Oliver Stone On Movies, Politics, And History

Oliver Stone has made his mark in Hollywood as a prolific and controversial director, screenwriter, and producer. Winner of three Academy Awards, his movies have confronted the most important political, social, and economic issues of our time. Platoon became a national phenomena exposing the realities of the Vietnam War and Born on the Fourth of July traced the evolution of the anti-war movement and the bitter experience of returning Vietnam veterans; his two Wall Street movies (Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) dealt with greed and corruption in the economic system; Savages and Midnight Express provided insight into the drug trade and the failure of law enforcement. Salvador highlighted the consequences of US policy in Central America; Talk Radio and Natural Born Killers analyzed the impact of media and violence on American culture; JFK launched a national discussion and congressional investigation of the Kennedy assassination; his two films on the presidency Nixon and W critiqued presidential policies while exploring the personal conflicts of each leader. With Peter Kuznick , he has co-authored the documentary series and book The Untold History of the United States. Oliver Stone’s new movie, Snowden, will be released this fall.

Harry Kreisler is the creator, host, and executive producer of Conversations with History(link is external)(link is external). There are more than 600 one-hour video interviews in the Conversations with History archive(link is external)(link is external). 
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Conceived in 1982 by Mr. Kreisler, Conversations with History captures and preserves through conversation and technology the intellectual ferment of our times. From 1974-2014, Harry Kreisler was executive director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies. Political Awakening(link is external)(link is external), a collection of his interviews, was published by the New Press in 2010.