Filmmaker Oliver Stone. OLIVER STONE U-TURNS WITH A NEW ROAD MOVIE
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s Note: The following article appeared in the October 1997 issue of Venice Magazine.
Oliver Stone is probably the single filmmaker working in America whose work consistently stirs debate, controversy and wildly divergent opinions. With films like Platoon, Wall Street, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK and Natural Born Killers to his credit, like him or hate him, you just can't feel neutral about Oliver Stone and his work. At 50, the multiple Oscar-winning writer/director's latest effort is U-Turn, a road movie written by John Ridley, based on his novel Stray Dogs, with Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe and Billy Bob Thornton rounding out the all-star cast in a film that is equal parts hilarious, horrifying, beautiful, repulsive, maddening, endearing and out-and-out psychedelic. But then it wouldn't be an Oliver Stone movie if it weren't a bundle of contradictions. Stone has also recently published his first novel A Child's Night Dream, based on his experiences as a 19 year-old, due out in October from St. Martin's Press.
Without revealing too many of the film's wild, whiplash-inducing plot twists, Sean Penn plays Bobby Cooper, a small time gambler/loser who is on his way to Vegas to pay gambling debt to a Russian mobster who collects fingers along with cash. His cherry '64 1/2 Mustang convertible breaks down in the depressing backwater town of Superior, Arizona. As he waits for his car to be repaired, Penn's character is catapulted into a nightmarish whirlpool that can only be compared to the third circle of Dante's Inferno. And for Bobby Cooper, hell looks pretty good in comparison to Superior, Arizona.
Those who expect a mercurial, stand-offish paranoid will be disappointed when they meet Oliver Stone. His demeanor is relaxed, confident and charming with an easy smile and a direct, penetrating gaze that lets you know he's taking in everything within (and probably beyond) his range. Mr. Stone took some time out recently to answer some questions about his remarkable career and his newest filmic slice of Americana.
Why do you think your films consistently spark so much controversy and debate?
OLIVER STONE: Well, I don't know, there are so many sources out there, you'd have to research the source. On The People vs. Larry Flynt (which Stone executive produced), for example, we got a bunch of postcards from women who said they refused to see the film. I wrote back a letter and said that I didn't think that was quite right, that it was like McCarthyism in reverse, that you should go out and see the movie and if you feel so strongly about it, see what it is you object to and deal with it.
Do you find that people have polarized reactions to your films?
I hope not. It's not necessary to have that. Definition is death, I think. I always want to be redefining myself, whether it's with a new film, or writing a book. Be redefined. Be fresh. Although I feel very proud of movies like JFK and Nixon, I'm not going to live off them.
You've gone through a lot of changes in your life in the past few years. Does this film mark a "U-Turn" in your own life? Do you feel now especially you need to redefine yourself?
I don't look at it that way. I've directed 11 films in the past 12 years and each one has been done in a different style, a different way, a different subject matter. Nixon, for example, is quite different from JFK both in its approach and in its subject matter. If you look closely Born on the Fourth of July is shot in a wholly different style than Platoon. So I've been redefining myself over those 11 films. This film is just another way of doing it. Perhaps it stands out more because it's lower budget and it's a thriller, but I feel good. I feel fresh. Making the film was really a lot of fun. It has all those domestic politics that I love: murder, sex, betrayal (laughs). It's good stuff! It doesn't always have to be about external politics.
You say in the forward to the screenplay of U-Turn that it's harder for you to make films now because people stereotype you.
Yeah. Unfortunately. I just don't want to get between the film and the viewer and that happens again and again...personal attacks come every time and it's perhaps planned, I don't know. It always seems to be a situation of going after the messenger, and that's a shame, because I don't mind being totally anonymous in this thing, and having people walk out not knowing who directed the movie and enjoying the movie. That's what I do.
A lot of the film, and I mean this in a good way, reminded me of a 1960's Roger Corman road movie. Is the film a homage to that genre?
In a good way, yeah. I hope it went beyond that, into the 90's because there was a limited ambition in those older films. But thank you. I love road movies and this is certainly a genre film.
Did you find yourself compromising anything because it was such a short shoot? Were you rushed in any way?
Yes. There were limitations. We set out to make a $20 million film and pretty much stuck close to that. I think we might've gone to $21 million. We went a few days over. It was a rugged shoot. The canyons were tough. The actors were hanging by ropes. Wind, sun, rock. We were in the middle of nowhere, way, way out. It was hard to get trucks out there...so we took some hits on coverage, but we moved fast...and that helped us develop momentum, which is how (my crew and I) prefer to work, anyway. I hate to sit around and wait. It destroys the momentum and the spirit on the set.
Why was it important to you to keep it low budget?
I have this system in my head when I sit down with the script and decide what I have. I sit down with (producer) Clayton Townsend and we go through it, decide how much it should cost. I didn't think this one should cost more than $20 million. Now you've got first-time directors making $60-$100 million movies that they haven't even earned the right to make! Consider that I've never made a movie above $43 million. I've always come in fairly close to budget and fairly close to my scheduled time. With so many filmmakers now, it just seems that the discipline is gone. Billy Wilder, whom I admire very much, has repeatedly told me that he used to shoot his stuff right on the money in 30 days, 35 days. Then he'd cut it right down to the wire. He'd finish the picture, it would be rough cut within three weeks and close to being ready to be shown. Hitchcock would do close to the same thing. But how do you do that? Modern technology has more toys to play with. Billy's day was a little simpler.
Was it a case of where the story itself led you to a smaller scale or were you looking for a small film to begin with?
It was the story itself. It takes place over 24 hours in a small Arizona town with seven people in the main cast. It doesn't require a large scale. And if this movie for some reason misses when it comes out, I'm not going to take a big hit. I think we can make (the $20 million) back. With a bigger film, I would've asked for more money.
What was it about this particular story that grabbed you?
John Ridley wrote a crackling good first draft. We worked on it also for a long time afterward, but it was there. I thought the dialogue was terrific. John was a standup comedian, and loved dialogue, but the script was too dialogue-heavy and we wound up cutting a lot of it. But what was left I thought was very juicy, great stuff.
The use of the film stock (reversal stock) was pretty inspired as well. How did you discover that particular type of stock?
As a function of cheapness! (laughs) We used it at NYU Film School. Reversal stock, 5239. And we basically used it to shoot through the sun and the clouds. It was winter and there were a lot of clouds and we knew that it would be a tough shoot and knew we couldn't stop and do a lot of the things that outdoor photography requires. So we went gangbusters and shot straight through with everything on reversal. We even used it on some interiors.
Tell me about "A Child's Night Dream."
I originally wrote it when I was about 19, then went back to it after finishing Nixon and reshaped it and rewrote sections of it. It's a personal story, about roots. One day perhaps, if I have the moxie, I'll go out and make a personal film like Truffaut or Fellini did. I'll probably get slammed for it...(laughs).
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