Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game

An intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated New York childhood, volunteering for combat, and his struggles and triumphs making such films as
,
, and
.
Before the international success of
in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone’s scripts for
,
, and
; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature,
(starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for
; his stormy relationship with
director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive
; and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award–winning film,
.
is a true insider’s look at Hollywood’s years of upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s.