#paul willistein

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Back to School

Maybe you can't go home again, but you can go back to your old school. Acclaimed movie director Oliver Stone visited his high school alma mater, Hill School, in Pottstown this week.

"The Doors," the latest from Stone, an Academy Award-winning director and scriptwriter (for "Born on the Fourth of July," "Platoon" and "Midnight Express," respectively), opens nationwide tomorrow. The movie tells the story of Jim Morrison, founder of the '60s rock group still popular today.

Stone, Hill Class of 1964, delivered an eloquent and insightful 20-minute talk full of bittersweet memories and personal hope in the Hill School's Center for the Arts concert hall before about 720 students and faculty.

After a lively and often humorous 40-minute question-and-answer session punctuated with frequent applause from Hill students and visiting female students from Agnes-Irwin in Rosemont, Montgomery County, Stone answered questions and signed autographs for another 40 minutes over punch and cookies in the center's lobby.

"I always knew I'd come back to the Hill School on a Monday night in the middle of winter. I have a captive audience, I'm sure. Anything to avoid homework," Stone joked.

On Tuesday, Stone, brought to campus as a Bissell Forum Scholar, lectured classes. Past Bissell speakers include businessman Lewis Lehrman, writer Tobias Wolff and playwright Edward Albee.

Hill School Headmaster Charles Watson, supervisor of the hall where Stone lived when he came there, succinctly called the movie director "the astute and controversial chronicler of the social, political and financial fabric of our age and one of Hill's most distinguished sons."

The prestigious all-male boarding and day school established in 1851 has among its graduates Secretary of State James Baker, former U.S. Sen. William Proxmire and "L.A. Law" actor Harry Hamlin.

Said New York City native Stone, 44, whose directing credits include "Wall Street," "Talk Radio" and "Salvador": "I have very ambivalent feelings and memories about Hill.

"I remember the four hours of homework -- sometimes three.

"I remember the time I wanted to run away from school when my parents were divorced in '62, and it was the headmaster who informed me of that.

"I remember the smell of an ancient food you probably don't know -- scrapple."

Stone, in the top 10 percent of his class and a varsity letterman, said he was a Goldwater Republican when he attended Yale University. He dropped out after one year to go to Vietnam as a teacher, merchant seaman and then, in 1967, a soldier. His Vietnam experience was the basis for "Platoon" and informed his film of Ron Kovic's autobiography, "Born on the Fourth of July."

Recalled Stone, "I guess I had the equivalent of a nervous breakdown so that by the time I was 19, in June of 1965, I found myself in Saigon, Vietnam."

In the Vietnam War, Stone was honored with two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for heroism. In 1971, he received a BA from the New York University Film School.

"It took years and years for me to realize that my four years at Hill were very important ones. Where at first I hated my schooling here, the years have given me some insight."

Stone's fascination with the life of Doors' lead singer Morrison (played with complete believability by Val Kilmer) began when he served in Vietnam. The movie follows Morrison's youth, his days at UCLA film school, the forming of The Doors in Los Angeles and its success, and Morrison's death at 27 in 1971 in Paris.

"I think that Jim was a very special person. He was a poet and a dreamer. His life was one quest after another," said Stone.

As a scriptwriter and director, Stone has been criticized for playing fast and loose with the facts, especially with "Born on the Fourth of July." Stone admitted Kovic never visited the family of the soldier he thought he killed with "friendly fire," nor was Kovic beaten at the 1972 Miami Republican Convention.

"The incidents of college protest did not happen at Syracuse (University), but they happened at 15 to 25 other colleges in the same time frame as Kent State and the Cambodian invasion," Stone said.

"I don't think you can do literal truth in a movie. Sometimes, you have to condense characters, you have to composite characters...Historically, novelists and filmmakers have taken those liberties. You know, when you have the facts and you have the truth, print the truth."

Stone was asked his opinion about the Persian Gulf War:

"Certainly, it's an extremely well-managed war. It's (the Persian Gulf War) a far more complex issue than what you've been told. There is a business war involved. There is oil involved. There's a lot of old stories that are interlinked that have to do with the Contra-gate thing. There's a thousand issues. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, putting it together."

In April, Stone is set to travel to Texas to begin a film about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, based on a book by Jim Garrison, then district attorney of Orleans Parish, La. Stone's choice of words to describe the project indicates what approach we might expect:

"I'm starting a film very shortly about the murder of Kennedy and the investigations into the crime. I'm investigating why he was killed, as well as who and how. Kevin Costner's going to be in the movie (playing Garrison), and it should be ready sometime hopefully late in the year or next year this time.

"The Kennedy thing was a big important seminal event of my generation. He was killed. Everything that happened -- Vietnam -- is a direct linking, result, consequence of that murder in Dallas."

While Stone went back to Hill School, don't expect him to stay long enough to make a movie:

"I would love to make a boarding-school film, but it was sort of made in a sense for me. 'Dead Poet's Society' caught a lot of that atmosphere very well."

