Thursday, October 2, 1997
Oliver Stone’s latest turns over new leaf
FILM:Director attracts A-list cast to low-budget departure from
his norm
By Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Staff
Conspiracy theorist. Vietnam vet who won’t forget. Brainwashing
politician. Paranoid.
These are only few of the labels that people try to pin on
filmmaker Oliver Stone. But with his newest film "U-Turn," a
low-budget film with A-list actors, Stone is moving away from his
epic controversies to a quirky film noir that has nothing to do
with national politics.
Stone’s previous films always create a buzz in entertainment and
political circles, from violent satires ("Natural Born Killers") to
his Vietnam War trilogy ("Born on the Fourth of July," "Platoon,"
and "Heaven and Earth"). Although critically acclaimed, Stone has
been criticized for his paranoid conspiracy theories and accused of
trying to impose his views on the public through his movies.
But Stone believes that this image is untrue and unfair.
"I’m not a politician," Stone says. "If I were, I would have run
for office a while ago. I really do consider myself a
dramatist."
Stone believes this reputation developed because of his staunch
defense of his controversial films "JFK" and "Nixon."
"If [conflict] comes, I’m not going to run away from it," Stone
says. "I will defend the film that I made. I’ve been accused of
lying and fraud and brainwashing the young and these are very
disturbing charges to me and I’m not going to stand by and just
walk away from it. A lot of filmmakers do that. They just shrug and
say it’s only a movie. I never say it’s only a movie. This is what
we believe and what we researched."
Although epic dramas of international intrigue are Stone’s
specialty, "U-Turn" explores different but equally volatile
domestic issues of love, jealousy, and betrayal. The film follows a
gambler (Sean Penn) on his way to Las Vegas when his car breaks
down in Superior, Arizona, a desert mining town. His surrealistic
encounters with the townsfolk (which include Jennifer Lopez, Nick
Nolte and Billy Bob Thornton) convince the gambler to find some wa
– any way – to get out of the sick little hick town.
Although many people will see this film as a departure for the
Academy-Award winning director, Stone says that each of his films
has been a new learning experience.
"Each film has been a breakthrough for me," Stone says. "I have
never felt stale in my last eleven films. I feel that ‘Nixon’ is
just as different as ‘JFK’ just as ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ is
different from ‘Platoon’ and ‘Heaven and Earth’."
Stone was attracted to screenwriter John Ridley’s script because
of its unpredictable plot and quirky characters. And although this
is his first time directing a thriller, he doesn’t see it as too
much of a change from his filmography.
"Perhaps because it is a john film people see it as a big
change," Stone concedes. "It deals with domestic politics instead
of foreign politics. It deals with sex, love, jealousy, betrayal,
money and murder. I’ve never done that."
While Stone usually commands big budgets for his films, he
invoked yet more change and specifically requested a smaller budget
for what he considered to be a "pure genre-driven narrative
story."
"I did it at a lower price because I didn’t think it should cost
more and I didn’t want pressure to bring back a whole bundle of
money," Stone says. "We attracted a great cast, we couldn’t pay
them a whole lot, but they took profit participation which is how
movies should be done."
In place of a high salary, the cast had more collaboration in
the character and plot development. For instance, Stone offered
$10,000 to anyone in the crew who could come up with a better
ending to the movie.
Nolte, who stars as the twisted millionaire Jake McKenna, says
he preferred the ensemble atmosphere of the movie set than to a
higher salary and little creative control.
"It’s great having a director who has his vision and is making
the film because he’s making it, not because some studio asked him
to," Nolte says.
"When you have a director like that, you have a tendency to fall
into ensemble work because most of the actors are there not because
they’re getting a lot of money, but are there because they are
really interested in the story and the process. Those are the best
working situations you can possibly be in."
Billy Bob Thornton, who plays the hick mechanic Darrell, says
Stone’s collaborative attitude on the set helped create some of the
most imaginative aspects of the film.
"Oliver welcomes any ideas you have," Thornton recalls. "In the
script, it was already a very well-written character but he was
more regular. But I talked to Oliver and we decided to make him a
freak because the movie already had a surrealistic quality to
it."
With the completion of his first thriller, Stone hopes he won’t
recieve another label as he has with his other more notorious
films. He says he plans to continue listening to his own instincts
instead of being influenced by others around him.
"When you get known in your field, you get defined," Stone says.
"That’s always happening to me. I’m defined as a conspiracy nut or
a Vietnam veteran or a violent person. It always defeats me –
definition is death for a filmmaker. I feel that if I listen to
others and do what other people want, I’d end up in the gutter
somehow. I’m trying to break new grounds by listening to
myself."