Placed in the rightful hand for direction, Oliver Stone had experienced it all. In the Vietnam War, Stone was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star so therefore no one else was qualified to direct this film that pretty much sums up the nightmare he had endured and the reception he got afterward. "Born on the Forth of July" is the true story centering on Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise) who was bitten by the military bug after President John F. Kennedy's speech which inspired him to join the Marines. After all the propaganda hype got to his head, he decided to arbitrarily volunteer after high school.During his second voyage he accidentally annihilates innocent Vietnamese peasants and people of his own brigade while trying to escape the potential fatality of enemy cease fire. Three months into this, Kovic gets shot in the spine and has left him paralyzed from the waist down. He makes his residency in veteran's hospitals and almost gets his leg amputated, but he returns home to his parents.Back home he gets the displeasure reuniting with an old school peer named Steve (Jerry Levine) who's made a great business for himself and had better common sense than to volunteer in the Vietnam War. Kovic is labeled as a hero at a July 4th parade, but has a meltdown unable to cope with the fact that he caused just as much heartbreak as he did triumphed during his journey. He tries to win back his love for his girlfriend Donna (Kyra Sedgwick) who has become an anti-war supporter.Kovic is granted a monthly pension from the government, but he uses his restitution in favour for the sauce as he laments into a chronic state of self-pity distancing himself from his parents who evict him from their home as he travels to Mexico where he's retreated to a haven of other wounded soldiers including an argumentative Charlie (Willem Dafoe). There he starts drinking and hitting it off with hookers.Fortunately, Kovic has a change of plans and comes back home. He comes to terms with the family of the soldier he killed including his widow (Lili Taylor) and becomes an antiwar advocate as interrupts the Republican Presidential convention led by President Richard Nixon which resulted in him being assaulted and rescued. In 1976 at the Democratic convention in New York City announcing the release of his autobiography.After the success of his other films like "Risky Business" and "Rain Man", I though this was going to be chance for Cruise to shine come Oscar time. Sadly he lost out to Daniel Day-Lewis who played another crippled iconic. He dis win the Golden Globes for his performance and did get an ovation when Stone won for Best Director.The movie itself was a box office success considering that an accomplishment being that was made under a small budget. The fan base at the time on imdb.com rated this film a passing grade of 7.2 out of 10 considering the viewership of under 60 K. The main gender age demographics were males around the ages of 18 or under gave the bulk of the appraisal at 7.9 out of 10 I'm guessing these youngsters can feel related to the leading character as he's going through high levels of personal issues and that the attraction can reflect on the youth more easier. For the men over 45 years old, they rated this film at its lowest score of 6.9 out of 10. This is largely due the fact that the star of the film was not closer in connecting with the younger star at the time or that their views were not lenient towards Kovic's antiwar beliefs or the lack of patriotism depicted in this movie.In spite of all the fan support it has received over the years, there are a few flaws that came with the movie, though it didn't deter any of my expectations. Just some minor nitpicks They covered way too much ground making too much out of scenes that weren't in sync with the story. Who cares about Kovic and his failed efforts to win the wrestling title or to crash his school prom in a dramatic rain run. The Vietnam village annihilation was covered in many films before.But Stone and Cruise will go out of their way to leave nothing out in their storytelling even if pisses the life out of you. The intense moments they bring will be there to get a reaction and they really deliver the goods. Especially when Kovic's yelling at his own mother while drunk.Overall this movie is highly recommended with great performances and well deserved of his accolades and awards by the mass. It has an appeal and a btter connection towards its younger audience as it understands Cruise's character better. The older audience members may not sit well with his character or the antiwar statement it's given here. Sure it goes on for too long with scenes that don't fit the story but it thankfully doesn't meander. If you are into war dramas , then this film is a good watch that might touch on you.

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. He was rightly nominated for an Oscar, and I don't think there will have been too many complaining had he won. He really showcased his acting chops here. The movie was nominated for 8 Oscars winning 2. Best Film Editing and Best Director for Oliver Stone. I can see why this powerful movie is not to everyone's taste. It certainly isn't one I watch a lot, but that doesn't mean it is not a brilliant piece of movie-making. This is the first serious drama Cruise has not had a more famous co lead, and he does not disappoint. If anyone has not seen this movie I urge you to check it out!! The battle scenes are exactly how I imagine the confusion of gunfight in a war zone to be and the scenes in the hospital are brutally honest in their horror. It could have been easy for Cruise to fall into a number of traps with this performance and he doesn't!! Similar with Stone, his direction could have wondered into other directions, but it doesn't!! It sticks true to the heart of its story!! As painful as it is. It's interesting that the movie poster has a youthful Cruise on it, as it's not how he looks for the majority of the movie. Born On The Fourth Of July grossed $70 million at the domestic box office, to end the year the 17th highest grossing movie of 1989.

