Try free for 30 days
-
Chasing the Light
- How I Fought My Way into Hollywood
- Narrated by: Oliver Stone
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Directing Actors
- By: Judith Weston
- Narrated by: Judith Weston
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this essential guide to acting, internationally renowned directing coach Judith Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, and what directors do wrong. She also goes over script analysis and preparation and how actors work, and she shares important and helpful insights into the director/actor relationship.
-
-
Great advice delivered wonderfully
- By Anonymous User on 07-06-2023
-
Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
- How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen
- By: Brian Raftery
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999 - arguably the most groundbreaking year in American cinematic history.
-
-
A fantastic account of the peak of modern cinema
- By GT on 03-12-2022
-
Down and Dirty Pictures
- Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines - the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films - that have powered them. Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse.
-
Producer to Producer
- A Step-by-Step Guide to Low-Budget Independent Film Producing
- By: Maureen A. Ryan
- Narrated by: Susie Berneis
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a comprehensive bible to low-budget film production for emerging and professional producers. Structured to guide the listener through production meetings, every aspect of the film-production process is outlined in detail. Invaluable checklists - which begin 12 weeks before shooting and continue through principal (and secondary) photography and postproduction - keep the filmmaker on track and on target.
-
Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
-
-
Dull
- By Damian on 08-04-2023
-
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
- How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Easy Rider, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both on screen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme.
-
-
An Epic!!!
- By Robert Ramsay on 31-07-2021
-
Directing Actors
- By: Judith Weston
- Narrated by: Judith Weston
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this essential guide to acting, internationally renowned directing coach Judith Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, and what directors do wrong. She also goes over script analysis and preparation and how actors work, and she shares important and helpful insights into the director/actor relationship.
-
-
Great advice delivered wonderfully
- By Anonymous User on 07-06-2023
-
Best. Movie. Year. Ever.
- How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen
- By: Brian Raftery
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999 - arguably the most groundbreaking year in American cinematic history.
-
-
A fantastic account of the peak of modern cinema
- By GT on 03-12-2022
-
Down and Dirty Pictures
- Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Down and Dirty Pictures chronicles the rise of independent filmmakers and of the twin engines - the Sundance Film Festival and Miramax Films - that have powered them. Peter Biskind profiles the people who took the independent movement from obscurity to the Oscars, most notably Sundance founder Robert Redford and Harvey Weinstein, who with his brother, Bob, made Miramax an indie powerhouse.
-
Producer to Producer
- A Step-by-Step Guide to Low-Budget Independent Film Producing
- By: Maureen A. Ryan
- Narrated by: Susie Berneis
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a comprehensive bible to low-budget film production for emerging and professional producers. Structured to guide the listener through production meetings, every aspect of the film-production process is outlined in detail. Invaluable checklists - which begin 12 weeks before shooting and continue through principal (and secondary) photography and postproduction - keep the filmmaker on track and on target.
-
Adventures in the Screen Trade
- By: William Goldman
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the best-selling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and more.
-
-
Dull
- By Damian on 08-04-2023
-
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
- How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- By: Peter Biskind
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Easy Rider, Raging Bulls follows the wild ride that was Hollywood in the 70s - an unabashed celebration of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (both on screen and off) and a climate where innovation and experimentation reigned supreme.
-
-
An Epic!!!
- By Robert Ramsay on 31-07-2021
-
Oscar Wars
- A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears
- By: Michael Schulman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman chronicles the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas—some iconic, others never-before-revealed—that have played out on the stage and off camera. Unlike other books on the subject, each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular year, conflict, or even category that tells a larger story of cultural change, from Louis B. Mayer to Moonlight. Schulman examines how the red carpet runs through contested turf, and the victors aren't always as clear as the names drawn from envelopes.
-
-
A Great Listen for any Hollywood Fan
- By David Emery on 25-03-2024
-
The Putin Interviews
- Oliver Stone Interviews Vladimir Putin
- By: Oliver Stone
- Narrated by: Pete Cross, Qarie Marshall
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Supplemented with referential information and culled from more than a dozen interviews with Putin over a two-year period - spanning Stone's first trip to Moscow to meet with NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden to his most recent visit after the election of President Donald Trump - The Putin Interviews is based on what journalists, news organizations, and other world leaders have long coveted: extended, unprecedented access to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
-
-
Putin's Russia - Questions answered
- By EileenH on 02-09-2023
-
Wishful Drinking
- By: Carrie Fisher
- Narrated by: Carrie Fisher
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Born to celebrity parents, she was picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars when only 19 years old. "But it isn't all sweetness and light sabers."
