Publisher's Synopsis
Challenging audiences and critics alike, the films of Oliver Stone have compelled many viewers to re-examine some of their most revered beliefs about America's past. Stone has generated enormous controversy and debate among those who take issue with his dramatic use of history. This book brings Stone face to face with some of his most thoughtful critics and supporters and allows him room to respond to their views. Writers including David Halberstam, Stephen Ambrose, Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Walter LaFeber and Robert Rosenstone critique Stone's most contested films to show how they may distort, amplify or transcend the historical realities they appear to depict.;The essays - on "Salvador", "Platoon", "Wall Street", "Born on the Fourth of July", "The Doors", "JFK", "Heaven and Earth", "Natural Born Killers" and "Nixon" - seek to enlarge our understanding of the films whilst also offering a fuller appreciation of the film-maker as artist and intellectual. They reveal how Stone's experience in Vietnam colours his views of American government and corporate culture and suggest new ways of looking at the complex tensions between art and history that shape Stone's films.;In response, Stone offers a passionate defence of his artistic vision. Disavowing the mantle of "cinematic historian", he declares himself first and foremost a storyteller, a dramatist and a mythmaker, who deliberately refashions historical facts in pursuit of higher truths. The centrepiece of this artistic manifesto is his commentary on the making and meanings of "JFK", the film that reopened a case many thought finally closed.
