Talk:Oliver Stone

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An OK article, needs NPOV ing though ....(Complain)(Let us to it pell-mell) 05:16, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] CAUTION: EXTREME BIAS

Whoever recently edited this article has a severe bias toward Oliver Stone. Someone should put in a "neutrality is disputed" box.

I was the last person to edit this article. I gave my reason for my additions directly below here in the 'Jack The Ripper' section, backed up by several press citations. If you have any problem with it, how about arguing your case in that section, rather than adding an unsubstantiated allegation, titled in capital letters, with nothing whatsoever so far to back it up - bingo99 20 October 2007, 04:24 (UTC)

Thank you bingo99, you're absolutely right. I thought the bias was obvious enough to be seen in reading the article, but now that you mention it--I wasn't wild about the sugar-coated way the article addressed "Alexander's" critical and commercial failure; the movie flat-out bombed. In addition, you definitely were not the last person to edit the content in question. The "Jack the Ripper" bit was lovely, really--so no need to take offense. If press citations are your forte, I suggest you finish up your masterwork on this still allegedly uncited article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.171.233.71 (talk) 13:37, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about the rest of the article, I just added the bit about the Jack The Ripper incident and its media response as impartially as I could. So I was, I think, a bit peeved by the title of this section. Don't worry, I'll get over it though. And press citations aren't my forte, their in Wikipedia's rules, that demand you back up what you've written. Seems straightforward and reasonable enough to me - bingo99, 13:45, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jack the Ripper

I've taken out the part of the controversy section regarding the Jack the Ripper joke, because if you watch it on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUXp0GyohXc), you'll see that it actually got a HUGE laugh and did not go badly at all like the article says it did.

It never got a huge laugh, it got a huge shocked reaction, followed by a few embarrassed laughs. I'm putting it back in, slightly rephrased. The press reaction makes it noteworthy on its own. - bingo99 —Preceding comment was added at 18:57, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's a few press quotes.

"But there was a sour note at the ceremony when Hollywood film-maker Oliver Stone shocked the audience with a bad-taste reference to the Suffolk serial killer." BBC News - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6177591.stm

But his attempt at comedy was met with jeers and gasps of horror from the celebrity audience. Realising his joke had bombed, Stone sneered: "You're a lovely crowd." One audience member said: "If he was trying to be funny, then he failed. To make a joke like that when five young women have been murdered and the killer is still on the loose was in unbelievably bad taste." news.com.au - http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,20926329-7485,00.html

"Sometimes an audience gets misjudged by what they will respond to favorably, and director Oliver Stone recently this found out the hard way with a badly timed serial killer joke in all places: England." Monsters & Critics - http://people.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1233530.php/Oliver_Stones_Ripper_joke_backfires

"The only real moment of note came on ITV2 when a seemingly intoxicated Oliver Stone stumbled out and started burbling on about Jack the Ripper, which is hardly the cleverest thing to do given the current mood of the nation. He might have got away with such terrible taste and timing if his remarks were actually in any way funny but they weren’t and Liza Tarbuck very wisely chose not to bandy words with him when it became obvious that he was less than coherent." Digital Spy - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a40837/not-having-a-laugh.html

- bingo99 20:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] His love for Castro

In this article nothing states how mutch he loves Castro, I think it is pretty important. I mean if you are going to include his vietnam stuff include this.


We've got to rename these pages (perhaps /JFK, /Nixon, etc., or JFK the film, etc.), because the names of the movies overlap with subjects of encyclopedia articles...

Now using disambiguating parentheses, like "JFK (film)", see the page source for detail. The Anome

www.joematters.com

"Love" might not be the correct word, "admiration" perhaps. And even so, not because he admires Castro it means that he adores communism, on the contrary, many people in the world both admire and loath Fidel Castro as a person, not a communist leader.

[edit] Alleged comment in Rolling Stone or Playboy

This entry was just added to the "Persons of debated lesbian, gay, or bisexual orientation" in the List of famous gay, lesbian or bisexual people.

