About

One of the most acclaimed and controversial filmmakers of our times, Oliver Stone's compelling dramas are steeped in the great social conflicts of our history, and grounded in his own experience. After dropping out of Yale University, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in combat in Vietnam. After his military service, he attended the film school of New York University, and wrote a series of hard-hitting screenplays, including Midnight Express, Scarface and Year of the Dragon. He turned to directing with Salvador and won Best of Director Oscars for the powerful Vietnam War dramas, Platoon and Born On the Fourth of July. His 1987 film Wall Street captured the spirit of the "go-go '80s" era in American business. Stone ignited a firestorm of controversy with his 1992 film JFK, which explicitly dramatized a conspiracy theory of the assassination of President Kennedy. In this podcast, recorded during the Academy of Achievement's 1992 Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, Stone discusses this film, and his own research into the Kennedy assassination. He recalls how his experience in Vietnam taught him to distrust official explanations of important events. He encourages the Academy's student delegates to question official history and seek the truth for themselves. In subsequent years, Stone has continued his dramatic explorations of recent American history with the films Nixon and W. Other major films include the Wall Street sequel Money Never Sleeps, and Alexander, recounting the life of Alexander the Great.