Stone and Cruise make this movie one to remember

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2005)

The first thing that I thought while watching this movie is that not that much has changed since the Vietnam war. Today too there are a lot of young American idealistic men who join the military, because they are in a hopeless situation when it comes to finding a job, because they constantly hear, read and see that only a soldier is the true hero of the nation or just because they are hoping to win some medals without thinking of all the possible consequences. Today the war isn't situated in Vietnam anymore, but Afghanistan and Iraq aren't all that different. Both wars are just as endless and impossible to win, whether they like to hear that or not. The only difference is that this time there is almost no-one who protests against it.
"Born on the Fourth of July" tells the story of Ron Kovic. As a young man who is about to graduate from high school, who's good at sports, who's willing to fight for his country against the communists and who wants to make a difference in the world, the offer to become a US Marine is about everything he could dream of. After his military training, he is immediately sent to Vietnam. When they approach a village, everything appears to be quiet and peaceful at first. But little do they know that they are about to get trapped in an ambush. While running for their lives, one of his comrades is shot - Kovic is convinced that he did it - and soon after he too gets hit by a bullet. Once in hospital he finds out that he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life. While trying to deal with his handicap, he becomes more and more convinced that America never should have gone to war in Vietnam in the first place...
Personally I didn't have any problem with it, because I'm anti-war myself (even though I'm not a lefty as so many of you will probably think), but I'm convinced that too many people will see some ultra-left anti war propaganda in it. Personally I don't think that was what Oliver Stone had in mind. I believe that he wanted to show that many young men go to war with the idea that they will do an honorable job by defending their country, but once they have returned to that same country, they realize that what they did wasn't always that honorable and the leaders of the country couldn't care less for their pain and trauma's. And let's be honest, were they heroes because they came back from Vietnam? I don't think so. Does that mean they all should have died back there? Certainly not, but are you a hero when you do your job? No you're not. The only difference is that they do it because some president sends them. Once they return (in a body bag or not doesn't really matter), they aren't all that important anymore. But by the time that they realize this, it's already too late. Personally I really appreciate that message and I hope that it might make some guys think twice. It's perhaps the only counter weight left in a balance that is dominated by nothing else but pro war propaganda. Or how would you call the fact that the Bush administration didn't even allow that photographs or other images from the coffins that returned from Iraq and Afghanistan were shown? They didn't want a second public rebellion against their war.
But enough about politics, hidden messages and stuff like that. Let's talk about the acting, the directing,... I guess most people will agree with me that this is not only a very fine war movie thanks to the story, but also thanks to the great acting from Tom Cruise. This was one of his best performances ever - he has had some other great roles like for instance in Magnolia, but they were almost never as big as in this movie - and lifted this movie to a higher level. The other actors were interesting to watch as well, but if it hadn't been for Cruise, this movie might have gone by pretty much unnoticed. Most of them aren't famous at all and the name Oliver Stone wouldn't have been enough to convince the audience, although the man certainly knows what good (war) movies should look like. Just watch "Platoon", "JFK", ... yes even "U Turn" and "Natural Born Killers", if you don't believe me. The problem with Stone is that so many people seem to take all his movies so personal. Somehow a lot of people don't seem to understand him or see him as too left and therefor uninteresting.
All in all this is a very powerful war movie with an excellent Tom Cruise and some very fine directing from Oliver Stone. I already liked "Heaven & Earth" and loved "Platoon". Well, I place this one right in the middle of the two when it comes to the rating. I give this movie an 8/10.