War From Liberal Point of View
10/10
Author: Firas Daba
25 February 2014

The movie is based on the real-life story of Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), a decorated Marine who was in his second tour of duty in Vietnam when he was critically injured. Upon his return to the United States, Kovic became a vocal anti-war protester whose military record gave him more credibility than the numerous hippies and college students whom critics lambasted for "dodging" service to their country. Born on the Fourth of July is divided neatly into four pieces.

The first, which transpires entirely in Massapequa, New York between the late 1950s and 1964, traces the childhood of Kovic, who grows up in a fiercely patriot household. His parents are fierce supporters of the country and devout Roman Catholics. Kovic, inspired by a presentation given by a Marine , signs up out of high school and is on his way to Vietnam by December 1965, leaving behind his family and his girlfriend. This segment is filmed by Stone with an abundance of nostalgic elements. The lighting and colors hint at a time- clouded innocence.

The style, which evokes Capra, is overly romantic. Stone is, of course, setting us up. He wants us to buy into this idealized, insulated way of life in order for what comes after to have maximum impact. The "in country" portion of the film is the shortest. It picks up the action in October 1968, when Kovic, now a sergeant and well-respected member of his platoon, is in his second tour of duty. While on patrol, an error in the received intelligence leads to a civilian massacre, and Kovic is shaken. During the retreat, he mistakes one of his men for an enemy and accidentally kills him.

The XO exonerates Kovic, ignoring his claims of "friendly fire," and informs the sergeant that things like this happen in the confusion of battle. Three months later, Kovic is seriously wounded in another engagement - an incident that ends his battlefield involvement in the war. Stone's approach to the fight segments are similar to those in Platoon - short, brutal, and unflinching. He is more interested in showing the bloody, inglorious elements of war as opposed to those promoted in military recruiting films.

Kovic's rehab at the Bronx V.A. hospital is perhaps the most disconcerting episode in the film, depicting as it does the deplorable conditions that existed in the government-run facilities established to treat injured soldiers. Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic does his best to maintain a positive mental attitude and is obsessive About rehabbing, despite his surroundings. Drugs are rampant in the hospital, rats wander freely and the equipment is old. Eventually, he leaves the hospital and returns to Massapequa, where he is hailed as a hero. The final hour is devoted Kovic's change from war-supporter to rabid anti-war activist.

When Kovic initially returns home, he is still a defender of the action in Vietnam. It's only after attending an anti-war rally that he changes his position. The thing best accomplished by Born on the Fourth of July is its contrasting of the glorious illusion of war as seen from thousands of miles away to the barbarity of it up-close. Kovic's change in perspective becomes the filter through which we view Vietnam. His gradual disillusionment with the government and the military is given weight because of events in his life. He is credible because he has been involved in activities that many pro- war and anti-war activists have seen only from afar.

When Stone made this movie in 1988-89, he was looking back roughly 15 years; the intervening time has served only to sharpen the focus. Nothing about Born on the Fourth of July is dated; it remains an involving tale of innocence lost and of war and its unintended consequences.

Simply Amazing...
10/10
Author: nama chakravorty from India
5 July 2010

An adaptation of the best selling autobiography of the same name by Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, comes a film of a lifetime. What Oliver Stone achieves in 'Born On The Fourth Of July' is what a Cinema-Devotee like me waits for. A Complete Film and undoubtedly a Classic Biopic! 'Born On The Fourth Of July' is the brave, violent and disturbing biopic of Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic. Kovic has had one hell of a life, from being a visionary small-town boy, to a War veteran, to a Paralyzed man, and to a man who wrote his life, his rights and wrongs, without shedding out the minuses. As the film flows, you fall in love with Kovic, you begin to feel for him.

In fact, Stone's intention of making the person a Screen Legend comes true. Stone is at his very best. His Direction is EPIC! He deserved all the Awards and Respect he received for this landmark film! Music by John Williams is legendary! Tom Cruise is amazing. The Screen Icon becomes Ron Kovic, and delivers one of the bravest performances of his career! A special mention for the Magical Willem Dafoe, he is flawless in a brief role. 'Born On The Fourth Of July' is an amazing film in all respects, a Landmark! Two Big Thumbs Up!

Ron Kovic's arc or the soul of a torn apart America ...
10/10
Author: ElMaruecan82 from France
30 October 2012

A young Ron Kovic is on his father's shoulders, and enjoys the 4th of July parade. Ronnie looks quite dull but he's got a beautiful girlfriend named Donna who offers him an original NY cap. It's Ronnie's birthday, his mother tells him with pride-irradiating eyes: "You're my little Yankee Doodle boy". During a night illuminated by the fireworks, Ron and Donna kiss, a privilege that small boys rarely get at 10, but it's Ronnie, Ronnie who makes his baseball team win and victoriously lifts his pumps in the air, so perfect it's unreal.

There is yet a reason why the opening of "Born on the Fourth of July" possesses this disorienting dream-like aspect, for it's too over-the-top from a director like Oliver Stone not to be deliberate. It starts like a fantasy because it's exactly into this that American values were turned after World War II, the idea that whatever America does is right, and any American boy should be proud to defend his country, to win, to be the best. It echoes General Patton's words: "the very idea of losing is detestable for America". Yet Patton fought in a war that, no matter how devastating it was, was necessary. The Vietnam War was not and now, it's a wound forever carved in America's heart, a stain in its soul, for which Oliver Stone's film works on a cathartic level.

