It's only Cruise that is good.

Rating: 6/10 (17 September 1999)

I understand that Oliver Stnoe participated in the Vietnam war and hated the horrors he had to live and he demonstrated very well in "Platoon" but he didn't a very good job with "Born on the 4th of July". I think what Stone tried to do with this movie was take a few of the same general ideas he used in "Platoon" and put them in some different circumstances. Only he missed with this one. There are some scenes that could have been cut out and it wouldn't have made any difference.
Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) is determined to become a marine and go to Vietnam. He even says that if he has to die there, well then so be it. But then, we see what he has to live and see in Vietnam. One afternoon, as the sun goes down, his platoon is attacked by the Vietnamese. Kovic takes cover behind a sand dune when all of a sudden, somebody pops up on the dune. Not hesitating for a second, Kovic fires his riffle. However, after the gunfight ceases a few minutes later, Kovic realizes that the man he has killed was one of the men in his platoon.
Kovic can't get over this and the next day, he is shot. When he wakes up, he finds himself in the hospital and later learns that he will never be able to walk again and that his hopes of being able to have children are nill. But Ron is determined to walk again. And so he tries and he tries until he falls down the bone of his leg pops out. All his hopes suddenly just go to pieces.
So Ron returns to his hometown and after having had a fit with his younger brother who claims the stupidity of the war, Ron starts to realize that his brother is probably right and that the war was useless and stupid and so he takes part in all the anti-war movements. But Ron changes a lot and finally he goes to Mexico where he finds ex-soldiers and prostitutes. The rest that follows his trip to Mexico is the reconstitution of the life he lost at war.
The movie drags a lot at many times and there a few scenes that I would even consider boring and pointless. Tom Cruise's performance is the best part of this movie and probably should have won an Oscar for it (although I haven't seen "My left foot" yet). Stone tries to show once again the image of young men losing their innocence at war but did a much better job at it in "Platoon". So as you might have guessed, I didn't like the movie that much. If you've got "Platoon" and "Born on the 4th of July" and you don't know which one to watch, you should definitely watch "Platoon".