The first movie I saw that stars Tom Cruise is A Few Good Men. I hated that movie, and I think Tom Cruise is terrible in it. The major reason for me to hate that film is the blatantly simple thematic message of patriotism, and I thought Tom Cruise was bad because his character was just an archetype already used in thousands of other pictures and books before. The things I hate about A Few Good Men made me nervous in the first twenty minutes of Born On the Fourth of July, because it seems that this is another one of those movies that boast about the American patriotism simple-mindedly, with a most ordinary lead character giving out okay performance. Thank god the movie proved me wrong. Tom Cruise is amazing in this movie. It takes about five minutes to know if someone is talented in acting, and Tom Cruise has about ten of those five minutes in the movie. I don't know any other character's name, but most are pretty good. Another thing about the characters is that this is a very character-driven story, which makes every other character apart from Tom Cruise having only a minor role. This might be the reason for people to think the movie is not very fleshed out, because not even one character stays to the end: his first love leaves him, his fellow soldiers either die or go missing, his friends only appear from scene to scene, and his parents disappear towards the end. However, all the characters have clear motivations, and their appearance always helps convey the thematic message. The camera work is astonishing. The film plays with the lighting very well, to the point of exemplary. Also the director loves to use hand-held extreme close-up, and most of them are very well-handled. I would say one or two scenes do not work. The ending is obviously rushed, but it does not ruin the movie. Overall I would have one point off for the problems, and I definitely recommend it as a war/identity/patriotism genre movie.

The biography of Ron Kovic. 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. Born on the 4th of July is kinda a very hard movie to sit threw not because it's bad or anything it's a great film it's just hard to sit threw the whole damn thing watching Ron Kovic (Cruise) paralyzed in a wheel chair with some people making fun of him without respecting him and what he sacrificed for his country and Tom Cruise gives an amazing performance and as the years go by you feel more for this guy and watching him like this is very sad and although the whole cast is good i think Oliver Stone did the best job with Tom Cruise mostly and if you like him as an actor and like this kind of movies you will not be disappointed.

Exactly 25 years ago today, I went to my normal, daily summer routine of watching everything and anything in the theatres. Mostly dollar cinemas – yeah, when they actually were a dollar, since I never had any real funds. Luckily, this movie was still playing and I thought so appropriate that I would see this on the Fourth of July. But, unluckily, the film broke half-way through the feature and we were all given free passes to return. I never did. Well, at least to this movie.Not that I didn't like it. I was actually getting into it. But, I had other movies to watch. Then, it obviously came to home video, but I never got around to it. Coincidentally, I chose the quarter of a century anniversary for me to finally return to it and finish it once and for all.I'm glad I did. It was an extremely well-made movie and far ahead of its time with its dealing with PTSD and a country divided. Yeah, this dealt with the Vietnam War, but, it fits events today as well. Cruise, who oddly enough was ALMOST born on the Fourth of July (7/3/62,) was excellent and it was heartbreaking what happened to the real-life character he played. Sadly, America's head got way too big from the WWs, and even though Korea was a bust, there was still enough patriotism to fool more men to go fight a no-win war. Thankfully, there were protesters, or people who stood up and questioned what was force-fed us.I'm getting a little political here, or, more accurately, anti- political, but that's this movie. I just happen to agree with it. Miserably, a lot of the same politics play today with more brainwashing and mercifully, there are still people who will stand up against the fear mongers. I digress. Very good movie and you shouldn't wait 25 years to see this. See it now.

This movie left me shaken and choked up! It pays homage to The Best Years of Our Lives and perhaps some other films about vets returning home. But specifically Best Years, I think, with the shot of Ron Kovic after he has become paralyzed and finally returns to his parents' house staring at his high school wrestling picture in his old room. Harold Russell in Best Years does the exact same thing becoming lost in the old picture from his high school athletics career when he felt he was a whole person. Both of these movies deal with men who have lost some part of themselves and have to discover how to gain strength and courage and acceptance to be a whole man again. By exploring Ron's youth, Born on the Fourth of July shows that the story is really about pressure and failure and confusion and how we deal with those things. This is an epic story with a tremendous supporting cast. It's about a boy who becomes a soldier, a soldier who becomes paralyzed, a paraplegic who becomes an outcast all the while searching for his humanity!! Sometimes it takes an outcast to speak the truth, someone who has been paralyzed to really stand for something, a soldier to fight for life, and of course it's the natural progression of things for a boy to triumphantly become a man!