Some of the best from Tom Cruise

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2014)

Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) is an all-American boy from Massapequa, Long Island dreaming of growing up to be a soldier. He's a high school wrestler in a patriotic family. He eagerly leads his friends to join the Marines. He soon finds himself in the thick of the murky Vietnam war. His squad is ambushed in 1968 and he's paralyzed. The VA hospital is an ugly mess. When he comes home a year later, he is still a huge supporter of the war but the town and even his family is divided. His friend Timmy (Frank Whaley) was also in Vietnam and has returned. His high school love Donna (Kyra Sedgwick) has become a peace activist at Syracuse University.
Oliver Stone is skillfully navigating this bio-pic. There are parts that seems a little bit rushed. The war is basically two battles. It is probably Tom Cruise at his best. It takes the best of him. He is always intense. That's his best character. He starts out as a true believer. Then he goes big as he loses his belief until he starts to believe something else. The change over the course of the movie is some of the best work of his career.