Yet One More Oliver Stone Film I Can't Tolerate

Rating: 4/10 (29 August 2008)

"Born on the Fourth of July" is one of those movies that no one feels comfortable criticizing, because it's based on the true story of one man's experiences in Vietnam that left him a paraplegic, and to criticize the movie is to be unsympathetic to the story behind it. People treat Oliver Stone's other Vietnam film from the 1980s, "Platoon," the same way. Well, I'll be the first to say that I don't think either film is very good.
"Born on the Fourth of July" is about as subtle as you would expect it to be, which means it's not subtle at all. Stone is one of those directors who wants us all to feel bad about events that other people have lived through, and his way of ensuring that is to beat us over the heads with his films. It's a condescending attitude for a filmmaker to take, and it's responsible for pretty much making me shun Stone films to this day.
Star Tom Cruise had proved to the world he could act the year before in "Rain Man," and the Academy dutifully acknowledged that fact by handing him a Best Actor nomination for this film. He's actually a perfect match with Stone, as both men approach their respective crafts in the same way: aggressively and over earnestly.
Grade: C