Oliver Stone and John Milius

This episode of On Story, we hear from Oliver Stone on his life from Vietnam veteran to activist filmmaker and later, screenwriting legend John Milius joins Oliver Stone to go deep into the genre of war films.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone has written and directed over 20 feature films, including Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, and The Doors. Before attending NYU film school, Stone served in the US Army 25^th Infantry Division, having requested combat duty in Vietnam. He won his first Academy Award in 1979 for his adaptation of MidnightExpress, and has since garnered several nominations as well as wins for Best Director for both Platoon and Born on the 4^th of July. His other films include Any Given Sunday, Alexander, W., Wall Street, U Turn and Savages. Oliver Stone’s latest film is the biographical political thriller, Snowden. The film depicts the events surrounding its eponymous main character’s leaking of classified information from the National Security Agency to The Guardian newspaper in 2013. The following segment was recorded in 2007 at the 14^th Austin Film Festival where Oliver Stone spoke with film programmer Jesse Trussell.

John Milius wrote the legendary screenplay Apocalypse Now, which was released to theaters in 1979.  Apocalypse Now was nominated for the 1980 Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.  Apocalypse Now was also honored as one of the Writers Guild of America’s 101 Greatest Screenplays. Milius also wrote Jeremiah Johnson, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Wind and the Lion, Big Wednesday, Clear and Present Danger, The Hunt for Red October, Flight of the Intruder, and Geronimo.  In 1982, Milius co-wrote and directed the cult classic Conan the Barbarian, and his other film credits include Red Dawn and Farewell to the King. Film programmer Jesse Trussell spoke with John Milius and Oliver Stone at a panel titled Writing the War Film in 2007 at the 14^thAustin Film Festival.