Born on the Fourth of July

**Born on the Fourth of July** is a 1989 film starring Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick, Raymond J. Barry, Jerry Levine, Frank Whaley and Willem Dafoe, directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stone and Ron Kovic and produced by A. Kitman Ho and Stone.

## Plot

The film opens in 1956 Massapequa, New York, with a 10-year-old Ron Kovic playing with his friends in a forest. On his Fourth of July birthday, he attends an Independence Day parade with his family and best friend Donna. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy's televised inaugural address inspires a teenage Ron to join the United States Marine Corps. After attending an impassioned lecture by two Marine recruiters visiting his high school, he enlists. His decision receives support from his mother, but upsets his father, a World War II veteran. Ron goes to his prom, and dances with Donna before leaving for basic training.

In October 1967, Ron is now a Marine sergeant on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam, during his second tour of duty. He and his unit kill a number of Vietnamese villagers after mistaking them for enemy combatants. After encountering enemy fire, they flee the village and abandon its sole survivor, a crying baby. During the retreat, Ron accidentally kills Wilson, a young private in his platoon. He reports the action to his superior, who ignores the claim and advises him not to say anything else. In January 1968, Ron is critically wounded during a firefight, but is rescued by a fellow Marine. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down, he spends several months in recovery at the Bronx Veterans Hospital in New York. The hospital's conditions are poor; the doctors and nurses ignore patients, abuse drugs, and operate using old equipment. Against his doctors' requests, Ron desperately tries to walk again with the use of braces and crutches, only to damage his legs and confine himself permanently to a wheelchair.

In 1969, Ron returns home and turns to alcohol after feeling increasingly neglected and disillusioned. During an Independence Day parade, Ron is asked to give a speech, but is unable to finish after he hears a crying baby in the crowd and has a flashback to Vietnam. Ron visits Donna in Syracuse, New York, where the two reminisce. While attending a vigil for the victims of the Kent State shootings, they are separated when Donna and other protestors are taken away by police for demonstrating against the Vietnam War.

In Massapequa, a drunken Ron has a heated argument with his mother, and his father decides to send him to Villa Duce (Village of the Sun), a Mexican haven for wounded Vietnam veterans. He has his first sexual encounter with a prostitute, whom he falls for until he sees her with another customer. Ron befriends Charlie, another paraplegic, and the two decide to travel to another village after getting kicked out of a bar. After annoying their taxicab driver, they are stranded on the side of the road and argue with each other. They are picked up by a truck driver who takes them back to Villa Duce.

Ron travels to Armstrong, Texas, where he discovers Wilson's tombstone. He then visits the fallen soldier's family in Georgia to confess his guilt. Wilson's widow Jamie expresses that she is unable to forgive Ron, while his parents are more sympathetic. In 1972, Ron joins the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and travels to the Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida. As Richard Nixon is giving an acceptance speech for his presidential nomination, Ron expresses to a news reporter his hatred for the war and the government for abandoning the American people. His comments enrage Nixon supporters, and his interview is cut short when police attempt to remove and arrest him and other protestors. Ron and the veterans manage to break free from the officers, regroup, and charge the hall again, though not successfully. In 1976, Ron delivers a public address at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, following the publication of his autobiography.