No other single person has helped frame Hollywood’s depiction of Vietnam War as Ron Kovic did. In 1978 his life story served as inspiration for the fictional protagonist of Coming Home, providing Jon Voight with Oscar for Best Actor. A decade later, Kovic became subject of conventional biopic Born on Fourth of July, written and directed by Oliver Stone, a film that would, just like the previous one, become one of the best known depictions of Vietnam War.
The film is based on the Kovic’s eponymous autobiographical book and in the film his character is played by Tom Cruise. The plot begins in small town where Ron Kovic grows up in working class Catholic family and adopts its values of patriotism and self-sacrifice. While still a teenager, he decides to join US Marines immediately after finishing high school. Earning the rank of Sergeant, he volunteers to fight in Vietnam War, but there finds that the conflict very different from what he imagined and the series of incidents would leave him confused and traumatised. First his unit gets involved in massacre of innocent civilians, then he accidentally kills his own soldier during the firefight, and, finally he gets wounded. In the hospital where he recovers, he is told that he would remain paralysed from the waist down. Kovic nevertheless remains optimistic, despite experiencing horrible neglect in understaffed and underbudgeted Veterans Administration hospital. When he returns home, he receives hero’s welcome but gets increasingly baffled by the American public turning against the war. This gradually leads him to question his beliefs and start drinking, which would result in break with his family. Like so many confused veterans, he tries to find solace in drugs, drinks and prostitutes, but after spending time with fellow veterans in Mexico, he decides to turn his life around and become passionate anti-war activist.
Born on the Fourth of July is often considered the second part of Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy (with first being Platoon and third Heaven & Earth). Stone actually wanted to make the film a decade earlier, and it was only thanks to the “Oscar” triumph with Platoon that production became possible. Stone was attracted to the story because he, like Kovic, was Vietnam War veteran and, like Kovic, went through transformation from enthusiastic war supporter to ardent war critic. Despite similarities with general theme, Born on the Fourth of July is very different film from Platoon. It is more personal story that also covers more ground and has plot ranging through decades, with actual war being depicted in short segment. The epic scope allowed Stone to divide film in various segments which would apply different style, in many ways helped by cinematography of Robert Richardson. First part, that shows Kovic’s early years invokes Boomer nostalgia; second part, that takes place in Vietnam, is made to look confusing; the third part, which shows Kovic’s recovery and epiphany is shot in elegiac tones. Stone tries to create same effect with the use of 1960s pop and rock songs, but that effect is at times unfortunate, but, impression is saved by incredibly powerful score by John Williams.
The biggest asset of the film is, however, Tom Cruise. Although he had some serious dramatic roles before, he was still considered young and many saw his career only through framework of commercial cinema. The most successful of such roles was in Top Gun, celebration of American gung-ho militarism and other values that had led Kovic to go and fight in Southeast Asia. Ironically, his role in Born on the Fourth of July represented anti-thesis of Top Gun. Cruise has worked very hard in it, trying his best to convincingly play both idealistic teenager and broken cripple. His effort, which almost made him temporarily paralysed for the sake of authentic display of Kovic’s affliction, paid off and this is one of the best roles in Cruise’s career, after which he disarmed the last sceptics and established himself as truly great actor and not just pretty-looking Hollywood star. Cruise’s efforts are helped by small army of capable character actors which include Raymond J. Barry and Caroline Kava as his parents, as well as part of Platoon cast (Tom Berenger, John C. McGinley and Willem Dafoe) in small cameo roles.
Stone directs film with great flair, unimpeded with relatively low budget and using every opportunity to give each scene epic “larger-than-life” feel. The result is very passionate and memorable, but also an imperfect film. The most problems appear near the end when the transformation from Kovic as pathetic wreck into charismatic leader of anti-war movement appears too quickly. The final scene, in which Kovic delivers address at 1976 Democratic National Convention, is actually anti-climactic and appears as forced attempt to give some sort of closure and happy end to otherwise sad story. Although it had big success at box office, rave reviews and couple of prestigious awards, Born of the Fourth July had misfortune of being made at the worst possible time – shortly after collapse of Berlin Wall and US victory in Cold War, as well as during US invasion of Panama, the first in the series of short, simple and victorious military campaigns that would give PG-13 rating to Americans’ view of war and create perception that Vietnam debacle was exception rather than the rule. As Vietnam War faded from memory and people like Ron Kovic became less relevant, path towards misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan was being paved. It remains to be seen whether those events would receive their versions of Born on the Fourth of July.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/2604-born-on-the-fourth-of-july Critic: AA
