SCFZ poll: Oliver Stone

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Polling the films of Oliver Stone

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Stone films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

[flip]

next poll will be Henry Koster, but after that the queue is empty, so if anyone has suggested a director who has enough views, please mention that here and i can add their name to the queue!

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i like a good conspiratorial political thriller, e.g. early pakula and costa gavras, so when stone has done that, it has sometimes worked for me, but most stone films i've seen in the last few years i've hated, and i haven't revisited any of his films that i once liked, so not sure what i'd think of any of them now

JFK
Platoon
Natural Born Killers
Snowden
Wall Street


seen 14

[brian d]

edit: seen 5, don't remember much of them either and probably didn't love them much

salvador
the doors


curious (and doubtful) whether alex cox would work. i've seen 7.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Only got 3.

JFK

Talk Radio was actually quite interesting, and much much better than Natural Born Killers. So the smattering I’ve seen is all over the map.

[...]

The Doors
Wall Street
uh, The Hand i guess
Talk Radio maybe
W?

Stone really isn't my thing, but since votes might be needed, I give the full slate of picks. And I've seen 8 Alex Cox films

[Lencho of the Apes]

Three Stone, so I'll abstain. Four Cox.

[oscarwerner]

Seen 18.
My votes :
1. JFK (1991)
2. Platoon (1986)
3. Salvador (1986)
4. Wall Street (1987)
5. The Doors (1991)

[DT.]

1. JFK
2. Any Given Sunday
3. U Turn
4. Natural Born Killers
5. Salvador

[---]

seen 5, don't remember much of them either

were u stoned?

[wba]

I've seen a few, but it's been soooo long ago. Also all dubbed and edited and in the wrong aspect ratio on TV and old VHS.

I really need to rewatch and revisit all of his films. Also haven't seen some of the "classics", like Wall Street and such.

[Joks Trois]

Seen 18. Stone was a good rookie cinephile favourite back in the day. Most of his films have not aged well imo. Natural Born Killers, to me, is his best work, mostly for its energy and singular style.

Natural Born Killers
JFK
U Turn
Platoon
Nixon


The Doors isn't very good imo, mostly because it conforms to the cult of Jim.

[ofrene]

seen 2

JFK

[Silga]

Despite the kind of person he has become, Oliver Stone is still one of my favorite directors and a true master at his job.

Of course he made a few clunkers like Alexander or World Trade Center, but the rest of his output proofs that he is a very attentive and scrupulous director who manages to create a nuanced and detailed stories with beautifully flowing rhythm. His collaboration with cinematographer Robert Richardson certainly helped in creating some of the best looking American films of the 80s and 90s.

Seen 21:

JFK
Nixon
Born on the Fourth of July
Wall Street
Heaven & Earth

[john ryan]

seen 9

1. Born on the 4th of July
2. JFK
3. Salvador
4. Any Given Sunday

[nrh]

Alexander

Would specify director's cut I guess. Seen most everything up to Wall Street 2 but...idk, I like WIld Palms?

Amusing to see some younger kids trying to turn people around on him recently.

[Silga]

Amusing to see some younger kids trying to turn people around on him recently.

and by this you mean?

[nrh]

just some internet movie kids on twitter and letterboxd being very loudly high on his work in the last few years, which is tbh how lots of revivals of interest start these days.

a lot of that has to do with a broad sympathy for the part of stone's politics that got him increasingly derided in the media, starting with release of those fidel movies.

edit: should say it's amusing because stone has been fairly passe for some time now in "cinephile" circles, and given his aesthetics don't see that changing anytime soon.

[deepbluefunk]

Hey everyone
First time posting on the board - so thanks for putting together such a cool place

Stone - seen 18

1. Platoon
2. Talk Radio
3. Salvador
4. JFK
5. The Doors

[greennui]

4.

Alexander

[...]

Hey everyone
First time posting on the board - so thanks for putting together such a cool place

Happy to have you here, always good to see more posts!

[flip]

i don't think i realized just how many famous films stone made in about a ten year period starting in 1986, and those films dominate the top of our results. the films he made in the subsequent 25 years barely register in the poll -- they're either near the bottom or they got no votes at all. it looks like he's made more documentaries in the 2000s than narrative films, and no one voted for any of his docs, his only features that got no votes were savages (2012), wall street 2 (2010), world trade center (2006), and seizure (1974).


results
1. JFK (1991) — 31 pts
2. Platoon (1986) — 15 pts
3. Salvador (1986) — 11 pts
4. Natural Born Killers (1994) — 10 pts
5. Wall Street (1987) — 9 pts
6. The Doors (1991) — 8 pts
7. Born on the Fourth of July (1989) — 7 pts
8. Talk Radio (1988) — 6 pts
8. U Turn (1997) — 6 pts
10. Any Given Sunday (1999) — 5 pts
10. Nixon (1995) — 5 pts
12. The Hand (1981) — 3 pts
13. Alexander (2004) — 2 pts
13. Snowden (2016) — 2 pts
15. W. (2008) — 1 pt
15. Heaven and Earth (1993) — 1 pt

[flip]

i put this up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-281/