William Woodburn 
Jan. 8, 1994 
William P. Woodburn, 86, Of Parrish Street, Wilkes-barre, Died Saturday At 
Home.

3 Plead Guilty 
In Cocaine Case

By JOE BUTKIEWIICZ; Times Leader Staff Writer
 Saturday, January 08, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: ENT QUICK WORDS: HEAVEN AND EARTH IS
VINTAGE STONE 





Restraint has never been part of the film vocabulary of writer director
Oliver Stone. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Not the guy who wrote the screenplay for "Midnight Express" and "Scarface."
The co-writer of "Conan the Barbarian" and "Year of the Dragon." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Stone is consistently confrontational, with a knack for reaching down the
throats of his audience and making them feel damn uncomfortable. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 However, Stone's ability isn't limited to anxiety. With "Platoon" and "Born
on the Fourth of July," he accelerated a country's painful reconciliation with
a war in Southeast Asia. Fact or fiction, he has redefined the way people
think about "Wall Street" and "JFK." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Stone's is in-the-face film making. Even when he strays ("The Doors" "Talk
Radio") he demands attention. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 So when Stone gives us "Heaven and Earth," the third part of his Vietnam
trilogy, it's difficult not to pay attention. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The movie was inspired by two autobiographical books by Le Ly Hayslip,
spans 35 years and represents the people of South Vietnam caught in the
pinchers of an ancient domination and war. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 With that kind of dimension, "Heaven and Earth" is a vintage Oliver Stone
epic. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And the film maker proves once again to be a masterful architect of
melodrama. He holds attention for two and a half hours and constructs
disturbing scenes in both the torture chamber and the family living room. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But if "Heaven and Earth" is good, it's not as good as Stone's other films.
The director is unable to get under the skin of his female protagonist, played
by newcomer Hiep Thi Le, not as he did so well with Willem Dafoe and Charlie
Sheen in "Platoon," and Tom Cruise in "Fourth of July." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Not that Le Ly is treated with anything less than honesty, respect and even
reverence. Le Ly is featured almost every scene, striving for the
transformation from innocence to pain to forgiveness. This is a character who
is tortured, raped, ripped from her home and family, abandoned and threatened
with death numerous times. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Stone wisely casts Joan Chen ("The Last Emperor") and Dr. Haing S. Ngor
("The Killing Fields") as Le Ly's mother and father; they anchor the family
with palatable wisdom. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Equally important is Tommy Lee Jones as the Marine who marries Le Ly and
brings her to California. Even that relationship disintegrates when he's
revealed as the soul of the violence. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But "Heaven and Earth" is not without whimsy. Stone has great fun with the
ritual excess of the United States. He even cast Debbie Reynolds as Le Ly's
mother-in-law. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 With that kind of sly humor in the same movie with electric shock torture,
audiences can only imagine what Stone will do with his upcoming remake of
"Planet of the Apes."

`heaven And Earth' Is Vintage Stone