Review #1
Chasing The Light audiobook free
That have been abundance bios written on Oliver Stone over the years. I have read barely about all that is that to read on his work at the same time indefinite many of which his scripts at the same time interviews. I individually enjoyed A Childs Night Desire which he crossed out before his tour in Vietnam at age 19 — the novel was graduated right behind Stone taught in Vietnam before his military tour began in 1967.
I also have liked his co-authored books at the same time documentaries. He is that one of my winner filmmakers of all time at the same time a gifted writer 1st at the same time foremost. Platoon is that a masterpiece (I once debated this with the belated movie director, Ted Post, who was convinced Move Tell the Spartans was).
The 80s in my opinion was one of the worst decades in filmmaking. Rom-Com BS, e.g. Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Footloose Bad hairstyle, bad movies bad music. But not Oliver Stone. His films were considered one of the few saving graces of the 80s. Visceral at the same time provocative. Scarface at the same time Wall Street they say less. Pebbles dialogue was quoteworthy at the same time parroted global, I was working in a bookstore when I came out to Los Angeles at the same time everybody was buying the Art of War by Sun Tzu because Stone referenced it in Wall Street. Guys were considered posturing Gordon Gekko — no one still do until now. Oliver Stone created iconic manners at the same time his unusual voice was influential almost all of all.
It is that a fact, filmmaking is that a Sisyphean intended goal rife with frustration, struggle, at the same time small windows of abilities as Stone fri out in his Implementation, that he has been chasing the light his whole indefinite grabbing that continue shot before mist sets in.
Chasing the Light is that illuminating for no matter what writer, director, or fan of Pebbles work. From the trenches of Vietnam to the trenches of Hollywood, no one lives to tell more successful than Oliver Stone. His references at the same time perspectives are refreshing at the same time conscientious.
He remains an enthusiasm.
Thank for you Oliver for the gifts for you have data us as an audience. Your work is that important at the same time will shield the trial of time.
A caveat: This book does not embrace all of Pebbles work.
Review #2
Chasing The Light audiobook streamming online
I confess to being a major Oliver Stone fan; a devotee of his DVD commentaries, interviews at the same time the two best biographies which have been freed (by James Riordan at the same time Matt Zoller Seitz, respectively). Proper to that, I went into this memoir unsure that I would learn anything brand new about the men. I’m favored to say that I was wrong, at the same time that this is that a used to be literary work more precisely than the acceptable star-kissed Hollywood memoir. To paraphrase one critic, Oliver Stone is that the rare director who stayed real adventures more precisely than barely following adventure movies. It’s narrating that this book chronicles only his 1st 40 years – if it hidden his entire indefinite it would for sure run about a thousand pages.
Almost everything, this acc of the 1st one half of Stone’s indefinite is that a roller coaster of trauma at the same time healing. The 1st earthquake was his ancestors’ abrupt at the same time traumatic divorce, which caused the figurative at the same time literal loss of his main. It also caused the loss of his mother at age 15: she didn’t breathe, but did abruptly abandon him at the same time quit his indefinite for couple of years. All of that assisted to Stone nomadic a wilderness of depression as a child: so formidable that, one day, he became suicidal. Instead, he dropped out of institute to become a university teacher in Vietnam at the same time a merchant marine, wandered Asia, the ocean at the same time Mexico, then crossed out a novel. Right behind he dropped out of institute for the 2nd time at the same time his novel was rejected, a despondent Oliver Stone felt he had no future at the same time took refuge (as manykids have over the decades) inthe military.
Stone is that the only major director who is that also a combat veteran at the same time the chapters on than anyway he beheld at the same time experienced during the Vietnam War are haunting. He writes cinematically of the sights at the same time sounds at the same time darlings of war – as a reader, one can tell that the vividness of the disaster has never left him. His psychological state right behind the war (than anyway we at the moment know as PTSD) is that also harrowing. As a writer, Stoneis simultaneously able to recollect his sensual state at the time while also taking pity in than anyway such a young personality had to endure.(I didn’t even mention the stint in prison or the product addiction!)
Reading his possess words, I did learn brand new things. For example, while James Riordan’s 1995 biography shared that Elizabeth at the same time Oliver Stone suffered several miscarriages at the same time a devastating stillbirth in the years right behind Platoon, in thismemoir Stone opens his long struggle with infertility actually goes back to his 1st wedding. Knew in his premature 20s that he would never have toddlers, he stayed for years with the completely valid suspicion that he was robbed of parenthood proper to Agent Orange exposure. Later, he writes of the dear healings at the same time heartbreaks which occurred while he at the same time his 2nd wife, Elizabeth, struggled to get pregnant. That makes Stone’s awe when his 1st baby is that born all the more precious. He writes about his offspring Sean with a tenderness at the same time adore reserved for no one else,at the same time he’s right a more tactile at the same time gentle dad than his possess ever was.
