Video Review: 'Oliver Stone Collection'

Given the sensory overload of Oliver Stone's in-your-face oeuvre, it seems fitting that this seven-title boxed set should come bejeweled with some sparkling DVD extras. The JFK ''Special Edition Director's Cut'' features an additional 17 minutes of running time, as well as a whole separate disc of interviews and ''essays'' debating the Kennedy assassination. Any Given Sunday offers a slightly more gratuitous grab bag, including deleted and/or extended scenes, a making-of-the-movie feature, and not one, but two Jamie Foxx music videos. And then there's Natural Born Killers, which appends an alternate ending to its list of added bonuses. But, of course, the main attractions are the movies themselves, a dazzlingly diverse, audaciously controversial lineup, all unified by the filmmaker's favorite theme. Call it Livin' in the USA: The Boomer Years. Indeed, from the shatteringly reenacted national trauma in JFK to the sobering post-Nam odyssey of Born on the Fourth of July to the trippy '60s bacchanal of The Doors to the quintessential '80s morality play of Wall Street, Stone has made a strong (if sometimes overstated) case for himself as Hollywood's foremost interpreter of recent American history. And if these titles don't convince you, there's also an 11-disc version of this set that includes Nixon, Talk Radio, U-Turn, and the new-to-DVD Heaven and Earth. Both sets also include Oliver Stone's America, a sometimes pretentious, often self-serving, always provocative interview conducted especially for this project. But it's really just more icing on an already edifying cake. Even without the conspicuously absent Platoon, the Oliver Stone Collection provides an uncommonly comprehensive career overview. All boxed sets should feel so complete, and so cohesive. A-