A Definitive Guide To The Best Of Oliver Stone

Platoon is not only an essential Stone film; it’s also an essential war film that embodies the American angst and suffering during the Vietnam War. Written and directed by Stone, this was a passion project about his own experience at war, branching off from a screenplay he wrote during his tour of duty called Break. In addition to the Oscar-winning direction, what makes Platoon so intense is the performances from Charlie Sheen and Willem Dafoe. [GoWatchIt]

Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis) are bandit killers traveling cross-country along Route 666. At the fault of the media, they become instant cult heroes much like Bonnie and Clyde. Everything is going great for the couple until Mickey accidentally kills an innocent Indian man who did nothing but help them on their journey. Praised for its criticism of media but criticized for it’s violence, Natural Born Killers is a political powerhouse wrapped in a twisted version of the American dream. [GoWatchIt and HBO Go]

When director Brian de Palma called up Stone to hire him on as screenwriter, Stone was trying to squash his own cocaine addiction, much like the film’s anti-hero, Tony Montana (Al Pacino). During pre-production, Stone took a mental health holiday in France in hopes to break his habit for good while he worked on the script. He ended up contributing to making Scarface a landmark of the gangster genre, even though the film wasn’t recognized for its genius until later in the decade. [GoWatchIt]

A portrait of 1980s excess and greed, Wall Street was not only a huge hit for Stone, who directed the film and co-wrote the script, but also a major win for Michael Douglas, who took home the Oscar for his role as Gordon Gekko. Young stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) learns the name of the finance game from the most powerful men in the business. With the amount of money changing hands, however, no one is to be trusted. [GoWatchIt]

Stone co-wrote and directed the Jim Morrison biopic, which featured a career-defining role for Val Kilmer. Kilmer embodied the late poet and musician in a way that was so fully-realized, the audience feels just like that impersonator in the club when he comes face-to-face with Kilmer’s Morrison during the infamous slow-mo party scene. The Doors is similar to Stone’s other films when touching on the harrowing consequences of substance abuse, but the director handles the downside of fame in such a delicate, honest way. [GoWatchIt]

Stone’s script helped Tom Cruise earn his first Oscar nod for his role as real-life war vet Ron Kovic, who co-wrote the screenplay based on his autobiography of the same name. Though it lost out to Driving Miss Daisy for Best Picture that Oscar season, Stone took home the award for Best Director — and rightly so. Even if war movies aren’t your thing, the power behind Stone’s depiction of the real-life events along with Cruise’s performance are invigorating. [GoWatchIt]

Kevin Costner plays real-life district attorney Jim Garrison, who risked his career investigating the aftermath of the assassination of JFK. No stranger to controversy, Stone heard from all sides how his views of historical facts were skewed, but the film eventually won over critics and ended up being nominated for Best Picture. Elements of JFK are seen in Stone’s later films involving cold, hard politics, including Nixon and W. [GoWatchIt]

After a slew of war films that depicted actual war, the war on drugs, and the war between the media and its recipients, Stone took on the war within sports with Any Given Sunday. The film tells the story of fictional NFL team the Miami Sharks, whose glory days are long gone until they make an unexpected comeback. Starring Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, and real-life football player Lawrence Taylor. [GoWatchIt]

Based on a play and book surrounding the 1984 assassination of outspoken radio host Alan Berg by white nationalists who didn’t agree with his controversial viewpoints, Talk Radio focuses more on the notion of hate speech in American media rather than violence. The film remains one of Stone’s more underrated projects. [GoWatchIt]

For his second feature screenplay, Stone adapted the autobiography of Billy Hayes, an American POW who managed to escape from a Turkish prison. Criticized universally for its poor portrayal of Turks, Stone later acknowledged his regrets for not doing more to accurately depict the Turkish population and stick to Hayes’ original accounts. Despite everything, the script still won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. [GoWatchIt]