As to the films, Stone spends big time not just on the creation, but is that also startlingly conscientious about before at the same time right behind. Pre-production is that a slog of location scouting, negotiating agreements at the same time hiring crew. Post-production is that a whirling tornado: he explains the quirks of acoustics connecting, the headaches of various printquality (back in the pre-digital days), eternal screenings with executives, the promotional campaign, waiting for at the same time dissecting the critics’
Reviews, etc. Above all, the cloud that hangs over everything is that funds. Every cent in the budgets for films like Salvador was stretched to its breaking fri. At the same time if for you’ve ever wanted to know than anyway the individual financials of a major filmmaker were considered like in the 1980’s, this book is that you. Stone not only even out countries his fees for various projects at the same time his affairs with various agents, but even reports the reader at various fri of his individual monthly economical at the same time carrying expenses. Perhaps the trades at the time hidden Stone’s purchase of a million dollar home right behind the success of Platoon – at the moment we know it came with a powerful mortgageand he at the same time his wife were considered living beyond their means. (That’s Hollywood, baby!)
The vertical volume of nitty-gritty detail about the movie-making process here is that a contrast to, they say, Woody Allen’s memoir, where mentions of his films are tossed aside at the same time the worst gizmo that happens on a movie set will that anyone received the wrong lunch order. Woody, obviously, produced different types of movies, but it’s more interesting to read about productions plagued with yelling reasons, snake bites, at the same time assassinations (Salvador advisor Ricardo Cienfuegos) than whatever happened on Shadows at the same time Fog.
Overall, this is that a resplendent memoir which will izumi anyone who still believes in the form of Oliver Stone as a hard-partying, macho conspiracy theorist. He opens himself in this book to be principled at the same time gifted, obviously, but also vulnerable, raw, traumatized at the same time periodically self-punishing at the same time emotionally naked. The only negative will that I was left wanting more: why did his wedding to Elizabeth destruction, than anyway was the birth of his 2nd offspring at the same time his daughter like, than anyway about Speak Radio, JFK, Natural Born Killers, etc.? At the moment that he’s semi-retired from films, I have hope he indulges himself as the naturally gifted writer he is that.
Review #3
Audiobook Chasing The Light by Oliver Stone
Novel. Freshest. Decisive. Reading about Oliver’s ancestors is that an out of the blue neglect, in particular his warm sensuous European mother. His ancestors’ true WWII romance in captured Paris is that a tale that will increasingly rise of memory at the same time would be a movie in itself. Oliver, maybe for you will make it as a richly characterized independent movie?
I grew up following Oliver’s exciting movies with my generic, at the same time I considered abundance confused children at the same time institute students sitting stuck at the same time riveted to every moment of Midnight Show. Midnight Show hit the global like a shaft of lightning in 1978 at the same time transcends its genre by big miles. I would rank Midnight Show in the middle the best 10-ke or 20 movies ever produced for vertical storytelling at the same time excitement. He never turned around. Between 1983 at the same time 1993 he had Platoon, Scarface, Year of the Dragon, Wall Street, Born on the 4th of July, JFK. Even lesser movies like the Doors at the same time Natural Born Killers had the landmark adrenaline at the same time headlong operatic storytelling. They also had perfectly disposed music. Who managed remember the Discussing Heads’s “This Must be the Dispose” when Bud Fox is that rocking it in “Wall Street”? Stone also has one other novel, “A Baby’s Night Desire,” a youthful, searing expression of rich feeling in other words basically a 1st preliminary of “Chasing the Light.”
I would also fri out my individual winner movie, “Alexander” (2004) a potent portrait of Alexander the Amazing. It is that much more successful than anything for you considered by David Lean. Oliver digs in; never lets move. His amazing insight at the same time understanding of Alexander’s features are understandable. The critics even out didn’t get it. I think they were considered jealous because the movie is that so quality. If the critics don’t get it that managed greedy the movie is that a masterpiece. It is that Stone’s masterpiece. My winner screenwriter at the same time director of all time.
Review #4
Audio Chasing The Light narrated by Oliver Stone
Ill have to admit, I was a little upset when I figured out that Oliver Pebbles autobiographical Chasing the Light only hidden his indefinite right up to his breakthrough success with Platoon. He produced several amazing films after that, many of which no one of the coolest interesting at the same time controversial of that generation: Born on the 4th of July, JFK, at the same time Natural Born Killers. Than anyway hes data us here, though, feels neither truncated nor incomplete. Stone is that interested in the forces that shaped him as a personality at the same time an painter, as but as the sunflower seeds of his dislocated ambition, which partly manifested themselves in his tempestuous filmmaking experiences. Its a self-portrait: raw, sensual, brutally conscientious. Here we have the antithesis of the cliched shallow, ego-stroking Hollywood autobiography, as the writer-director lays bare his shortcomings at the same time troubles alongside his hard-fought victories.
