The creative force behind some of the most widely debated classics of modern film: Midnight Express, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon …

Oliver Stone is one of the most controversial, yet most honoured, filmmakers of our time. No director has tackled so many controversial subjects and no director has attracted so much criticism for his methods and their results. What makes him both the critics’ bête noir and a perennial Oscar contender? Why does Hollywood both lionise and vilify him? Is he the conscience of Hollywood, or is he a pretentious opportunist cashing in on false liberalism? Do his films break new technical ground artistically, or is he just a hack trying to use tricks to cover up weak points in his stories?

Stone appears to court controversy, yet in many ways has been a very traditional Hollywood filmmaker, working within the system. He has presented himself as a cinematic moralist, yet his personal life has been one of excess. He embodies many of the contradictory characteristics of the ’60s impulses he is accused of propagating, indulging them while castigating the ways they have been absorbed into the American mainstream. American outlaw? Iconoclastic artist? Or is he someone who can refine social and political issues into Hollywood genres?

The Pocket Essential Oliver Stone explores all these questions, reviewing and analysing each of Stone’s movies, going behind the scenes to examine the arguments his movies have raised and adding some thought-provoking insights to the world of modern cinema’s most infamous son.

Michael Carlson