-Paul WIllistein, "ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR OLIVER STONE BRINGS INSIGHTS HOME TO THE HILL," The Morning Call, Feb 28 1991 [x]

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The Vietnam Odyssey of Oliver Stone

The soldier trained his rifle at the ground in front of the feet of the unarmed Vietnamese villager and fired away, yelling "Dance. Dance. Dance." The old man hopped from one foot to the other.

"I wanted to kill him," recalled Oliver Stone. "I hated him. I crossed over into being a monster."

The above incident is depicted in "Platoon," written and directed by Stone, a Vietnam veteran. It and the other events shown actually happened, according to Stone. He's not proud of it. But he owns up to it. "Platoon" is Oliver Stone's atonement. Moreover, it's our atonement, too. "Platoon" is the first Hollywood movie to take the redemptive power of cinema and focus it on the Vietnam War.

If you think Vietnam was John Wayne in "The Green Berets," Robert DeNiro in "The Deer Hunter" or Marlon Brando in "Apocalypse Now," think again. "Platoon" is about the bugs and rain and the jungle and the pain. It's about the unseen enemy, rice paddy stashes and gun caches in thatched-hut villages. It's about boredom, fear, friendship, rage, loyalty, humor and choices - right and wrong. Like the phrase from the comic strip Pogo, "We have met the enemy and they is us," that's what "Platoon" is all about.

Why is "Platoon" drawing critical raves, Oscar talk and large numbers at the box office? Why is it being called the most important movie about Vietnam, or perhaps the most important war movie ever made? Why, 20 years after the war's escalation, are we seeing images of a Vietnam movie on the cover of Time magazine and in the media across the nation?

Oliver Stone has a few theories. The Academy-award-winning writer ("Midnight Express") and acclaimed writer-director ("Salvador") says it took 20 years for the nation to heal its wounds, for historic perspective to settle in and allow Americans to understand Vietnam and welcome home its legacy - the Vietnam Vet. It took the Vietnam monument in Washington, D.C., and, yes, Bruce Springsteen's misunderstood "Born in the U.S." ("Got in a little hometown jam/So they put a rifle in my hand/Send me off to a foreign land/Go and kill the yellow man.") It was an educational process, Stone told a recent gathering of the media in New York.

"We thought the war was over, when in fact it was just beginning," Stone recalled of his return after 15 months with the 25th Infantry Division near the Cambodian border. Stone, wounded twice, was awarded the Bronze Star for combat gallantry and a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster. He was later transferred to the First Cavalry Division. Of his return home, he says, "There was total indifference. The war happened at 7:15 each night on the news."

Stone, 40, is a bear of a man with a boyish face. He's a very forceful individual who speaks in bursts of words which tumble forth. At the same time, the writer in him is ever observant. He seems impatient, as if he can't wait to get back to the word processor.

Ten days after his return in November 1968, Stone found himself in prison, arrested on a marijuana charge. Adjusting to civilian life for him and some 2 million other Vietnam servicemen would not be easy. But Stone managed to tough it out. What was his salvation? The cinema. Stone studied screenwriting and directing with Martin Scorsese at New York University Film School, receiving a BFA in 1971.

A Canadian firm bought a screenplay, "Seizure," and allowed him to direct the low-budget film. In 1976, Stone moved to Hollywood. Two years later, he won an Academy Award for his screenplay, "Midnight Express," which also brought him the Writers Guild of America Award. Stone also directed another low budget film, "The Hand," and co-authored the script for "Conan the Barbarian" and wrote the screenplay for "Scarface."

It was 10 years ago, during America's Bicentennial, that Stone wrote the script for "Platoon." He says every studio in Hollywood turned it down, telling him nobody wanted to see a movie about the Vietnam War. "It was considered too gruesome, too realistic."

"Platoon" is a Vietnam movie from the grunt's point of view. We see the war through the eyes of Charlie Sheen, who plays Chris, a young recruit (based on Stone), and hear it through his words in letters he writes to his grandmother back home.

The movie depicts a night watch in the jungle turned into an ambush by the North Vietnamese Army, contrasts the boozers (those who drank beer and alcohol off-duty) and the heads (those who used marijuana and other drugs back at base camp), shows a My Lai type scourging of a village by American soldiers and the conflict between a gung-ho, out-to-kill lifer Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), and a mild-mannered eager-to-get-o ut-alive Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe). The movie does not paint a glorious picture of the American presence in Vietnam.

" 'Apocalypse Now' was about everyday life in Vietnam. It was more Joseph Conrad mythology," said Stone. " 'The Deer Hunter' was more about Pennsylvania and Meryl Streep than Vietnam."

The characters in "Platoon" are based on real people who existed in three different combat units in Vietnam. The characters and events are composites, but based on reality, Stone said. "My hypothesis was: 'What would happen if the three were in the same Platoon?' "

I asked Stone how accurate the scenes were depicting drug use in Vietnam. Many Vietnam soldiers were introduced to drugs in Vietnam and returned with drug habits. "Not in the field," said Stone. "A lot of us did it in the base camp - mostly marijuana, some heroin."

The tone of "Platoon" is not one of condemnation, but rather understanding - a knowledge that the roots of war are in all of us. Stone called war "one of the greatest highs. There's an adrenaline that flows. Life freezes down to a minute."

