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A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Born On The Fourth Of JulyStarring : Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava and Willem Dafoe Screenwriter : Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone Director : Oliver Stone3 and a half out of 5Born On The Fourth Of July is a character driven feature whose protagonist goes through a challenging emotional phase in his life after encountering some inedible and gut-wrenching truth back at the war. Such war based features often follow a rudimentary process that undermines the creativity or the originality of the material, but in here, it stands along on its format, as each single lose thread of the feature is reconnected or used up again wisely by the makers attaining the perfect balance of the drama of the characters and the brutality of the practicality projected in here. The camera work is plausible even though it could have been shot with more appetizing or at least attention seeking work, and it may be short on background score, sound effects and art design but is perfectly edited.Oliver Stone; the screenwriter-director, keeps the audience engaged through its brilliant execution skill and his manipulative dramatic shots that easily breaks down into tears. 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.

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.

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.

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!