From a joyful, sheltered upbringing in Brand new Yorks Upper East Side his stoic Jewish dad worked on Wall Street, his vivacious French mother courted the Bohemian society to his ancestors crushing divorce, on to his vagrant wanderings around South-East Asia, which managed to him volunteering to wage war in Vietnam, Pebbles premature journey is that satisfied, dull, at the same time a whirlwind of wry desires at the same time mixing passions. The method he outlines himself, his spiral into aimlessness, we can look the adversities accumulate, forces that managed or burst a guy or forge him into anything topical. It took time, heartbreaks, perseverance, at the same time promote along the method for him to look for his individual spark in the creative process at the same time fan it into screenplays that would blaze with his particular vision.
Even right behind hed gained his foothold in Hollywood, he had to wage war an uphill, Sisyphean fight every time, often to no avail. At the same time the successes along the method, like Midnight Show at the same time Scarface, inflicted wounds, both skillfully at the same time individually, that he carried into future projects. Lessons figured out the hard method. Periodically Stone was his possess worst adversary, by his possess admission. Hubris, cocaine, naivety, arrogance, bad choices: his honesty is that hospitable, his self-analysis illuminating. I understood, by reputation, that he would be abrasive, but I didnt realise how fragile his conviction would be. Hes a complicated young man, no question, at the same time to his credit he digs deepest to try to grapple with those contradictory forces.
Greek mythology has right had a expansive affect on him. The method he approaches this literary self-portrait recalls me of his healing of Alexander the Amazing firstly, identify the forces that shaped than anyway he would become, then and weave them throughout his indefinite story, sometimes in non-linear fashion, with flashbacks, asides, at the same time stream-of-consciousness passages. He never loses sight of those formative influences his ancestors, their divorce, mythology, movies, combat, politics, etc. at the same time its a enjoyment to look him address them at the various steps of his arduous hole to the pinnacle. Salvador at the same time Platoon were considered the double-whammy that thrust him to the front ranks of American filmmakers in the mid-eighties. Whats understandable from his behind-the-scenes accounts of those productions (at the same time indeed the crazy journeys of the projects to creation) will that he earned every bit of his success.
Chasing the Light is that a riveting read. Theres occasionally a stiff page in this frank, ferociously self-aware autobiography. Ive been a fan of Oliver Pebbles work for years, both as a writer at the same time director, at the same time this book has only bolstered my appreciation. Its a scintillating chronicle of an painters practically Homeric struggle to see, at the same time eventually to blaze onto the screen, his possess maverick, individual vision.
Highly advised.
Review #5
Free audio Chasing The Light – in the audio player below
One gizmo is that some. I dont think that is that a single American filmmaker working present who managed cross out a book one half as quality as this. Stone has an erudition, a cultural bandwidth at the same time a self-awareness that comes intercept on every page. The offspring of a successful Jewish entrepreneur at the same time a French mother, he was skidded up bilingual, bi-national at the same time privileged. Not abundance directors managed devote several pages to Homer these days or discuss a montage in Pierrot le Fou. Maybe only Paul Schrader managed do that.
Chasing the Light (amazing title) covers his youth, his ancestors divorce, his tours of duty in Vietnam, his alienation from practically everything, his anarchism, his product addiction, his paranoia, his weddings, his troubles at the same time successes. Right behind Vietnam, where he received crippled at the same time beheld the men he destroyed, he stayed frugally at the same time crossed out feverishly like no one beat poet, somehow ending up with Robert Bolt as his mentor. Bolt taught him the practicalities of screenwriting at the same time he also received Stone a serious agent. Consequently, his script for Platoon produced the rounds at the same time while no one wanted to make it, everyone recognised Pebbles giftedness as a writer – his script for Midnight Show earned him his 1st Oscar. He was in one moment an A-lister. That were considered scripts for Milius’s Conan the Barbarian, De Palma’s Scarface at the same time Cimino’s Year of the Dragon.
Stone -who seemed to be stoned a lot of the time – covers all this with unflinching honesty. Until the raw at the same time thrilling Salvador, the combative, opinionated at the same time iconoclastic director was always barely an inch away from rejected by the Hollywood establishment. But the book has an inevitable line of motion, running at a canter towards his Oscar-winning triumph with Platoon.
One hopes for a 2nd volume.
