Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

the audience applauded

Expected more

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Born On The Fourth Of JulyStarring : Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava and Willem Dafoe Screenwriter : Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone Director : Oliver Stone3 and a half out of 5Born On The Fourth Of July is a character driven feature whose protagonist goes through a challenging emotional phase in his life after encountering some inedible and gut-wrenching truth back at the war. Such war based features often follow a rudimentary process that undermines the creativity or the originality of the material, but in here, it stands along on its format, as each single lose thread of the feature is reconnected or used up again wisely by the makers attaining the perfect balance of the drama of the characters and the brutality of the practicality projected in here. The camera work is plausible even though it could have been shot with more appetizing or at least attention seeking work, and it may be short on background score, sound effects and art design but is perfectly edited.Oliver Stone; the screenwriter-director, keeps the audience engaged through its brilliant execution skill and his manipulative dramatic shots that easily breaks down into tears. Tom Cruise is in his A game (especially break down sequence where he confesses his sins) and doing some of his career's best work despite of not getting the essential support from the cast except for Willem Dafoe who helps him survive a mid-act sequence.Born On The Fourth Of July is resurrected on incarcerating, both the good and bad deeds, whose unexpected influence led humankind to its doom.

Is there any just war? A question that can be present in this movie. A war fought 20,000 kms away from one's country might be patriotic? A war fought only for political, economic or ideological reasons can be just? An American young man is deeply patriotic and imbued with all the conventional values concerning war, joins voluntarily the Marine Force and goes to Vietnam as a sergeant. After being wounded in combat he becomes quadriplegic and returns home on a wheelchair after having spent some time in a hospital for veterans where conditions are appallingly bad even with rats running freely around. Anyway he is still defending those patriotic conventional values for what he thinks he had fought in war. However after meeting a girl whom he knew in their youth and whom he loved and seeing her being a member of an activist group against American fighting in Vietnam and seeing the police charging them violently he begins to take conscience of the real injustice of that war. After several vicissitudes of moral degradation that include a familiar conflict at home, alcoholism and an exile to a home for veterans in Mexico by a village where there is an atmosphere of alcohol, gambling and prostitution, he abandons all this and returns to USA where he joins the activist movement against war and publishes a book with his autobiography. Everything is narrated with great image and dialogue realism. The only flaw in my opinion is the not so good performance of Tom Cruise whom I never considered a very good actor and seems not very authentic, abusing some times of histrionic hysterism. Anyway a movie that can be considered a strong libel not only against the Vietnam war but against all wars.

Greetings from Lithuania."Born on the Fourth of July" (1989) is easily one of the few very best movies from inconsistent yet always interesting Oliver Stone. It sharply tells a story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise in one of his best performances (still!), a true young All-American patriot who came to fought to Vietnam driven by patriotic feelings and responsibility for his county, only to be forgotten by the same country later - and eventually his way to some sort of redemption (if you can call it like that)."Born on the Fourth of July" is probably not as good as Oliver Stone's best movie "Platoon" but it's easily stands second in my opinion. It has all the great movie should have - superb, involving and very true script, great directing (at 2 h 20 min this movie never drags for a second), superb acting by all involved - and like i said, it is a very true story. 10/10 - great movie.

To preface my review, I'll say that I am still amazed that I didn't see this film sooner than today. How it escaped even an accidental viewing is, especially considering my thoughts on it in retrospect and my love of war-based cinema, is baffling.What might color the modern viewer who has yet to experience Born, as it did me, was the idea of Tom Cruise portraying a role more down to earth and realistic than we're used to seeing from the actor. Consider also that in 1989 he was just hitting his stride as a cinematic centerpiece along with the blunt force trauma he had to portray as real-life Vietnam veteran Ron Kovac, and the modern viewer is almost assured of having reservations. Watching some of the special features of my copy of the DVD makes me realize that even then, there were reservations about Cruise. At least outside of Oliver Stone and Ron Kovac, who were sold early on.It takes maybe half the film until you start to understand it, but Cruise does sell it, and he sells with more honest integrity than I think he's put into any role in his career. It doesn't surprise me as much considering the room and avenues of expression Oliver Stone has traditionally given to his actors, but it does further cement Cruise as an actor of quality more so than quantity.The film itself, and all of its particulars, offer sharp contrasts, bare humanity and the horrors we're capable of, and the eventual redemption of a man who I do believe, regardless of our own lives, anyone can relate to on some level. It is a story told many times, but this perspective, unique as all perspectives inherently are, is as vital to the entire story of the Vietnam War and ultimately of defining ourselves as any I've ever considered.Whether or not Stone embellishes is not for me to say; I have yet (and I stress 'yet', as I do believe this film will lead me to reading the book Kovac wrote) to explore the particulars. But, in the end, it doesn't matter; the overall message is as clear as can be by the end. This is the story of a young man who believed and who was deceived, only to once again believe. Each step is fittingly littered with personal conflicts and triumphs, intimate encounters with people from various walks of life. It emphasizes the point that our own beliefs, our own deceptions, our own lives are the product of influence. What we perceive from our families, our friends, our media, inevitably colors our choices in life. For Kovac, these choices led to a swirling chaos of negative consequences. These negative consequences ultimately lead to the redeeming aspects of his later life, but the truth is always there, and it's an ugly truth. A haunting truth, brought to life by haunting moments.What keeps me from considering this film as more than very good is an inherent disconnect of generations. While my generation will perhaps look back on our current conflicts in the Middle East the same way the Vietnam generation looks at their own conflicts and struggles, Oliver Stone was and, with Born, is a part of a generation that I am not. His perspective is not hard to relate to, but it is hard to understand.Beyond that, the film has a handful of small issues that feel more like nitpicking but can't be avoided. The cinematography, while advanced for its time, doesn't lend itself as much to intimacy as it does to the swirl of conflict surrounding Kovac and America. The viewer often feels so swept up in the background that it can be difficult to spot and hone in on the essential point of specific scenes. Also, while I applaud Cruise's efforts in his role, he and several other actors are still either miscast or underutilized in my estimation. The storytelling of Oliver Stone, while easy to digest once the film is finished, is choppy and inconsistent, and I felt that certain moments were not given the emphasis they deserved in the overall story of Ron Kovac.Despite the small flaws, I can't imagine nor have I witnessed a better overall portrayal of a war-torn life and the dirt, grime, pain and suffering that must be carried throughout such a life than this film offers. The gritty realism holds up even today, a time where we can often find more harrowing images on our local news than in this film. There is no individual scene or moment that defines Born On The Fourth Of July; it is a journey that resonates most strongly at its bittersweet conclusion.