Born on the Fourth of July ***** (1989, Tom Cruise, Raymond J Barry, Caroline Kava) – Classic Movie Review 2063

Director Oliver Stone’s double Oscar-winning 1989 anti-war movie provides Tom Cruise with indisputably one of his best-ever roles as all-American boy Ron Kovic who was paralysed in the Vietnam War and returns to America to find his family and friends have turned their backs on the war. Now an embittered paraplegic, he gradually accepts his nation has no place for him, feeling betrayed by the country he fought for. So he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist and ends up as leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War lobby.

Stone won the Oscar for Best Director, memorably directing battle, hospital and protest scenes with gut-churning authenticity, and his screenplay, written with Kovic, is extraordinarily persuasive and powerful, and certainly up to the big subject it’s tackling. Cruise throws everything he’s got into the real-life role, and comes up with one of his finest performances, which was rewarded with a Best Actor Oscar nomination. It’s probably the nearest he’s come to an Oscar, with two other nominations, as Best Actor for Jerry Maguire (1996) and Best Supporting Actor for Magnolia (1999). The Oscar frustratingly still eludes him and Magnolia is a long time ago now.

Born on the Fourth of July is a mighty intelligent, important film that arguably only stops short of greatness because of the odd moments when Cruise and Stone look as though they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.

This movie’s second Oscar was for Best Film Editing (David Brenner, Joe Hutshing).

This was Stone’s third (and in 2015 most recent) Oscar, after the Oscar for Best Director for Platoon (1986) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978).

Raymond J Barry and Caroline Kava play Mr and Mrs Kovic. Also in the cast are Bryan Larkin, Josh Evans, Seth Allan, Jamie Talisman, Sean Stone, Anne Bobby, Jenna von Oy, Willem Dafoe, Kyra Sedgwick, Jerry Levine, Frank Whaley and Tom Berenger.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2063

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