-
-
Hilarious, witty and blisteringly candid
- By Jacquie Jackman on 28-12-2016
-
Blood, Sweat & Chrome
- The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road
- By: Kyle Buchanan
- Narrated by: Fred Berman, Aspen Vincent, Dan Bittner, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A full-speed-ahead oral history of the nearly two-decade making of the cultural phenomenon Mad Max: Fury Road—with more than 130 new interviews with key members of the cast and crew, including Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and director George Miller, from the pop culture reporter for The New York Times, Kyle Buchanan.
-
-
Pure passion!
- By Habib Joukhdar on 27-04-2024
-
The Hunt
- The True Story of the Secret Mission to Catch a Taliban Warlord
- By: Andy McNab
- Narrated by: Colin Mace
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the early 2000s and 9/11 is fresh in the world's memory. The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan, and armed militants and explosive devices are terrorising the people. And now a new threat is emerging in the country: suicide bombings, ordered by military commander of the Taliban, Mullah Dadullah. Special Forces are sent in to stop him. The Hunt is the thrilling story of the secret mission to catch Dadullah, one of the most dangerous men alive.
-
-
Andy Mcnab awesome knowledge shows it to be believed.
- By Greg Seery on 22-03-2024
-
How Not to Make a Short Film
- Secrets from a Sundance Programmer
- By: Roberta Marie Munroe
- Narrated by: Roberta Marie Munroe
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Featuring interviews with many of today's most talented writers, producers, and directors, as well as revealing stories (e.g., what to do when the skinhead crack addict next door begins screaming obscenities as soon as you call "action") from the sets of her own short films, Roberta walks you through the minefield of mistakes that an aspiring filmmaker can make - so that you don't have to make them yourself.
-
-
Good for a nice simplified overview of film making
- By Chris Mac on 07-11-2018
Publisher's Summary
In this powerful and evocative memoir, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter, Oliver Stone, takes us right to the heart of what it's like to make movies on the edge.
In Chasing the Light he writes about his rarefied New York childhood, volunteering for combat and his struggles and triumphs making such films as Platoon, Midnight Express and Scarface.
Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam and spent years writing unproduced scripts while taking miscellaneous jobs and driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life.
Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with vivid details of the high and low moments: we sit at the table in meetings with Al Pacino over Stone's scripts for Scarface, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July; relive the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, The Hand (starring Michael Caine); experience his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for Scarface; and see his stormy relationship with The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino. We also learn of the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive Salvador; and witness tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award-winning film, Midnight Express.
The culmination of the book is the extraordinarily vivid recreation of filming Platoon in the depths of the Philippine jungle with Kevin Dillon, Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp et al, pushing himself, the crew and the young cast almost beyond breaking point.
Written fearlessly, with intense detail and colour, Chasing the Light is a true insider's story of Hollywood's years of upheaval in the 1970s and '80s, and Stone brings this period alive as only someone at the centre of the action truly can.
Critic Reviews
"Oliver Stone's narrative, his life story about the heartbreaks, the near misses, and finally the triumphs is a Hollywood movie in itself." (Spike Lee)
"He provokes outrage. He stirs up controversy. He has no respect for safe places. Oliver Stone is larger than life. Chasing the Light says it all." (Sir Anthony Hopkins)
"Riveting." - (The New York Times)
What listeners say about Chasing the Light
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Daniel
- 13-01-2021
Keen to see more of Stone's films after reading.
Enjoyable listening about Oliver's life & experience as an outsider breaking into the Hollywood industry without straying from the stories he wanted to tell on screen.
His experience as a soldier in Nam and the tough going creating films like Sarajevo & the Oscar winning Platoon, deffinately read if looking to make it into the industry or just get a little behind the scenes info on Stone's works.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 06-09-2021
A fascinating life-story
I came to this autobiography via an interview with Oliver Stone on Philip Adams excellent Late Night Live ABC Radio show one evening. I’d seen many of Stone’s movies over the decades, Wall Street, JFK, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Any Given Sunday and had liked some a great deal, while finding others a bit so-so. However, this interview focusing on Stone’s autobiography really sparked my interest as he related some fascinating insights about movie-making, politics and America.
As I’ve been getting into long walks and podcasts, I decided to buy this as an Audible audiobook and was so glad I did as Stone himself reads the book and this gives it so much more meaning. His characteristic deep, American accent gives the book a real authenticity and you can hear his emphasis on specific passages and words that clearly he sees as important. There is also a wry humour in many of the experiences and conversations that Stone relates that had me chuckling under my breath on my long lockdown afternoon walks.
