From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (the cultural elite)
Subject: Re: Oliver Stone as CP filmmaker
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Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 23:31:16 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.191944.1488@zip.eecs.umich.edu>
cfuentes@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Carlos A. Fuentes Jr.) writes: 
|In article <1992Oct9.064710.10307@bsu-ucs.uucp> 00vmszopa@bsu-ucs.uucp writes:
|>
|>	After watching _Wall Street_ again tonight, I wonder if
|>Oliver Stone isn't the cyberpunk film representative: jumpy, intoxicating,
|>often brilliant, and suffused with paranoia.  He examines the constructions 
|[stuff deleted]
|>	The difference here is that Stone _intended_ to bring the future
|>closer to home.
|
|The other day I was flipping through my copy of the graphic novel
|_The Watchmen_, thinking how the directing style Stone used in _JFK_
|(with a little bit of whatsisname that did _Alien_ & _Bladerunner_

Whatsisname?? WHATSISNAME??  Ridley Scott!!!!!!  Some people......:)

|thrown in for the boom shots) would fit like a glove if _The Watchmen_
|could ever be possibly squeezed into a 3-hr movie.  It was for pretty
|much the same reasons as you mentioned above.  IMHO, _The Watchmen_
|has the same disjointed, paranoid "look and feel" you described for
|CP (tho I'm not calling _The Watchmen_ a CP novel).


Based on look-and-feel, I would have to say that Ridley Scott is
definitely a fine example of a cyberpunk director (auteur, rather)...
A couple of the themes represented in Alien and Bladerunner are
parallel to themes discussed in classic cp:  organic and inorganic
life forms incorporated (e.g:  the alien in Alien, the replicants),
comprehending our past and our potential futures (Deckard/Replicants
struggle with this in Br)....His elaborate, highly detailed scenes are
classic cp as well (the outside of the Nostromo [due to Giger's
influence, probably], LA in 2019 in Br)....

On the other hand, I don't think Oliver Stone makes cyberpunk
movies... He may be somewhat of a cyberpunk himself in that he tends
to go against the normal oppresive grain of the Hollywood elite and
still is a powerful force to be reckoned with, and he definitely takes
advantage of technology (filmmaking) in accomplishing his goals
(expressing his views)....

However, since his films almost always consist of around 70-80%
reality, I don't think we could say he is a look-and-feel cp auteur,
unless you think that our current reality is around 100% cyberpunk
(which I certainly don't).....His films are always based on the
present or past, around experiences or personalities we probably
wouldn't consider that cyberpunk (Wall Street probably the most cp
among the bunch in terms of plot and characters)....

|    -Carlos
|
|"Don't you think that sounds a bit paranoid, Rorshach?"
|"Paranoid? Is that what they're saying about me?"
|   -Inexact quote from _The Watchmen_
|
|>-------------------------------------------------------------------
|>00vmszopa@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu     Ball State Univ.       Vinney Szopa

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