Yet as he grows to understand both sides of pro-war and antiwar issues, he finally come into his own. Al Pacino was scheduled to play Kovic, but Oliver Stone twice tried to get this film made in the 70s by Universal, it fell through each time. Of course, now it may seem easy to have predicted it would be a huge hit with audiences and critics alike. The film garnered Stone another Best Director Oscar and David Brenner and Joe Hutshing the Best Editing Oscar. The film is beautiful to look at, and indeed the direction and editing kept my eyes glued to the screen no matter what was happening.
Images are almost ethereal at times, while strangely remaining realistic, or at least surreal.
Though I think Cruise's strong and innate charisma can conflict with his character's raging internal drama at times, Cruise's subtly, especially in the scenes with little or no dialogue, are moving. Stone's film perhaps works as well as it does because he had the liberty to spread out over 144 minutes. And I think Kovic's journey is an important one for us all to learn from and experience. Sadly, he meant the process with film, not video. The film appears to be shot with balmy, oversaturated colors giving it a somewhat aged, rustic look, and the DVD accurately presents them with no bleed.