As you might expect, the violence in "Platoon" is graphic. But it is not gratuitous. "TV violence is obscene," said Stone of small-screen images of crashing cars, shootouts and fistfights where the participants seem to always mend by next week's episode. "It ignores reality, the real pain, shock and loss. It (violence) has to be done explicitly. Otherwise, you'll deceive the public."

Stone found a willing backer for "Platoon" in England. John Daly and Derek Gibson, owners of Hemdale Film Corp. arranged financing and brought in producer Arnold Kopelson. "Platoon" was brought in for $6 million, a low figure in today's Hollywood where a $15-million budget is average. Orion Pictures is distributing the movie.

Hemdale had produced Stone's "Salvador." Other noteworthy Hemdale movies include "The Falcon and the Snowman," "At Close Range," "River's Edge," "The Terminator" and "Hoosiers." They'll team again with Stone for his upcoming "Tom Mix and Pancho Villa.'

"Platoon" was described "as the flipside of 'Top Gun.' "

" 'Top Gun' was totally irresponsible, really," said Daly. "My friend's son, 12, saw 'Top Gun' and wanted to sign up. I said, 'Wait to sign-up until he sees 'Platoon.' "

To heighten authenticity, Stone and the producers brought the cast to the Philippines prior to shooting for two weeks of "basic training." Sheen, Berenger, Dafoe and the rest were given a shovel, told to dig their home, taken on hikes and climbs, given night guard duty and handed Army rations. Capt. Dale Dye, a retired Marine officer and Vietnam veteran, was in charge.

Dye, who has a consulting firm, Warriors Inc., which advises film-makers on military accuracy, contacted Stone, telling him, "You understand that this is as significant for the Vietnam veteran as anything is going to be. Let's do it right."

Dye was a sergeant in Vietnam where he was wounded in action three times during 31 major combat operations including the battle for Hue City and Khe Sanh during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Later, as a master sergeant he was active in the evacuation of Saigon and Phom Penh.

" 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Deer Hunter' are war films," said Dye, "but have nothing to do with Vietnam. They are allegorical in nature, but don't reflect the agony and ecstasy of young men who went to fight in that very difficult war."

Dye now has no illusions about war: "I went into it with grand delusions of flashing sabers and lovely ladies on my arm. When I got down to the mud and the blood, I found that to be hollow."

Stone was similarly gung-ho. A son of a stockbroker who met his wife in Paris during World War II, Stone attended the Hill School, Pottstown, before entertaining Yale University. He studied there for one year. In 1965, he got a job with the Free Pacific Institute, teaching Vietnamese-Chinese students in the Cholon district of Saigon. Then, he got a job on an American merchant ship. Two years later, at 21, he was back in Vietnam.

Has "Platoon" helped Stone put Vietnam behind him? Yes, he says. "I was totally warped and twisted by Vietnam. I got rid of all my demons."

-Paul Willistein, “The Vietnam Odyssey of Oliver Stone,” The Morning Call, Feb 1 1987 [x]

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A kaddish for the American soul

They finally got it right. After the cartoon machismo of "Rambo," the wish fulfillment fantasy of "Uncommon Valor" and "Missing in Action," the Hollywood dream machine has released a movie straight from the heart of Vietnam: "Platoon."

And what an expertly-made movie it is. Writer-director Oliver Stone ("Midnight Express," "Salvador") brings a lyricism to the horror of battle, enhanced by an elegiac score (the mournful Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," and snippets of ironic '60s tunes - "White Rabbit," "Okie from Muskogee" and "Tracks of My Tears"). Stone took the substance of his experience in Vietnam, where he was a decorated combat veteran, and turned it into an artistic statement that cannot be denied: war is senseless.

"Platoon" is one man's viewpoint -Stone's - and the events depicted, though Stone has said are based on reality, are compressed, combined and heightened. Certainly, veterans and military officers will disagree at the more negative portrayals of this particular platoon.

"Platoon" has made a star of Charlie Sheen. In his first really big role after several smaller ones in "Red Dawn," "Wisdom," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," the son of actor Martin Sheen and brother of Emilio Estevez rises to the challenge. His transition from raw recruit to disillusioned veteran is subtle and convincing.

Also excellent are the actors portraying two sergeants Stone pits against each other. There's the horribly battle-scarred Capt. Barnes (Tom Berenger). When Barnes seethes, "I am reality," it's as though the grim reaper himself is speaking. In contrast, Capt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) represents life-affirming goodness. A strong supporting player is Keith David as a black soldier who's free on the battlefield but not back home.

"Platoon" is a "Red Badge of Courage" for the '80s. It's an antidote to "Top Gun" and the rah-rah, sis-boom-bah, nuke 'em high mentality that seems to prevail in the Hollywood boardrooms and the Oval Office. (One wonders whether "Platoon" has been screened at Camp David and what those reviews would be.)

Every high school student who relishes the chorus to "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran" and every politico who wants to invade Nicaragua should see "Platoon." This is what all that '60s stuff about peace, love and understanding was about. "Platoon" is a kaddish for the American soul.

-Paul Willistein, “Platoon: A Red Badge of Courage for the ‘80s,” The Morning Call, Jan 31 1987 [x]