No Time To Breathe

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2009)

To me, "Born On The Fourth Of July" is the type of war movie that most people "like." Sadly, it's also the type of war movie that is instantly forgettable... there wasn't a single image, scene, or revelation substantial enough to leave an indelible mark on me. That said, the film is competent in every way, but pales in comparison to Oliver Stone's own Vietnam movie "Platoon."
Made back when Tom Cruise was taking roles that seemed to parallel his own struggles in life (masculinity, religion, adulthood), the movie tells the true story of paralyzed Vietnam vet Ron Kovic who makes the journey from gung-ho, flag-waving Marine to embittered, paralyzed anti-war spokesman. It's a metaphor perhaps for America's own transition from self-righteous world guardian to humbled victim, yet the changes in Kovic never seem to go deeper than the surface; the movie's like a slightly darker version of "Forrest Gump."
Okay, I'm being too harsh again- nothing's as bad as "Forrest Gump"- but a movie that tackles this subject matter is almost obligated to take you to the darkest extremes of the nightmares of war and it's aftermaths... I never worried about the Ron Kovic character- not as a teen, not in 'nam, and certainly not after his return the States as the poster boy for the folly of combat. I never sensed real danger, possibly because he never got a chance to breathe.
Maybe the blame here has to go to script: there are so many plot points to hit along a carefully-crafted storyline that you never get to indulge in a human moment in which the actors transcend the words on paper. Ron can't have a real scene with the great Willem Dafoe because he has to rush to a hooker, and before we can appreciate her night of sexual healing Ron has to be humiliated for wanting to see her again, and then he's off to the desert for a wheelchair battle with his mirror image. It's like a road trip where you drive so fast you never get to SEE anything.
If the movie makes even one person question the wisdom of war and the lives it consumes then I'll have to consider it a success, but if you haven't seen "Paths of Glory," "Full Metal Jacket," or "Platoon," you need to go do that.
Right now.
GRADE: C