Any information about this interview or the "hints?" Cheers, -Willmcw 19:46, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

  • That's totally unecessary in an article of this length. He made an extremely vague comment in an interview, with PLayboy, I think, about homosexual relationships (sex, really) and his one-time connection with that area in the 60's. That was all. Blintz 23:56, 9 June 2006 (UTC)


I just added the bit about his novel, but as I look at this article, it seems a little disorganized. It also seems to lack depth for someone as notorious as Stone. I may take some time tonight to reorganize and expand on this thing... unless anyone has any objections. Dr Ellipso 20:48, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

just changed the bit about mushrooms - it's not stone talking on the dvd, it's a member of cast, I think his producer, talking about oliver pressing on the accelerator and the car swerving all over the road... but it's not stone saying it to the interviewer.

[edit] "Tufano" vandalism

Note that edits inserting supposed information about "Marc Tufano" are vandalism and should be reverted on sight. This has affected multiple articles (Robert De Niro, The Beatles, etc. etc.) -- Curps 18:41, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] criticism

I have heard him criticized for the Doors movie, which embellishes quite a bit despite looking like a biography. Should we add something about this?

  • The Doors really doesn't embellish any more than any other biopic. Blintz 23:56, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
Certainly, among Doors fans (real fans) this movie depicts Morrison nothing but on the lines of a drunkard poet (and a hipocrit one from time to time), if well that was one of the sides of Jim Morrison, it wasnt his best side or his predominant one, in fact, people who knew him have the image of a very sensitive man (some even remember him as a cry baby, but thats maybe to harsh), for example Jim never set a closet on fire, that was completely ficticious. The comercial for "come on baby light my fire" for example, well that never happened too and many other factual innacuracies like that. None of the remainning members of the Doors liked the movie, and Manzarek has speaked numerous times against it.

[edit] defamation

the discussion of drug use is completely irrelevent. the following quotation criticizing him is completely out of place. this is a disaster.

Disagree; he was arrested for doing drugs. This reflects in many ways his prior movies, and cannot be ingnored as a contributor to his outlook on life.

[edit] work

I actually think this is a pretty poor article for someone so famous and with such a history with such views. In the latest issue of Empire (UK film magazine) which is September, there was an extremely long interview spanning a few pages (their fourth interview of the man!) which covers all of this article and gives much more detail. Such as, he speaks about being on psychedilic drugs for nine hours straight and his experiencews. I think people with the time and skills should get this magazine, do a little research and make this a FA. I will try my best because I find him so fascinating. 80.47.229.199 23:12, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] picture

Why was the picture changed? I don't like the new one. Can someone come up with a better one? He looks like a deer in headlights in this one. Dr Ellipso 11:45, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

The image was changed from an unfree publicity photograph to one released under a free license; if you want a better image, please contact Mr. Stone and arrange to take one yourself. Personally, I find the current image just fine. --SB | T 12:15, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Claim

Stone's films often deal with political matters and are sometimes critical of the US government. JFK, for instance, hypothesizes about many high-level government officials having a hand in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1991, he showed the film to Congress on Capitol Hill, which helped lead to passage of the Assassination Materials Disclosure Act of 1992

I have heard this many times but does the claim have a source??

[edit] Wall Street?

Am I misinformed or didn't he direct the movie Wall Street? There is no mention of this in the posting. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.211.217.253 (talk) 18:05, 8 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Stone and FARC

I personally disagree with the title given to the section about FARC. Stone did not visit FARC. He was merely there to shoot the hostage liberation. However, I do agree that by saying FARC is 'heroic' and justifying the hostage-taking, Stone is supporting FARC, at least ideologically. For this reason, I think we should revert the changes some of you made, but I would like to hear your opinions. My proposal is: "Alleged support to FARC", which I don't like but at least tries to compromise. Jedalonso (talk) 17:49, 16 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Insufficient info in Biography

The bio read is confusing. It talks about his time in the Army and then immediately speaks of his making three Vietnam themed films, completely circumventing how he came to learn to make movies and what set him in that direction in the first place. I suggest a remedy, as it's a wide open hole that deserves elaboration. --CmdrClow (talk) 06:27, 10 April 2008 (UTC)