: dealing with rejection as an artist and what that does to one's character.
It's one thing to see a Kevin Smith dealing with his critics (or not dealing with them), but with Oliver Stone, a man who has won four Oscars and had at least five films that, adjusted for inflation, made over 100 million (including NBK), it's something that sticks out when he says how much it chips away when things don't turn out like they should in the evolution of a career. Imagine an MLK biopic from Stone, or a movie about the My-Lai massacre. Those haven't happened. Snowden, his latest film, barely got made after some massive rejections, and Platoon and Born on the fourth of July took 10 years each(!). And it's not even that he has thin skin - surely, by reading him here, he has skin like a rhino - but it made Stone seem more humbled, less like some Mad Anti-American Super-Crazy-Director-Man like he's been made out (or, on occasion, he makes himself out to be, whether intentional or not).
Deep down, he's just like many other directors and artists and actors: being in a commercial medium AND getting what you want or need to say out there, if it doesn't immediately conform to the time, can be very, very, very hard. That's one of the things in reading this book that made me like the man more, and made for a completely absorbing reading experience.
September 4, 2024
Magnificent, exhaustive, and engrossing - this book is an examination of a richly complex, subtly egotistical, and truly important American filmmaker. Even if you haven't seen Stone's films - or haven't seen all of them - this book is nonetheless a grand effort to make him human and relatable in a way that makes you realize his entire life has been an open book thanks to how he approaches filmmaking.
The only - and I mean only - downside to this book is how preening & pretentious some guest essayists are. But, given the larger-than-life persona of the man about which they're writing, it's entirely appropriate.
Will everyone love this book? No. In fact, carrying around a nearly 7-pound tome for some light reading reminded me of why I've embraced digital books a lot more in recent years. But the layout is wonderful, the errors are minimal, and I loved the accidental reveal of how they masked the "redacted" sections so that, even if there was a printing error, nothing would be revealed. That in and of itself seems fitting for a filmmaker known for a select section of his filmography more than the entire body of his work.
So no, the five stars doesn't mean it's a landmark work of English literature. But it is a stunningly thoughtful and interesting series of interviews that are more engaging than any straightforward biography could be. This is the story of an artist told through an examination of the medium in which he's worked his whole life, and the events that shaped how he approached that.
Well worth the read.
The only - and I mean only - downside to this book is how preening & pretentious some guest essayists are. But, given the larger-than-life persona of the man about which they're writing, it's entirely appropriate.
Will everyone love this book? No. In fact, carrying around a nearly 7-pound tome for some light reading reminded me of why I've embraced digital books a lot more in recent years. But the layout is wonderful, the errors are minimal, and I loved the accidental reveal of how they masked the "redacted" sections so that, even if there was a printing error, nothing would be revealed. That in and of itself seems fitting for a filmmaker known for a select section of his filmography more than the entire body of his work.
So no, the five stars doesn't mean it's a landmark work of English literature. But it is a stunningly thoughtful and interesting series of interviews that are more engaging than any straightforward biography could be. This is the story of an artist told through an examination of the medium in which he's worked his whole life, and the events that shaped how he approached that.
Well worth the read.
May 5, 2020
Oliver Stone este un regizor american de film, cu trei premii Oscar la activ, autor al filmelor Născut pe 4 iulie, Alexandru, Plutonul, JFK, Nixon și Născuți Asasini (plus altele).
Cartea are caracter bio și autobiografic, viața și opera lui Stone fiind prezentate sub formă de mici rezumate grupate pe câteva decenii marcante, dar și prin interviuri purtate între autor și regizor. Fiind prin natura sa o “carte pentru măsuța de cafea” formatul este mare, paginile lucioase, cu numeroase ilustrații din viața și din filmele lui Oliver Stone. Evident, este un obiect de colecție pentru fanii regizorului sau pentru cei pasionați de filmele sale.
