Commencement speaker set in Stone
Oliver Stone, film director, writer and producer, will be the commencement speaker at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television on Friday.
By Michelle Castillo
June 7, 2009 9:15 p.m.
When it comes to creating controversy, nobody does it like Oliver Stone. The filmmaker has raised eyebrows and received glares for his unflinching portrayal of modern culture, with some people arguing that his movies border on excessive violence and rely too much on conspiracy theories.
At the same time, there’s no mistaking that Stone is one of the iconic filmmakers of American cinema. Despite being outside the mainstream, he’s managed to win Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards ““ some of the highest accolades that society can award our directors and screenwriters.
On Friday, Stone will act as commencement speaker and address the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television class of 2009.
“I’m sure he has some tremendous things to tell,” said Marshall Knight, one of the graduating seniors. “He’s obviously a personality. He’s (had the opportunity) to get his opinions out there, and they’re obviously not always in a commercially friendly or cookie-cutter sort of way.”
Stone, whose directing credits include “Born on the Fourth of July” and “JFK,” as well as writing credits for “Midnight Express” and “Scarface,” has spent more than 30 years in the film business. Known for his ability to touch on taboo subjects to promote social discourse, the writer-director has never been one to apologize or back down for what he believes is right. He believes in making films that concern the filmmaker, not what the public is currently buzzing about.
“I try to live through my time; that’s sort of the way you live,” Stone said.
“My father was a stockbroker and economist, so I grew up around a concept of intellectual discussion with my parents, which is great. If you direct a film here and there with some wisdom or some insight, that’s pretty much the best I can contribute. If I can make a film that’s artistically merited, that’s all the more.”
While his subjects have ranged from Richard Nixon’s presidential administration in “Nixon” to the ubiquitous theme of violence in “Natural Born Killers,” Stone has consistently made films that might not have fit in with mainstream cinema but still have managed to gain the public’s attention.
His Vietnam War movie “Platoon,” which stemmed from his experiences as an infantry solder during the war, was one of the first films to truly critique the nature of the era, an action that Stone calls “spitting in the wind.”
He made the film in 1986, years after the war, but he believed in his film’s ability to address the militaristic tendencies of that time’s presidential administration and to offer a lesson that people could draw on for years to come.
“As a guy who has been cultivated as an outsider status by the status quo and the political establishment, he’s been able to make films for more than 25 years,” said Jonathan Kuntz, a visiting associate professor at UCLA.
Kuntz teaches “History of the American Motion Picture” and refers to Stone as a “major filmmaker in the modern era.”
“He chose to have an interesting career without being part of the system,” Kuntz said.
Stone admitted that he’s a fan of action movies as well as of thought-provoking pieces, but he said he fears that some filmmakers might try and fit in with what Hollywood wants: mass-marketed, mass-produced films with broad appeal.
As someone who is embarking on a new journey into the film industry, Knight is keeping his ears and mind open to any advice that Stone might have to give, especially to students like himself who want to put their own visions before studio executives’ agendas.
“I’m interested to see how he suggests to handle the really crazy town that we’re trying to jump into,” Knight said. “I’m sure he’s got his own unique way of navigating through it.”
If a filmmaker can make a movie that can entertain and grip the audience, he argues that the filmmaker can make a film on any subject and still find success, despite the outside pressures to fit in with what might have already been proven to be popular.
“I want to urge (filmmakers) to be the best that they can be, like the old Army,” Stone said. “They are going out into a world that is a strange world. I really do believe in not giving up hope.”
