**An intimate memoir by the controversial and outspoken Oscar-winning director and screenwriter about his complicated 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 driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone’s scripts for *Scarface* , *Platoon* , and *Born on the Fourth of July* ; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, *The Hand* (starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for *Scarface* ; his stormy relationship with *The Deer Hunter* director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive *Salvador;* and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award–winning film, *Midnight Express*. *Chasing the Light* is a true insider’s look at Hollywood’s years of upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s.