Born on the Fourth of July
Usually on Thursdays, we release a review for our On-This-Day Thursday series. July 4th falls on a Saturday this year. We’re going to bend the rules a little bit by reviewing Born on the Fourth of July today (which also wasn’t released on July 4th). Future On-This-Day Thursdays that fall near July 4th will contain July 4th weekend releases.
Oliver Stone began to substitute movie magic with a synthetic heartbeat and various levels of sensationalism at some point. It was before 1989, considering he helped make Scarface what it is (I’m not a fan, if you couldn’t tell). Yet, this is the same filmmaker of Platoon: one of the great war films. I don’t want to say Born on the Fourth of July was the start of this turning point either, because it felt like the one time he figured out the passion of a film without going overboard. Well, Born on the Fourth of July kind of comes close. After Platoon’s Oscar success three years prior, it was as if Stone wanted to strike gold again. He technically did, by winning his second Best Director award for this very film. However, July as a whole didn’t do quite as well, despite Stone and company’s best efforts (then again, I still have no idea how Driving Miss Daisy beat anything, and if Bruce Beresford was nominated, maybe Stone would have lost here too due to the same mysterious force).
Based on the memoirs of Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, July stars Tom Cruise at possibly his very best (unless we put Magnolia into the equation) as Kovic pre and post Vietnam. Kovic is permanently in a wheelchair now, and has been ever since the war. His story isn’t as simple as saying he got hurt during the war and that’s that. Much of his story has to do with the dark side of war that Stone felt wasn’t getting brought up enough at the time: particularly the lack of resources on site, and the difficulty of medical staff being able to support all patients when they themselves are limited in number and necessities. All of this and more leads to the second portion of the film, containing Kovic’s readjustment to life a changed man. War was not at all what he expected. Not even close.
Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic.
Thanks to Cruise’s sensational performance (every second of his magnetism and hyper realism gets picked up), Born on the Fourth of July fully captures Kovic’s struggles and triumphs. Robert Richardson’s terrific use of red, white and blue (at different points of the film) captures the ambiguity of patriotism during war time, as well as dividing up the film nicely by aesthetic means. Here begins the strong sentimentality that Stone would later become known for (his “edge” came long before this film), but it balances nicely enough with the heavier moments as to not burden the film. It’s a middle ground Stone would often not capture ever again. Born on the Fourth of July is a solid enough anti-war film to continue being effective, even if it is no longer one of the primary films to be brought up during such a discussion. At least give it a shot for a reminder of how incredible Tom Cruise was in his prime.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.