Movie Details
| Title: | Heaven & Earth | |
| Director: | Oliver Stone | |
| Year: | 1993 | |
| Genre: | Drama | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 10.30.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (16)
- Alexander
- Born on the Fourth of July
- Comandante
- The Hand
- JFK
- JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass
- Natural Born Killers
- Nixon
- Savages
- Seizure
- Snowden
- South of the Border
- Talk Radio
- W.
- Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
- World Trade Center
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 10.30.07 | DVD | This is like the Oliver Stone movie I least want to see, but since I've been going through his films and commentaries lately (and having no luck finding copies of his two TV docs (damn spanish DVDs with their lack of english subs)) and this was the only one in the box set I hadn't seen... figured I'd take the plunge. It's a lot like Tess of the D'Urbervilles except in Viet Nam. The voice-over is so flowery and feminine that you almost forget it's Stone behind the camera until the VC takes her away and tortures her in various brutal ways. I do think it's a fitting end to his evolving Viet Nam "trilogy" (Platoon, Born on the Fourth, this) in that you see his shifting perspective much like John Ford vs. The Indians. Tommy lee Jones is good but doesn't show up until halfway through. Something about him... I have no problem believing he's crazy and capable of harming others. So anyway... the main girl was good too I guess. It's just that the story was exactly like I thought it'd be and nothing really surprised me and it's not my kind of story to begin with so... whatever. However, I think this has Stone's best commentary. I think it's because he's really really high, but that's just a hunch. For whatever reason, he really lets his guard down and gets passionate about what he's talking about. I always find his commentary tracks to be very interesting (I even sat through the alternate Nixon track which only had him talking maybe for an hour throughout the 3.5 hour film) but in this one he even recites a big speech in the film as the actor says it on the screen, then at the end he talks about what a crock of shit 20 million dollar paydays for actors are and how they never get blamed if a movie bombs and the director is probably the lowest paid person on a movie if you put it in dollars per hour terms, He's always quick to point out things the critics dislike about his work (and usually has a decent answer) but here he really vents a little bit at the end and it's great. "TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS! Think of all the things you could do with twenty millions dollars. You could stage balls at Verseilles, you could make Bravehearts, but you have to pay 20 million for a mug." |
