Oliver Stone - Early Directing Career

Early Directing Career

Stone graduated from film school at New York University in 1971, where among his teachers was director Martin Scorsese (the same year, he had a small acting role in comedy The Battle of Love's Return). Stone made a short, well received 12 minute film Last Year in Viet Nam. He worked as a taxi driver, film production assistant, messenger, and salesman before making his mark in film as a scriptwriter in the late 70s, in the period between his first two films as a director: horror films Seizure (1974), and The Hand (1981), which stars Michael Caine. In 1979 he won his first Academy Award, after adapting true-life jail tale Midnight Express into a hit film for British director Alan Parker (the two would later collaborate on a 1996 movie of stage musical Evita).

Stone wrote further features before his directing career took off in 1986, including Al Pacino's drug lord tale Scarface (1983) and Year of the Dragon (1985) with Mickey Rourke. Stone has either written or co-written most of the films he has directed. In 1986, Stone directed two films back to back: the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Salvador, shot largely in Mexico, and his long in development Vietnam project Platoon, shot in the Phillippines.