Before “Platoon” and “The Doors”, Oliver Stone tried to make a Vietnam film with Jim Morrison

The Vietnam War and all the aftershocks continue to resonate in every aspect of American life. In some ways, the nation’s innocence and patriotism have never fully recovered since the conflict of the 1960s and 1970s, a war that also coincided with a radical wave of political and social upheaval. In the world of cinema, no director is more defined by the grave disappointment and tragedy of Vietnam than Olivier Pierre, whose filmography sees him understand how the country forced him to become one of the media’s most vocal commentators and provocateurs.

Sectionarguably Stone’s most iconic film, which won Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards, channels both the director’s personal experiences as a GI in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and the countercultural resistance that dominated the home front. Later in his career, Stone dramatized the trials and tribulations of the short-lived rock star. Jim Morrison In The doorsbut by the end of the 1960s, he tried to commission Morrison to star in a Vietnamese film that would serve as a model for Section.

Oliver Stone reflected on his Vietnam combat experience throughout his career

After being honorably discharged from combat duty in 1968, a Oliver Stone used his Vietnam GI Bill to pay for his tuition at New York Universitywhere he studied cinema under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Like most aspiring filmmakers, Stone started out as a screenwriter and made his name by winning an Academy Award for his screenplay for Midnight Express and gain additional recognition for writing the eventual cult classic, Scarf.

At the same time, Stone was reflecting on his traumatic past in Vietnam and developing his personal vision. Although he was an accomplished screenwriter, Stone aspired to realize a dream that required him to accept thankless assignments for pay in two B-movies, Epileptic seizure And The hand. Returning to civilian life, Stone parlayed his fresh, raw experiences as a GI into a storyline titled To break, a project which was not carried out but which became the model for Sectionwho represents Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as the director’s on-screen avatar. To breakwhich also laid the foundation for the characters of Elias and Barnes, played by Willem Dafoe And Tom Berengerrespectively, was a surrealist exercise in the music of the Doors.

Oliver Stone offered Jim Morrison a role in a Vietnamese film that would become “Platoon”

Stone was so captivated by the Doors’ psychedelic wavelength that he even tried to pick the band’s frontman. By speaking to Weekly EntertainmentStone described To break as “mythical”, revealing that the main character enters the underworld. “I could not yet approach the Vietnam question in a completely realistic way at that time,” said the director. A daring Stone sent the script to Morrison, who died in 1971 at the age of 27, in the late 1960s, intending to cast him as the lead GI fighter. Unsurprisingly, Stone never heard from the enigmatic musician. However, the To break The script was found in Morrison’s apartment in Paris, where he died. During the production of The doorswhich featured Val Kilmer as Morrison, the script was handed back to Stone, a moment he described as “very weird”.

Jim Morrison, in the lead role in an experimental film about the feverish effects of the Vietnam War, would not only be a thrilling test of his artistic versatility, but it would also match the hypothetical spirit of the defeated. To break. In his eventual semi-autobiographical history of Vietnam, Section, Stone captures the surreal impact of psychedelic drug use– a feeling that matched the apathy of young enlisted men about fighting a futile war. They’re unpatriotic and cynical in a way rarely seen on the big screen at the time, and they’re certainly a far cry from the blind chauvinism conveyed by John Wayne In The green berets. It’s doubtful whether Morrison could have held his own as an actor or played ball with the innate demands and restrictions of film production, but Stone’s decision to reach out to such a mythical figure is a testament to his eagerness to candidly depict the extremely controversial global conflict.

Sectionwhich kicked off Oliver Stone’s incredible journey as a director, which continued with Born July 4 And JFKwould perhaps lose its diamond precision as a moving and affecting anti-war film with Jim Morrison in a leading role. Based on his musical inclinations, Morrison reportedly made some curious rogue decisions as an actor, put yourself in a completely different film. Still, the idea would have been fascinating to see, and it probably would have been a greater tribute to Morrison than the Stone biopic released five years later. Regardless, Stone carried Morrison’s confused and rebellious artistic spirit for the next decade.

Section is available for streaming on Prime Video in the United States