Chasing The Light

I feverishly devoured this extract from Oliver Stone’s newly released memoir Chasing The Light, exclusively featured by GQ this week. For a film junkie like myself, Stone’s recollections from the awards season of 1979 and his award-winning turn for his screenplay-adaptation of Billy Hayes’s Midnight Express are a real delicacy. 

Oliver Stone and his prodigious output has always held a rather special place in my heart. The fact that the New York native went to fight in Vietnam and lived to tell his tale is altogether impressive. Putting himself through college on the GI Bill, Stone would invest over a decade in Tinseltown before bringing his Vietnam experiences to life within Platoon (1986) and Born On The Fourth of July (1989). 

There is something to be said about that kind of persistence. Biding your time and smiling through gritted teeth until the time is ripe. Stone’s journey and subsequent successes are a reminder to put our dreams into perspective. To keep on keeping on when our gut tells us that the end result is worthy of every single bump and dip in the road. 

Xo