Cruise Control drives home the point

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2014)

I recently rewatched this film because of all the recent VA hospital mistreatment issues of vets. It really reminded me of how good this movie was, led by an awesome job by Cruise, and a powerful directing job and screenplay by Oliver Stone.
The film portrays the real life story of Ron Kovic, whose life on Long Island thrives on religion, hard work, and patriotism. He volunteers to go to Vietnam, when certainly the majority of young kids were starting to turn against the war. The film leads you through some confusing scenes with all the horrors of war you can imagine. Cruise starts his deep dive into the dark spots in his mind that he never wanted to visit. He starts doubting his choice, his whole basis for life.
Cruise/Kovic returns to an uninterested and uncaring country. He does a terrific job of portraying Kovic struggling with just everything. Finally Kovic decides that he can be a patriot, but be against a war that he so loyally believed in, and gave his physical being to support.
Amazing performance. Not much supporting cast is the only negative, though Willem Defoe plays a wounded buddy he meets while trying to come to grips with the aftermath in a drunken visit to Mexico. I hope Cruise wins an Academy award someday - he really deserves it for roles like this where he should have gotten a nod, or the many other fine roles he turned in, like in Rainman or that Jerry Maquire movie as a football agent.
If you want to revisit the 60s and 70s with vivid realism, and a bit of overdoing by Oliver Stone, watch Born on the 4th of July. Watch the archive special feature with an in person interview with Kovic and Brian Gumbel - pretty good stuff too. Enjoy.