Great Moments Strung Together

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2010)

Oliver Stone may be past his prime, but at this point in his career he knew how to make an epic movie. He is a master at selecting the moments in a the story of a life that have the greatest impact. It took great artistic humility for him to make a movie that displays the war from the perspective of those who supported it without condescension.
Outside of Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise might be the actor of this generation. It's a shame he's fallen off the map, but when a good director takes a chance on him (Stone, Anderson, Kubrick), he's never let down. He can drain every ounce of emotion out of a dramatic situation.
Yes, the movie has its flaws. They are little things, primarily in the war scenes. Yet Stone has the strategic sense to pick the three things most powerful about going to war (1: Killing innocents 2: Killing with friendly fire 3: Getting shot) to get the point across. The movie is really about what happens after the war, where Cruise and Stone both really shine. Ronnie goes from the stereotypical All-American boy, optimistic and admirable to the viewer, to desperately singing protest songs in the bar. The movie doesn't take too strong of a political stance (though it does disparage Nixon). One of the underlying themes is the disconnect between the government and the American people in information, and how this gap is used to take advantage of the people. MEDIUM SPOILER: The communist hating Ronnie is nearly blacklisted by the end of the movie. It's about how two groups of people can be right depending on what perspective they are privy to; the protesters are seen as ignorant at points, until the end of the film. Semper fi, Oliver Stone.