You can think what you will about the theories espoused in "J.F.K.," or the cheap crossdressing pot-shots at J. Edgar Hoover in "Nixon," or any one of hundreds of large and small points of debate and controversy in Oliver Stone's films. But he is consistent and firm in what he believes and in communicating it, expressing himself as perhaps the most provocative auteur filmmaker of the past two decades.

Stone recently spoke at Northwestern University to promote his new book, "A Child's Night Dream," promising an evening of discussion on not just the book, but his films and the area "where the movies as a private enterprise, as a private secret, intersect with the public and the march of history in our time." "A Child's Night Dream" becomes a prologue of sorts to Stone's artistic career, fitting into his body of work as "the dream that propelled me forward to all my memorable actions."

The first draft of "A Child's Night Dream" was written when Stone was only 19. In that era of American history, said Stone, "we were a silent generation. . .feelings were not understood. There is more mercy in the air [today]." In its first draft, the book ran 1000 pages long and represented a time in Stone's life when he "was going into some places of deep despair and near suicide. . .I was dazed and confused." He spent six months last year re-editing the book and forming a final draft for publication. For Stone, the book is "a journey through the hinterlands of death."

Looking back with the perspective of thirty years, Stone would have a powerful message for his younger self, the true author of "A Child's Night Dream": "You were right to risk all. You were right to believe in your illusions and engage the dream, to embrace that dream."

from "A Child's Night Dream":

"Thought is a hungry animal. . .Thus it is our sole fate that passion must be vanquished. Despair is a creature of superabundant imagination and little creativity. It is a growling dog forcing a frightened victim off a cliff. It doesn't even have to use its own teeth.

"Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread against the sky; let us go together, and we shall go by the terms of the illusion. Because one way or another, by velvet fist or iron glove...be we innocent or nocent or neither, we finish immersed in this life, competing at last in outrageous perfidy against one another. The villain is life. She sets us upon one another's throats, and we perforce comply. . ."

Aside from the discussion of his new book, some of the most interesting commentary made by Stone in his speech dealt with his approaches to filmmaking, both in terms of specific films and in terms of his work as a whole. Like any great auteur, one can discern threads of idea and belief working their way through each of Stone's films, subjects to which the filmmaker continually returns in an attempt to resolve their conflict in his own soul.

"I am a mix of idealism and cynicism," Stone said. The same can be said of his body of work. While "J.F.K." is hugely critical of government and law in America, it is built on the same foundations as a film like Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Both movies demonstrate a huge faith in the system of American government and a genuine belief that one person has the power in America to affect true change.

"Natural Born Killers" sits at the opposite end of Stone's spectrum, a richly cynical and satirical film offering a sharp critique of our media culture circa the early 1990's. Stone crafted the film as a response to impulses in the culture that revolted him in a powerful way.

"The picture was made as a mirror, a grotesque portrait...It's the equivalent of my throwing up," said Stone.

Aside from the general themes of optimism and cynicism, the era of late sixties America seems to be a period of great interest to Stone. For example, the Vietnam war is an ongoing thread that pervades throughout Oliver Stone's body of work, from "Platoon" to the speculations on John F. Kennedy's death in "J.F.K." and the little-seen drama "Heaven & Earth." Since Stone himself served in the war, the exploration of this issue becomes as much a personal search for truth as a public one.

"We [Vietnam vets] came back to a country that was indifferent," said Stone. "There was no home, no jobs, no understanding of what a young man might have gone through. We were not fighting the enemy in Vietnam, we were fighting ourselves."

The script for Stone's central Vietnam film, "Platoon," was completed in the summer of 1976 to capitalize on his vivid memories of the war experience. In writing the script, Stone used "what I had seen over there combined with my dramatic sense of how to tell a story." Creating such a personal film falls in line with Stone's larger philosophy on filmmaking: "I do not come to it [filmmaking] from an outside, formalist point of view. I try to use myself as one of the chemicals in the equation."

Perhaps the most caustic thoughts from Stone related to his views on what he calls our "PG-13 culture." The ideas expressed on our culture through "Natural Born Killers" are more than just part of a film project for him; they are passionate beliefs on the problems with our world today.

"We are addressing the needs of twelve-year-olds," said Stone. "We don't want to offend. You have to make a culture for adults."

For Stone, a large part of stemming the softening of our culture lies in preventing censorship in all forms. He has seen his own "Natural Born Killers" trimmed to prevent an NC-17 rating, the label meant to allow adults to see adult-only films that has degenerated into nearly an equivalent to XXX in the minds of many theater and video store owners. Censorship of NC-17 films often has more to do with what Stone calls "economic censorship" than any interests in limiting content.

"The argument against 'Lolita' [an adaptation of the Nabokov novel that has yet to find a U.S. distributor because of its pedophilia storyline] is an economic one," said Stone. "You are being B.S.ed on this. The almighty dollar rules."

There's little doubt that Oliver Stone is an opinionated man. But the passion with which he articulates and supports his personal ideology is truly striking. At Northwestern University last Wednesday night, he wove a tight web of opinion, passion, and art into a unified doctrine of his own beliefs. If anyone in Hollywood deserves to lead a cult, it's Oliver Stone.