Few filmmaking partnerships have produced a mutual resumé as creatively and critically successful as that of cinematographer Robert Richardson and writer/director Oliver Stone. In the dozen years since their first pairing on the documentary-flavored 1986 film Salvador, a compelling exposé of the civil war in El Salvador, the two men have explored a diverse array of human conditions and events. Their pictures together have not only displayed an evolving technical virtuosity, but a raw emotional power that has propelled several of them beyond the realm of popular culture and into the national spotlight.
Indeed, many of these films became artistic political statements that will forever be linked with their subjects. The stories of veterans re-experiencing the horrors of Vietnam and weeping in the darkness while watching Platoon (1986), the firestorm of controversy surrounding the "counter-mythology" of JFK (1991), and the debates regarding the nature of violent imagery in the media satire Natural Born Killers (1994) will not soon be forgotten. Meanwhile, the pictures Wall Street (1987), Talk Radio (1988), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), The Doors (1991), Heaven & Earth, (1993) Nixon (1995), and U-Turn (1997), have each sparked discussion, deliberation and controversy: exactly what art is meant to achieve.
Richardson has also been widely honored for his achievements, earning an Academy Award for JFK, Oscar nominations for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, five ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards nominations, and three IFP/West Independent Spirit Award nominations.
While recommending Richardson for membership in the American Society of Cinematographers in 1992, cameraman Allen Daviau, ASC succinctly wrote, "[Richardson's] association with Oliver Stone is one of those historic director/cinematographer collaborations reminiscent of Griffith/Bitzer, Eisenstein/Tissé, or Stevens/Mellor, in which an extensive series of films results. For each such collaboration [with Stone], Bob has achieved a new look, a new texture, while maintaining one of the most dynamic moving-camera styles that I have ever seen."
A native of Cape Cod, Richardson grew up in Massachusetts and later enrolled at the University of Vermont, where he became an avid movie fan and was particularly influenced by the work of Ingmar Bergman. Pursuing his interest in cinematography, Richardson schooled at the American Film Institute under the guidance of such master ASC cameramen as George Folsey Jr., Sven Nykvist and Nestor Almendros. After graduation, he found work doing inset and second-unit work, but he primarily shot documentaries.
In 1985, Richardson photo-graphed a documentary in El Salvador for England's Channel 4, spending a month each with both government troops and guerrilla forces. It was this work that caught the eye of Oliver Stone, to whom Richardson had been recommended for the director of photography position on Salvador, which would become the cameraman's first theatrical film. During the production, Stone was impressed with both Richardson's work and sensitivity to the subject matter, and began to discuss with him his ideas about making Platoon, a project based on his own combat experiences. "I was honored," the cinematographer noted in the April 1987 issue of AC. "Oliver had been carrying Platoon around in his head for 10 years, ever since he'd returned from Vietnam. I knew it was a very personal and important film for him."
With this foundation laid, Richardson and Stone continued to forge their relationship over the course of subsequent productions. The cameraman would later note, "I've become very spoiled by Oliver because of the material I get from him. I have very high expectations for the subject matter that I shoot. He also brings a lot of passion to his work." Only a few months later, the duo would be filming Platoon in the dense jungles of the Philippines, where they battled the heat, dust, bugs, and other difficulties of filming in the bush. Their efforts paid off, resulting in a 1987 Best Picture win that helped to re-open discussion about the Vietnam War.
In the coming years, the duo would again revisit the Vietnam era, first by exploring the transformation of Ron Kovic from soldier to antiwar activist in Born on the Forth of July, and later, the life of Le Ly Hayslip, a Vietnamese woman whose life is painfully destroyed and rebuilt in Heaven & Earth. For both pictures, the cameraman utilized an evolving visual language to reflect the characters' unique perspectives.
A signature technique that Richardson has utilized while working with Stone is the interweaving of textured imagery in order to amplify emotions and accent specific imagery. Super 8 reversal stocks, black-and-white 16mm, and various video formats are intertwined with vintage stock footage and silky-smooth 35mm color anamorphic photography, and then carefully blended by Stone and his expert editors. These methods were used to poetic effect in JFK, which shifts between past, present and fictional passages while exploring the assassination of John F. Kennedy in an impressionistic style. This photographic strategy was taken to new heights in Natural Born Killers, a fractured crazy-quilt of images that reflect the warped minds of the tale's serial-killer protagonists.
Interestingly, NBK proved to be a significant hurdle for Richardson, and tested the relationship that he and Stone had built, proving that even the most successful collaborations are not without difficulty. In the November 1994 issue of AC, the cinematographer remarked, "The situation was, quite clearly, that I didn't want to do the film. I simply didn't have the level of respect that I'd had for the written material on, say, Born on the Fourth of July or JFK. Both of those aroused me in a great deal of historical respect and intellectual curiosity."
Stone admitted that he freely played the "friendship card" in enticing the reluctant Richardson to join the production. "I feel a lot of love for Bob; he's a friend, and I've grown with him over the years," the director explained. "He was in a strange place on this movie. I was in the middle of a divorce, so I was in a difficult place myself. I asked him to stay on because I was feeling very vulnerable."
The cameraman eventually took the assignment, but conceded that he "only agreed to do the film out of love for Oliver and our relationship; he's like an older brother." Richardson added, however, that "once I began the process, it truly became a nightmare for me."
The stress that rose from these from extreme personal and professional dilemmas manifested itself in Richardson's work, compelling him to push for ever-more delirious cinematography. "In the end though, all of the strife was what provided me with the creative juices to do my work," he explained. "Had I been in love with the material, I might not have been so aggressive in my approach; my angst wouldn't have been as much a part of the camerawork."
Stone found the production equally cathartic, commenting, "What makes me happy is that Bob seems excited by the results. He was in contradiction with himself, but I think that gave his work a lot energy. At first I'm sure he was thinking, "I'll just do this to make Oliver happy, then I'll forget about it.' But now I think he's really proud of his work, and he should be, because it's outstanding."
Later, while working together on Nixon, the filmmakers reflected on the nature of their friendship, with Stone remarking, "We know each other like a husband and wife do. We fight. We disagree. But it doesn't get so emotional that we lose our bond. It was something we felt right from the beginning. It was one of those situations where someone walks into the room and you just know that he's going to be connected to you in this life."
"The long-term friendship creates a strong article of faith," Richardson confirmed. "It can get tough at times. I've been married for 10 years and that's been tough at times, too. But it's also as fulfilling as [a relationship] can get. It's like that with Oliver. It won't get any better."
— David E. Williams