Cartea are caracter bio și autobiografic, viața și opera lui Stone fiind prezentate sub formă de mici rezumate grupate pe câteva decenii marcante, dar și prin interviuri purtate între autor și regizor. Fiind prin natura sa o “carte pentru măsuța de cafea” formatul este mare, paginile lucioase, cu numeroase ilustrații din viața și din filmele lui Oliver Stone. Evident, este un obiect de colecție pentru fanii regizorului sau pentru cei pasionați de filmele sale.
April 21, 2025
My wife gifted me this book not long after I saw Oliver Stone interviewed by Joe Rogan. Most of the book is a set of interviews conducted by Seitz with Stone, and a little commentary from some other popular culture writers examining Stone's work. Lots of pictures throughout the book. The book is footnoted with explanations relating to people and events. After going through this I feel I'm done with Stone for a while. At some point I might read Stone's own book, but for now feel it would be much of a re-hash of the same material.
September 14, 2021
Stunning. A great 'coffee table' book with so much to look at and read in it.
Glorious behind the scenes photos, script pages, scenes from the film and of course a wealth of information about the making of many of the films of the great Oliver Stone.
If you are a fan of his work, then 100% pick this super heavy book up and treat yourself
Glorious behind the scenes photos, script pages, scenes from the film and of course a wealth of information about the making of many of the films of the great Oliver Stone.
If you are a fan of his work, then 100% pick this super heavy book up and treat yourself
December 11, 2016
Great book and a fun read. Needs a full color electronic edition. The book is written and arranged like an Oliver Stone film. Love him or hate him, this book will make it hard not to respect him as an artist and visionary.
July 1, 2019
3.5 stars. A reference work I'll likely return to over the years. So why not a higher rating? Tge book is simply too much of a good thing. The interview transcripts needed to be trimmed back. They become exhausting even though most of each interview is informative.
July 6, 2017
A compelling, well-designed venture through history and filmmaking. There are a few editing mistakes, but I feel wrong even mentioning that on a project of this size.
November 21, 2020
History is facts, and the interpretation of the facts is a conspiracy theory.
May 23, 2021
144 - 2021
Read
December 13, 2023Seitz is a treasure.
February 14, 2017
A mesmerizing portrait of a deeply divisive filmmaker, whom I'd argue is also one of our most vital. Things get off to a slow start, but the conversations between Seitz and Stone throughout are nothing short of invigorating.
As film criticism/theory, the book is an unqualified success, with insightful critiques/summaries of Stone's films from Seitz as well as critical essays from the likes of Jim Beaver, Walter Chaw, Kim Morgan, and Ramin Bahrani, among others. But the most essential parts of this book - redacted comments and all - are Seitz's long, thrillingly discursive discussions with Oliver Stone himself. Even if you're more mixed on the merits of his work than I am, Stone proves to be an irreducibly fascinating character. If he did not actually exist, a Great American Novelist would have had to invent him.
I can't recommend this highly enough. And, while we're here, I'd like to vouch for Nixon and Alexander: The Final Cut as utterly essential cinematic texts. We all already understand how great JFK is, right?
As film criticism/theory, the book is an unqualified success, with insightful critiques/summaries of Stone's films from Seitz as well as critical essays from the likes of Jim Beaver, Walter Chaw, Kim Morgan, and Ramin Bahrani, among others. But the most essential parts of this book - redacted comments and all - are Seitz's long, thrillingly discursive discussions with Oliver Stone himself. Even if you're more mixed on the merits of his work than I am, Stone proves to be an irreducibly fascinating character. If he did not actually exist, a Great American Novelist would have had to invent him.
I can't recommend this highly enough. And, while we're here, I'd like to vouch for Nixon and Alexander: The Final Cut as utterly essential cinematic texts. We all already understand how great JFK is, right?
Read
November 13, 2016Still love Matt Zoller Seitz.
Still can't stand Oliver Stone.
Still can't stand Oliver Stone.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews