The movie Oliver Stone called tougher than ‘Platoon’: “I was dead when it was over”
Oliver Stone hasn’t become the revered figure he is today by taking the easy route. As a director, he’s tackled subjects ranging from the Vietnam War to serial killers, the September 11th terrorist attacks to the assassination of John F Kennedy. Even outside of directing, he’s penned screenplays for hot-button movies like Midnight Express and Brian De Palma’s Scarface. If there’s a controversial topic, you can bet your bottom dollar that Stone has at least thought about making a film about it.
He has taken on lighter subjects across his career, though. The Purple Heart recipient is also known for his biopic of rock band The Doors and his American football sports drama Any Given Sunday. Starring Al Pacino as head coach of the fictional Miami Sharks, the team follows unlikely journey to the championship game, inspired by an underdog performance from a third-choice quarterback, played by Jamie Foxx in a breakout role.
You’d have thought that making a nice little film about football would have been a welcome break for Stone. No trips to the jungle, no run-ins with international governments, just a fun story with a happy ending. That’s how it might seem on the outside, but in reality, Any Given Sunday pushed the director to his limits.
“It was war, because I was dead when it was over,” Stone recounted to Entertainment Weekly. “It was a monster movie to make; it was like a war movie with the five football games serving as five different battles. It was as tough as making Platoon and a war film, in its own way… It was a physical and rough movie. It does get down to the basics.”
The comparisons to Platoon should not be taken lightly. That film, set during the height of the Vietnam conflict, was an uphill battle from day one. It was filmed in the Philippines, which was undergoing major political upheaval at the time. Shooting began just two days after former President Ferdinand Marcos fled the country. Stone subjected his actors to near-torturous conditions to recreate the conditions of the war, including surprising them in the middle of the night and restricting their food and water. Johnny Depp, who had a small part in the film, admitted to being ‘scared’ of his director.
American football is not a sport for the faint of heart. It can get extremely physical, especially for actors not used to playing the game professionally. Things would often get heated between co-stars as a result, notably Foxx and his supposed teammate, LL Cool J. “With LL and Jamie, you got two alpha-males coming up in the game,” said Bill Bellamy, who played the Sharks’ wide receiver. “Both famous, both trying to make their own way, and then they get together on set – who’s the big dog? Who’s the real alpha-male? People started teasing each other, jokes go left, jokes go right, and now the tension is really building up. No one thought that these two knuckleheads would start fighting for real.”
Arguably, all of this effort didn’t pay off. Any Given Sunday received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom rightly noted that the film followed all the same tired traits as any other sports drama and that Stone was capable of much better. Hopefully the director thought it was worth it, but not many other people did.
