Oliver Stone

Platoon brought Stone's name to a much wider audience. It also finally kickstarted a busy directing career, which saw him making nine films over the next decade. Alongside some negative reaction, Platoon won many rave reviews (Roger Ebert later called it the ninth best film of the 1980s), large audiences, and Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2007, a film industry vote ranked it at number 83 in an American Film Institute "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies" poll of the previous century's best American movies. British TV channel Channel 4 voted Platoon as the sixth greatest war film ever made.

Platoon was the first of three films Stone has made about Vietnam: the others were Born on the Fourth of July (1989, for which he won his second Oscar for directing) and Heaven & Earth (1993). He has called these films a trilogy; each deals with different aspects of the war. Platoon is a semi-autobiographical film about Stone's experience in combat; Born on the Fourth of July is based on the autobiography of US marine turned peace campaigner Ron Kovic; Heaven & Earth is based on memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, in which Le Ly Hayslip, recalls her life as a Vietnamese girl drastically affected by the war. Read Less

In 1999, Stone was arrested on alcohol and drug charges and, as part of a plea bargain, agreed to enter a rehabilitation program. On May 27, 2005, Stone was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of drugs. He was released the next day on a $15,000 bond. In August 2005 Stone pled no contest and was fined $100.

He stated recently that he would prefer Ron Paul for U.S. President: "I think in many ways the most interesting candidate – I'd even vote for him if he was running against Obama – is Ron Paul. Because he’s the only one of anybody who’s saying anything intelligent about the future of the world."

In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto. Read Less