Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game

By Oliver Stone

Book Overview

An intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express, and Scarface.

Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone's scripts for Scarface, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, The Hand (starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for Scarface; his stormy relationship with The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive Salvador; and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award-winning film, Midnight Express.

Chasing the Light is a true insider's look at Hollywood's years of upheaval in the 1970s and '80s.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0358346231
• ISBN13: 9780358346234
• Release Date: July 2020
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Oliver Stone's Odyssey.

Wow!!!! If you're a film buff and/or want to read an absorbing story about one man's journey to the truth . . . . run and get this book. And hope he is writing the sequel. I don't want to reveal too much but the joy comes from the reading of it. Suffice to say, the book is an absorbing true story of Stone's up and down life to become a filmmaker of consequence during a time when Hollywood (as always) was mostly focused on (not truth telling) but making $$$. Enjoy, you won't be disappointed.

An Honest Tale

Oliver Stone is a great writer and he talks about his life straight. You can tell he's writing his soul out and does not hide anything. A lucky guy from the beginning or just someone who put his effort and got his rewards in life, you decide. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Luis