Is there any just war? A question that can be present in this movie. A war fought 20,000 kms away from one's country might be patriotic? A war fought only for political, economic or ideological reasons can be just? An American young man is deeply patriotic and imbued with all the conventional values concerning war, joins voluntarily the Marine Force and goes to Vietnam as a sergeant. After being wounded in combat he becomes quadriplegic and returns home on a wheelchair after having spent some time in a hospital for veterans where conditions are appallingly bad even with rats running freely around. Anyway he is still defending those patriotic conventional values for what he thinks he had fought in war. However after meeting a girl whom he knew in their youth and whom he loved and seeing her being a member of an activist group against American fighting in Vietnam and seeing the police charging them violently he begins to take conscience of the real injustice of that war. After several vicissitudes of moral degradation that include a familiar conflict at home, alcoholism and an exile to a home for veterans in Mexico by a village where there is an atmosphere of alcohol, gambling and prostitution, he abandons all this and returns to USA where he joins the activist movement against war and publishes a book with his autobiography. Everything is narrated with great image and dialogue realism. The only flaw in my opinion is the not so good performance of Tom Cruise whom I never considered a very good actor and seems not very authentic, abusing some times of histrionic hysterism. Anyway a movie that can be considered a strong libel not only against the Vietnam war but against all wars.

Oliver Stone followed up his Oscar winning epic, "Platoon", with this gripping tale based on a true story about a Vietnam veteran and his struggle to return to a normal life following his time in Vietnam.Based on Ron Kovic's memoir of the same name, the film follows the initially idealistic Kovic as he goes off to war a naive and determined young solider who is injured in the line of duty and becomes a paraplegic. When Ron returns home, the brave young man is soon ridiculed and spat on by the local population for daring to serve in a war that the United States had grown to despise as so many young soldiers lost their lives and unrest grows with war protesters and local law enforcement butting heads in a divided country.Playing the real-life figure of Ron Kovic is a beyond phenomenal Tom Cruise. Fresh off successes like "Top Gun" and "The Color of Money", the normally pretty boy actor took on the difficult role of a man who must grow from a naive youth to a disillusioned veteran who has become disheartened by his paraplegic status and how the Vietnam War has torn apart the country he had fought so hard to protect. Cruise is never afraid to portray the pain of Kovic after he is injured in a firefight of bullets and left paralyzed from the waist down or when Kovic's mother (Caroline Kava) starts trying to spout religion in the disillusioned Ron's face upon his return. The actor displays an anguish that just tears at the heart as Ron realizes how altered his life will becomes after he learns he can't ever walk again or do other functions without assistance which only increase the depression the young man feels as he must try to move on. Cruise displays believable chemistry with actress Kyra Sedgwick who plays Ron's old flame, Donna, who is against the war from the start and tries to convince Ron to stay away and when Ron returns, Donna recruits Ron to join the anti-war movement in New York. The other most notable co-star chemistry between Cruise and another actor besides Sedgwick is when Kovic spends time in Villa Duce where he meets fellow paraplegic, Charlie played by "Platoon" veteran Willem Dafoe. At first both Ron and Charlie are so similar due to both their disabilities and service for their country, but as time wears on and Ron's anger about his treatment due to his service grows he and Charlie start to become polar opposite personalities; Charlie being content to accept what has happened in contrast to Ron's disillusionment. When it comes to a scuffle between the actors, the tension is palpable as contrasting ideals battle for the win, ending up with Dafoe's Charlie being unseated and defeated while Cruise's Kovic ends back to civilization. Personally approved of by the film's subject himself, Ron Kovic (who rewarded star Tom Cruise with his (Kovic's) Bronze Star), the film never loses its serious tone despite some lighthearted early scenes and some humor thrown in while Ron is in Villa Duce. Director Oliver Stone, being a Vietnam veteran himself, shows sympathy for his subject's plight but portrays Kovic as a flawed human being who makes an error in judgment and deal with the consequences while trying to improve himself. Ron ultimately achieves a form of redemption when he becomes (and remains so) an anti-war activist, standing up for what he now believes is right for America. A worthy follow-up in Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy, this film is worth the time