The Oliver Stone Encyclopedia.

Ingle, Zachary

The Oliver Stone Encyclopedia

James M. Welsh and Donald M. Whaley, eds. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2013

Oliver Stone has rarely lacked for attention among those invested in the intersection of film and history. Although Stone once said, "I do not think of myself as a cinematic historian now or ever and, to the best of my knowledge, have not made that claim," still, many regard him as a (postmodern) historian working in the medium of film; the recent publication of his Untold History of the United States would only seem to enhance this reputation. The Oliver Stone Encyclopedia follows other filmmaker encyclopedias Scarecrow has recently published, including those on Ridley Scott and Francis Ford Coppola. James Welsh (who also co-edited the Coppola encyclopedia) and Donald Whaley have given Oliver Stone the encyclopedia treatment, with a stated goal: "Going against the mainstream ... this book will attempt to set the critical record straight in an attempt to see that Oliver Stone gets appropriate credit for the consistent and intelligent vision of work he has completed. Like it or not" (xiii).

Most of these double-columned entries were penned by Welsh and are on individuals associated with Stone's films, the majority being actor biographies, which are often marked with a playful tone; his entry on Kevin Costner follows up a mention of his Waterworld (1995) character as "part fish" with a description of his character in The Postman (1997) as having "all the personality of a dead fish." Besides the actors, the other major collaborators with entries are the producers and co-screenwriters of Stone's films. Only a few other collaborators are included, such as Academy Award-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson, who worked with Stone from Salvador (1986) to U Turn (1997) to establish one of the notable director-cinematographer relationships in history, but none of the editors who helped make Stone's work so distinctive (such as Hank Corwin, or even David Brenner or Joe Hutshing, the latter two having edited six Stone films) get the same treatment. For that matter, there are no entries under editing or montage, leaving untouched one of the features that made films like JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Nixon (1995) stand out in 1990s American cinema. The film entries themselves range from two pages (The Hand [1981]) to ten (Nixon) and typically include summary, analysis, and a note on the film's reception.

The decision as to what entries to include is somewhat perplexing. For instance, Boiler Room (2000) merits a brief entry because the editors consider it influenced greatly by Wall Street (1987), yet films on which he acted as producer or executive producer are only listed (an entry on the Stone production, The People vs. Larry Flynt [1996], may have been more helpful than one, say, on Jamie Foxx). Conversely, the films Stone wrote but did not direct (e.g., Midnight Express [1978], Conan the Barbarian [1982]) are given full entries, with information concerning the extent of his involvement. The editors also helpfully include some of Stone's unrealized projects (Crazy Horse) and unproduced screenplays (Tom Mix and Pancho Villa), but not Noriega, a major project in the 1990s that never came to fruition. Also included are entries on some of the notable Stone scholars, although most of the encyclopedia seems to rely more on popular press criticism of Stone than discussion of his work in scholarly discourse. Nevertheless, the bibliography points the reader to dozens of scholarly books and articles on Stone.

The book also includes two appendices, one by Tom Prasch ("JFK and the Critics") who also contributed some of the entries; and a second of interviews courtesy of John C. Tibbetts, who interviewed Stone, Charlie Sheen, and consultant-advisor Dale Dye about Platoon (1986), as well as Stone, the lead actors, and the author of the source material of Heaven and Earth (1993). Prasch's piece, an "immediate response" to JFK written at the time of the film's release, is illuminating to read after twenty years of critical reappraisal. The book contains another contemporary review by Prasch for Born on the Fourth of July (1989), this one filed with the dissimilar encyclopedia entries.

For the best encapsulation of Stone's political philosophy, consult "Stone's Politics" as well as the Michael Moore entry. To better understand Stone's most obvious philosophical influence, an eight-page entry on Friedrich Nietzsche connects Stone's desire to create "an ethos, a philosophy of life" to the German philosopher. This is most evident in Stone's predilection toward the Nietzschean hero: "The concept of a hero that I believed in as a kid ... involved the quest for self-knowledge, pursuit of truth, risk and sacrifice, and maybe in the end to inspire others with a sense of nobility of effort" (152). Overall, much fewer entries are given to themes; for instance, although mentioned in the introduction, there is not an entry for the "The Beast" (that metaphor mentioned in Nixon for the powers that have thwarted the titular tragic hero's plans), surprising for those who recall Whaley's memorable chapter in Hollywood's White House: The American Presidency in Film and History (Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor, eds., University Press of Kentucky, 2003).

Certainly most readers will not read this work straight through, although it is engaging enough that it is hard to put down. If one does read it in its entirety, the repetition of certain quotes (such as Stone's statement that humans "have a million-year-old reptilian brain with a neo-cortex of civilization on top" and the similar "we have in us the killer brain.") becomes more conspicuous. Nonetheless, this book is recommended for any scholars exploring Stone's fascinating oeuvre, and entries, such as the one on Nixon, certainly have value for those using these films in the classroom. One looks forward to Scarecrow Press offering future directors the encyclopedic treatment. Furthermore, The Oliver Stone Encyclopedia compels us to revisit Stone's work--from Seizure (1974) to Savages (2012)--reminding us of why he remains one of the most vital American filmmakers of the last thirty years.

Zachary Ingle, University of Kansas