Fittingly "Born on the 4th of July", Ron Kovic incarnates the spiritual destruction the Vietnam War applied on America's youth, before it turned into a generation-defining realization. That realization is the emotional core of the film and it's powerfully carried by Tom Cruise's performance. Cruise's good looks always played a significant part in his films because they helped to build a misleading feeling just to be contradicted by the evolution of his character ("Rain Man", "Jerry Maguire"…). "Born on the Fourth of July" also features an extraordinary evolution, but in terms of acting, it transcends every other performance from Cruise. As Kovic, he personifies the patriotic enthusiasm of a youth that grew in a star-and-stripe clad cradle and its transformation into anger against the system that fooled them.

And the higher Kovic went in the expression of his patriotism, the harder he fell. What is fascinating in Kovic is that he isn't necessarily perfect before the War; he loses at a wrestling game and sobs like a baby under the booing of a heartless crowd. Kovic is so 'Americanised' that losing a game is as upsetting as losing a war. So when the first recruitment's program for the Marine Corps comes to his school, he takes it as a chance to prove his value. Kovic loves his country and will serve it, even if he has to die. The 'trick' is that he didn't explore the eventuality of ending crippled and that's crucial: when a man lives, he's proud of having done his job, when he dies, he's not here to express any regrets, but on a wheelchair, it's another side of the show he's going to discover.

The film's scope is so big that Stone rightfully keeps the essential from each episode of Kovic's life, especially since "Platoon" was eloquent enough about the war. The fight scenes show that GI killed baby and civilians… accidentally but so was it when they killed each other in battles far from the usual epic exaltations. Then, Kovic is shot and spends a long time in the veteran's hospital: one of the film's highlight, an invitation to discover the treatment, crippled soldiers received: the last rites (just in case), bathing in their own filth, incapable to clean themselves, sharing the place with rats. Kovic is told that he can't walk anymore, can't even have children; he endures a rough treatment to prevent amputation. But what he can't stand, more than pain, stink, rats or his disability… is one carer's anti-war comment. His condition didn't earn him any respect or compassion, and the worst is yet to come.

Returning at home, Kovic realizes that life has changed, hippies give him the finger; the American flag is burned instead of being proudly raised in the air. "Love it or leave it!" still shouts Kovic in denial. The attitude spread to his Family, his own brother doesn't believe in the war, and the trip to self-awareness doesn't end here. Wherever he goes, Kovic is confronted to disrespect and carelessness, a friend who didn't believe in the War, is doing well in fast-food business, a WWII veteran reminds him he's got no reason to be angry about, he fought, he lost, and gives him the ultimate insult by calling him a traitor. The anger's burning in Kovic's heart reaches its heart-breaking pinnacle when he wakes up his whole family, submerged by his drunkenness, he -for the first time- understands that this war destroyed him, for nothing, because the very America he fought for, is now acting like an ungrateful bitch.

But the courage of Kovic is not to stand alone in his own blindness. During a trip in a Mexican whorehouse where he encounters veterans living in the same condition, he's left alone with a vet played by Willem Dafoe in the desert, they fight, insult, spit on each other, but it's probably the last step before self-awareness. Symbolizing through his character's arc a real revolution in America's society, Kovic becomes the spokesperson of a whole generation against the war. Not because one shouldn't fight for his country, but because there were no values noble enough to fight in Vietnam, to destroy America's spirit, no matter how supposedly 'evil' Communism was, America was no better in that war. Kovic said that who fought there, and Oliver Stone showed that, who fought there, too.

Intelligent, thought provoking and uncompromising, "Born of the Fourth of July" is one of the most important American films, and one of the best of the 80's.

Beautiful redemption story with much more to it!
10/10
Author: axismladen from Croatia
26 June 2010

Born On The Fourth Of July is a great movie! One of many masterpieces that are not completely recognized as such! Ronnie Kovic is a young man living in a small town in the time of the Vietnam War! All filled with pride and honor he decides to go to war and fight for his country! The story is basically centered on that point on! War changes his entire life and he must face the fact that he was, as many other's, tricked to go to war and fight against so called '' communism disease ''! The story follows his path of redemption towards accepting that everything he believed in and fought for was not as pure and sacred as he thought! And also about him dealing with some thing's he's done that are his burden ever since!

The movie is directed great, written great and acted great! This is my favorite Oliver Stone movie and this is definitely Tom's greatest performance!!! Tom Cruise was just brilliant and it's a shame he didn't win an Oscar for The Best Leading Role!!! Just as it's a shame that the movie didn't win for The Best Picture and The Best Screenplay!!!Watch this movie!!! It will make you feel a lot better and see thing's much clearly! This is a masterpiece!!!

And to end my comment, i will quote Ron Kovic,

'' I am the living death, a Memorial Day on wheels. I am your Yankee Doodle Dandy, your John Wayne come home, your Fourth of July firecracker exploding in the grave. ''

An outstanding character piece
10/10
Author: Dirk Eichhorst from Groveland, Florida
12 April 2001

This is one of the few films that successfully takes a character through many subtle but significant incidents that lead to a total change in the character's attitude and feelings. To believably change a person from one attitude to another in the course of a film is a monumental task. So much of it is told in subtext - the emotional undertow of the scene - the dialogue is realistic and tells us exactly how a character feels without having to spoonfeed us.

The scene where Ron returns home for the first time after being paralyzed is one of the best examples of this. The use of the recurring theme by John Williams brings the audience right into the soul of Kovic as he struggles to overcome the guilt of having killed a fellow soldier, his inner need to prove he's a man to his mother, and his struggle with friends who don't see the world the way he does. A superb film. Bravo, Mr. Stone!