The book is organized in a chronological fashion. There is a short prelude of his later film-making career in a fascinating opening relating the final shooting of a mass cavalry charge on the Mexican set of the film Salvador, with the director anxiously trying to catch the last light (the book gets its title from the film-maker’s quest to catch that last light of the day and metaphorically the deeper meaning that he is striving for). The book then charts his parents’ backgrounds, meeting and marriage at the end of the Second World War, his early year’s growing up and at school, his frustration at university, leaving Yale and then a restless time as a teacher in Asia and the merchant marine. In the late 1960s, he volunteers for the US army as a private and ends up serving in combat in the Vietnam War which provides the inspiration for his later film Platoon. The subsequent chapters chart the many, many frustrations on his return to the US as a war veteran, attending film school in New York, moving from early success as a screenwriter (he won an Academy Award for best screenplay in 1978 for Midnight Express), but then suffering many career setbacks and frustrations. The book concludes with his sudden mid-career successes in 1986/7 with the films Salvador and Platoon, two low-budget movies, made under extraordinarily trying circumstances, but which became surprise hits and cemented Stone as one of Hollywood’s great directors.
While the early years of his childhood are engaging, the book really comes to life from his time in the Vietnam war forward, his post-war experience at film school and then working as a screenwriter and later director. The book is full of detailed reminiscences of conversations and interactions with Hollywood names, directors, actors, producers, money-men, rogues and saints. It is a great story, and Stone must have kept some fascinating dairies of his life as the book is rich in detail and frank recollections of his own failings and mistakes. It’s a brutally honest take on a life lived large. It’s also a book that all aspiring movie-makers should read or listen to. Stone’s asides about the creative process of script writing, direction, lighting, sound and dealing with producers, studios and film finance are rich in experience and wisdom. I found resonances in his description of script writing with my own writing frustrations. I could certainly relate to his depiction of the tough daily grind of just sitting down each day and punching out the words, revising, editing and gradually crafting something worthwhile.
I greatly enjoyed my afternoon walks listening to Oliver Stone relating his hey-days in Hollywood and out on the sets of his movies during the 1970s and 1980s. I can still remember the impact films like Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador and Platoon made on me in the early-mid 1980s as an impressionable twenty-something. Having been immersed in Stone’s engaging recollections of a movie world that has now passed and the stories behind how his early films were made, I’m going to make a point of re-watching those early films. I’m also looking forward to Part Two of this fascinating life story, which I’m hoping Oliver Stone is writing right now!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 23-01-2021
fabulous
absolutely loved it. Narration was on point, was fantastic and worth the listening. thanks Oliver
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr Kim
- 14-05-2024
William / Oliver narrates his own story of his indelible stories.
Ollie reads - with an actors grace - his story about the lows and highs of a life ( well the first half) in pursuit of immortality via creating legendary cinema. Always the showman he leaves you wanting more.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karl Smith
- 03-09-2020
Interesting and engaging
A wonderful book that gives an insight into the back room workings of Hollywood and is also a gripping personal journey. Being narrated by Stone himself adds more credibility and atmosphere to the story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 14-01-2021
Honest retrospective at its finest
I’m not even the biggest Oliver Stone fan, but this is one of the greatest biographies I’ve ever heard/read.
An astonishingly honest tale of a life. Whilst it’s based around movies and the movie industry, the stories and feelings are universal in theme and mood.
Just fantastic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- gary c compton
- 08-06-2021
Outstanding
Engaging and honest exposition of Stone’s early career and subsequent success as a director
Highly recommended
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Louis Hesterman
- 16-08-2020
Louey Hesterman
Thank you Oliver for a deeper understanding of your passion for depicting the realities of war. As a Vietnam Vet myself it helps me understand why I was there and why we should never let a similar intervention ever happen again. Best wishes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- p__diggy
- 31-08-2020
Excellent
Really nice hearing it read by the author, Oliver has a wonderful voice for narration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jonathan Woods
- 24-05-2022
Oliver the early days
Oliver Stone will take you back to his childhood, his tour of Vietnam, success with Midnight Express, his yearning loss of Conan the Barbarian, forever yearning for his past success. Never taking us deeper than his ongoing oedipus complex.
Oliver's memoir the abyss looking back at him. He spends most of the book missing the youthful exuberance of making his early films of The Hand, Salvador and Platoon.
Whilst it is well crafted, well spoken, the story goes nowhere very interesting. We learn little about his thoughts on life and growth, we have no better understanding of the man. I believe Oliver wrote this for himself, essential for "the good old days" as he harkens back to film making before he was a success, without giving much thought as to why and take us deeper.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful