Born on the Fourth of July

Plot synopsis:
The film opens when Ron Kovic is a young boy living in Massapequa, Long Island, New York. He grows up in a patriotic and Catholic household, instilling within him a strong sense of pride in his country and his religion. As a teenager, and a top member of his high school's wrestling team, he proves himself physically fit and athletic, as well as an academically exceptional student. When local Marine recruiting NCOs visit his school and give Ron and his fellow seniors an impassioned lecture about the Corps, Ron decides to enlist. He misses his prom, because he is unable to get a date with his love interest, Donna. He confronts her at the prom and has a dance with her on his last night before leaving.The story then jumps to Kovic's second Vietnam tour in 1968. Now a Marine sergeant and on patrol, his unit massacres a village of Vietnamese citizens, believing them to be enemy combatants. During the retreat, Kovic becomes disoriented and accidentally shoots one of the new arrivals to his platoon, a younger Marine private first class, Wilson, who ends up in the line of fire between sides. Despite the frantic efforts of the Navy Corpsman present who try to save him, Wilson dies from his wounds. Overwhelmed by guilt, Kovic appeals to his executive officer (XO), who merely tells him to forget the incident. The meeting has a negative effect on Ron, who is crushed at being brushed off by his XO.The platoon goes out on another hazardous patrol on January 20. During a firefight, Kovic is critically wounded, shot in the ankle and through the chest, smashing his spine. He lays trapped in a field facing sure death, until a fellow Marine rescues him. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down, he spends several months recovering at the Bronx Veterans Administration hospital. The living conditions in the hospital are deplorable; rats crawl freely on the floors, the staff is generally apathetic to their patients' needs, doctors visit the patients infrequently, drug use is rampant, and equipment is too old and ill-maintained to be useful. He desperately tries to walk again with the use of crutches and braces, despite repeated warnings from his doctors. However, he soon suffers a bad fall that causes a compound fracture of his thighbone. The injury nearly robs him of his leg and puts Ron in traction for several months, and he vehemently argues with the staff and the doctors who consider resorting to amputation.Ron returns home, permanently in a wheelchair, with his leg intact. At home, he begins to alienate his family and friends, complaining about hippies, students and other young adults staging anti-war rallies across the country and burning the American flag. Though he tries to maintain his dignity as a Marine, Ron gradually begins to become disillusioned, feeling that his government has forgotten and even betrayed him and his fellow Vietnam Veterans. In Ron's absence his younger brother Tommy has already become staunchly anti-war, leading to a rift between them. His highly religious mother also seems unable to deal with Ron's new attitude as a resentful, paralyzed veteran. His problems are as much psychological as they are physical and he quickly becomes alcoholic and belligerent. During an Independence Day parade, he shows signs of post-traumatic stress when firecrackers explode and when a baby in the crowd starts crying it reminds him of the village he and his unit massacred and he is unable to finish his speech. He reunites with his old high school friend, Timmy Burns, who is also a wounded veteran, and the two spend Ron's birthday sharing war stories.Ron goes to visit Donna at her college in Syracuse, New York. The two reminisce and she asks him to attend a vigil for the victims of the Kent State shootings. However, he cannot do so, because his chair prevents him from getting very far on campus because of curbs and stairways. He and Donna are separated after she and her fellow students are arrested by the police at her college for demonstrating against the Vietnam War.Ron's disillusionment grows severe enough that he has an intense fight with his mother after returning home drunk one night after having a barroom confrontation with a World War II veteran that fought on Iwo Jima who expressed no sympathy to Ron, who himself had been acting obnoxiously in the bar. After venting his rage at his mother's embarrassment over having a disabled son, he has an emotional conversation with his father and he later leaves home, traveling to a small town in Mexico ("The Village of the Sun") that seems to be a haven for paralyzed Vietnam veterans. He has his first sexual experience with a prostitute he believes he's in love with. Ron wants to ask her to marry him but when he sees her with another customer, the realization of real love versus a mere physical sexual experience sets in, and he decides against it. Hooking up with another wheelchair-bound veteran, Charlie, who is furious over a prostitute mocking his lack of sexual function due to his severe wounding in Vietnam, the two travel to what they believe will be a friendlier village. After annoying their taxicab driver, they end up stranded on the side of the road. They quarrel and fight, spilling each other out of their wheelchairs. Eventually, they are picked up by a man with a truck and driven back to the "Village of the Sun".On his way back to Long Island, Ron makes a side trek to Georgia to visit the parents and family of PFC Wilson, the Marine he believes that he killed during his tour. He tells them the real story about how their son died and confesses his guilt to them. Wilson's widow, now the mother of the deceased soldier's toddler son, admits that she cannot find it in her heart to forgive Ron for killing her husband, but God just might. Mr and Mrs. Wilson, however, are more forgiving and even sympathetic to his predicament and suffering, because Wilson's father fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II and is even disillusioned with the war in Vietnam. In spite of the mixed reactions he receives, the confession seems to lift a heavy weight from Ron's conscience.Ron joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) and travels to the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami. He and his compatriots force their way into the convention hall during Richard Nixon's acceptance speech and cause a commotion that gets brief coverage on the national news. Ron himself tells a reporter about his negative experiences in Vietnam and the horrific VA hospital conditions. His interview is cut short when guards eject him and his fellow vets from the hall and attempt to turn them over to the police. They manage to break free from the police, regroup, and charge the hall again, though not so successfully this time. The film ends with Kovic speaking at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, shortly after the publication of his autobiography Born on the Fourth of July.

Tags: dramatic, boring

Review:
There are a  thousand details that Stone got exactly right, from Dalton Trumbo's  paperback novel of a paraplegic from WW I, Johnny Got His Gun, that sat  on a tray near Kovic's hospital bed, to the black medic telling him  that there was a more important war going on at the same time as the  Vietnam war, namely the civil rights movement, to a mother throwing her  son out of the house when he no longer fulfilled her trophy case vision  of what her son ought to be, to Willem DaFoe's remark about what you  have to do sexually when nothing in the middle moves.
Certainly to watch Ron Kovic, just an ordinary Joe who believed in his  country and the sentiments of John Wayne movies and comic book heroics,  go from a depressed, enraged, drug-addled waste of a human being to an  enlightened, focused, articulate, and ultimately triumphant spokesman  for the anti-war movement, for veterans, and the disabled was wonderful  to see.
Your answer could be anything depending upon your political and ideological preferences, but the reality of thousands who lost their lives and limbs continues to hurt.Oliver Stone's Born on Fourth of July - based on the true story of Ron Kovic - takes the audience through the triumph and trauma of a crusader who went from one side of the war debate to the other.
In the inadequately equipped hospital, his dreamer instincts crashed against the harsh realities of political ambivalence, not for the first time though.Over next eight years that are depicted in this masterpiece, the character of Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise with unprecedented brilliance) goes through the trauma of knowing that no one will "love him now", that even his own sibling is not on the same side of ideology, that the government had more pressing issues than taking good care of war veterans, that his countrymen did not necessarily endorse of his view point.
He takes the tale of Ron Kovic (who wrote the book with the same name as the film and scripted by him and Stone) and turns it into a blisteringly awesome and ultimately harrowing picture that has performances, scenes and direction that top Platoon (maybe it's a sign that practice makes perfect)Anyway, the tale centers on Ron Kovic (played to a utter T by Tom Cruise) good old-boy-type of American kid who decides he wants to fight for his country in the Vietnam war even if he has to die for his country.
All this, and more (including one of the most volcanic scenes I have ever seen between Cruise and Dafoe on a Mexico road) lead him to become a anti-war activist.In making the big theme of the picture Kovic and his feeling on the war, Stone depicts his journey excellently by showing his desire to be in it, his confusion afterwards, his eventual hatred and then placement in being against the war all the while still being a patriot.
Cruise gives the best peformance he ever will in a film as Kovic.....the golden boy who comes home paralysed and confused at the way his country is reacting to Vietnam.
"Born on the Fourth of July" is an absorbing piece of work, based on a true story, about Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a gung-ho Marine-turned-war-protester.
"Born on the Fourth of July" is a film based on the real-life experiences of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise in an Oscar-nominated role).
This is without doubt a very good, well-made film, exploring the effect the Vietnam War had on America and its values.The film is based on the true-life experiences of Ron Kovic, and is scripted from his book by director Oliver Stone and Kovic himself.
Tom Cruise, continuing his move away from teenage heart-throb, plays the lead character whom we follow from fresh-faced youth, to frontline soldier in Vietnam, to hospitalised patient, right through to embittered wheelchair bound protestor.'Born on the 4th of July' revolves around Kovic to such a degree that any flaws in the characterisation would be fatal.
It's a condescending attitude for a filmmaker to take, and it's responsible for pretty much making me shun Stone films to this day.Star Tom Cruise had proved to the world he could act the year before in "Rain Man," and the Academy dutifully acknowledged that fact by handing him a Best Actor nomination for this film.
Just because Oliver Stone's heart is in the right place doesn't make this unofficial sequel to his Oscar winning 'Platoon' a good film, and in typical sledgehammer fashion he turns the moving true story of disabled, disillusioned Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic into little more than a bad soap opera.
Anyway, despite these comments the film still worked for me and it is an impacting story even if Oliver Stone is not the person I would have chosen to tell the story  a very good director but 'non-partisan' is not a term that could ever be laid at his feet and at points this film gets a little sermonising as a result.A big factor in this film working is a superb performance by Cruise who was still, at this point, a clean cut poster boy and not the one I would have imagined taking this role!
Indeed, so impressive is Oliver Stone as a showman that it is all too easy to overlook that many of the stories he tells range from the mediocre to (in this case) the horrid.Tom Cruise plays the famous Vietnam War-era Marine Ron Kovic; the man himself appears in a small role in the film.
A country divided and a young mind changed forever in it's on going struggle to understand the insanity and horror of war.Tom Cruise gives the performance of his career as Ron kovic going from shy, high school all American kid to wheelchair bound Vietnam veteran.
Sadly, like Moore, Stone has the power and finances to inflict all his prejudices on the public in the form of movies.....and people what they see on screen.For every "Ron Kovic," the main subject of the film and a real-life guy who turned out to be a very bitter ex-soldier, there are thousands of military heroes who are proud to have represented the U.S.A. in Southeast Asia and have no regrets for doing so, but filmmakers like Stone will never do stories about them.
The movie's slow, there are grotesque scenes, violence, profanities, etc.This film tells the true story of Ron Kovic, a Vietnam-war veteran's tortuous life after the war, and what we see here is basically the aftermath of how the Vietnam War has transformed him(mentally, physically, emotionally), shaped his attitudes of war, affected his self-esteem, and so on.
But Born on the Fourth of July is THE kind of film that had to be made for the story had to be told - what the Vietnam War did to people, in this case the main protagonist, Ron Kovic, was devastating.
God will judge him and even be appreciative for what he has done for the others.National pride can have effective results but is ultimately evil because by believing in that you automatically create another adversary, that "You are not one of us".So many people get naturalised into citizens of countries where they are not originally from, in the twenty first century romantic patroiticism must be considered evil and imposes an adverse effect in evolutionary process as a whole.Tom Cruise's delivers one of the greatest performances of his life, well at least that's before he'd gone nuts.I also like Willem Dafoe's performance as a paralysed vet, he is one of the gifted actors of our generation.In short if you join a war to kill other human beings there is just likely possibility that you will get killed too.
Oliver Stone - who appears briefly as a TV interviewer - had already focused on the Vietnam War with "Platoon", but he did an even better job with "Born on the Fourth of July".
Telling the story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), an all-American boy turned anti-war activist, Stone brings political issues to the screen once again.
Cruise's performance is one of his finest (and he was nominated for Best Actor in 1989), but both he and Stone try too hard  they take a good story and turn it into an overwhelming anti-war propaganda piece.
And in BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, he gives us another man's view of the war, like Stone a soldier who had become disenfranchised by the war.The man at the center of this true-life story is Ron Kovic, a Marine who believed in the myths of American might, the honor of serving one's country, John Wayne, and the threat that communism posed.
Once a love-it-or-leave-it patriot, Kovic came to realize he could be a force for Good by protesting what the Vietnam war had done, not only to his fellow servicemen but to America.This is what is at the heart of BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, and Stone (with help from Kovic, who collaborated with the director on the screenplay, which was based on his 1976 memoir) brings all the memories back of those traumatic years in American history.
Continuing my plan to watch every Tom Cruise movie in order, I come to Born On The 4th Of July (1988)Plot In A Paragraph: The biography of Ron Kovic (Crusie) Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.Anyone who thought Cruise was just a pretty boy, who could not act, were proved wrong with this powerful movie.
Tom Cruise gives a great performance as Ron Kovic, a veteran who virtually lost everything, including his legs, fighting in Vietnam.
The second of Oliver Stone's three films on the subject of Vietnam, this one stars Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic, a wounded war vet who comes home to discover the grateful reception he expected isn't waiting for him.
According to the special edition DVD sleeve: "Tom Cruise delivers a riveting and unforgettable portrayal of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning (for direction and editing) masterpiece.
Of the many powerful scenes, the one with Kovic finally confessing to an incident of "friendly fire" may be the film's greatest moment; although it didn't happen in real life; it perfectly illustrates the film's overriding thesis: "The Truth Shall Make You Free." ********* Born on the Fourth of July (12/20/89) Oliver Stone ~ Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe, Kyra Sedgwick, Raymond J.
Ron Kovic himself served his country well while he was in the Marines; he earned several medals and commendations for his bravery and loyalty (including the Bronze Star Medal for valor, Navy Commendation Medal, and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry), and I feel great pity for him for having endorsed a blatant anti-war propaganda movie like this.
Oliver Stone's Born on the fourth of July stars Tom Cruise as Ron who dreams of serving in the military.
Tom Cruise is in his A game (especially break down sequence where he confesses his sins) and doing some of his career's best work despite of not getting the essential support from the cast except for Willem Dafoe who helps him survive a mid-act sequence.Born On The Fourth Of July is resurrected on incarcerating, both the good and bad deeds, whose unexpected influence led humankind to its doom..
"Born on the Fourth of July," Oliver Stone's return to the subject of the Vietnam War, one he knows intimately, shows a different side of the war's impact than "Platoon" and frames it powerfully in the course of American history.
Rather than craft a heavily editorialized anti-war message as he's been wont to do, Stone focuses on a real-life protagonist whose story says it all, veteran Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise).The journey of this movie is Kovic's transformation from all- American, patriotic, devoted Christian marine volunteer to a vocal, unapologetic Vietnam War detractor, and all the bumps and bruises (inside and out) he endured along the way.
Stone drops in a few characters singing Bob Dylan songs in quiet moments, for example, to convey the cultural shift that took place in America following the Kennedy assassination and into the Vietnam War and subsequent (and consequent) counterculture and protest movements and race riots.Being able to observe this dramatic swing in American human history that Kovic's story captures so well has a nostalgic resonance, but "Born on the Fourth" doesn't feel as personally moving.
We follow one solider (Tom Cruise) named Ron Kovic, paralyzed in the Vietnam war who is strongly anti-war and pro-human rights after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
Tom Cruise did an extraordinary job as Ron Kovic, as did Willem Defoe as Charlie, and Stone's directing tricks were masterful, but the film lacked the edge of Stone's other movies like Platoon and Talk Radio.>My only real problem with this was the middle stretch, because to me it kind of dragged on for a while, but the Vietnam scenes were powerful and haunting, but when Ron came back home the film just sort of stood still for half an hour, but other than that, it was a good movie.
Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise form a creative triumvirate (as story source, director, and lead actor, respectively) in this moving Vietnam War saga.
Born on the fourth of July is not a happy trip, but by the end of the film you are not depressed, you are left wondering and bewildered at the experience of one man, Ron Kovic (who co-wrote the script), and the pain, suffering and re-building which his life had to endure.
Second, this movie is probably the best thing Oliver Stone ever directed along with the amazing collaboration of Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic and super star Tom Cruise.
One also wonders what Hemingway might have thought of Kovic's experience against his character Barnes.Oliver Stone got a Best Director Oscar for Born On The Fourth Of July and the film also got an Oscar for Editing.
The movie is based on the real-life story of Ron Kovic (played by Tom Cruise), a decorated Marine who was in his second tour of duty in Vietnam when he was critically injured.
Born On The Fourth Of July is the second of three films Oliver Stone did on Vietnam.I have seen Platoon but not Heaven and Earth.
While Platoon deals with the actual war this film deals with the aftermath.The main character Ron Kovic is an idealistic young American in the early 60's who goes to fight for his country in Vietnam and comes home in a wheelchair paralyzed from the waist down.The rest of the film deals with how he goes from bitter drunk to a anti-war protester.As with all Oliver stone films I have seen that deal with politics this movie leans to the left,albeit not as heavy as Nixon.If you can deal with the slightly bent take on facts and who is to blame for the war this film is a powerful addition to the canon of films that try to show the horrors of war both during and after.Tom Cruise is absolutely brilliant in this film and carries this film very well.He should have won a Best Actor award for this filmThis film works great as a double feature with Platoon to give you a deeper understanding of Vietnam.In summary I felt that this film while not the best anti-war film I have seen,that goes to Grave Of The Fireflies,it is worth watching if you are interested in the effect war has on people and how life changes completely after for everyone involved..
All in all this is a very powerful war movie with an excellent Tom Cruise and some very fine directing from Oliver Stone.
Born On The Fourth Of July (1989) is more or less the biography of Ron Kovic, a Vietnam vet who eventually becomes anti-war after feeling abandoned and forgotten by the country he fought for.The film moves along well enough, and despite the wonderful portrayal of Kovic by Tom Cruise, I did not find myself entirely drawn into the story.
Tom Cruise stars in this true story as Ron Kovic, an idealistic young man whose life is transformed when he is paralysed while fighting in Vietnam.In many ways this is a very good film, which shows how circumstances can cause someone to change from being an idealistic young man eager to do their duty, into a bitter person who believes there is nothing left to live for.
Tom Cruise, in his best acting job yet, plays Ron Kovic, a young man who enters Vietnam with more American spirit than you could ask for, but discovers the horror behind the patriotism.
Born On The Fourth of July starts out with a young Ron Kovic being very positive about war, doing the right thing, and believing in his country.
He realizes all the things he's lost because he tried to be a hero, and all the emotional torment he gained because of innocent people he killed.Born On The Fourth of July can be viewed as an anti-war film, but it's mostly about Ron Kovic's struggles dealing with a country that lied to him, being in a wheelchair, having his voice heard, and being redeemed.This is easily Tom Cruise's best performance yet and one of the best movies dealing with the aftermath of the Vietnam war.
Amazing direction (Oliver Stone), amazing acting (Tom Cruise, et al.), and amazing story (Ron Kovic and the United States military during the Viet Nam war).
My Age: 13Based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic, this film tells the story of his life from when he was a boy to when he becomes a political anti-war activist.
Ron Kovic, played by Tom Cruise, decides to join the Marines and fight for America in the Vietnam War.
Born On The Fourth Of July is the story of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic and spans three decades(50's, 60's and 70's).
Born On The Fourth Of July has one of Tom Cruise's finest performances and Oliver Stone won his second Oscar for best director.