Review of Born on the Fourth of July (1989) by Tomasan — 07 May 2010

I am sitting on the fence with this movie. I picked it up because I had never seen it before, and I tend to enjoy most of Cruise and Stone's stuff, but I feel like I was let down just a tad. I have half a mind to go kill the asshole below me that stated: "It's far superior to Platoon.

" Gimme a break! It might be more realistic than Platoon, but both movies imply just one main, solid notion...That the Vietnam War was a huge, confusing, fucked-up mess! Charlie Sheen and Tom Cruise's characters both end up understanding that the war was pointless! Neither is superior you dumb fuck! Anyways, Tom Cruises acting was magnificent, but it was also very annoying! I understand that it was based on a true story, but movie makers have got to think: Will an audience sit there and watch this snivelling, crying, disabled bastard for almost 3 hours!! Come on! You need a strong main character, even if it bends the truth a little bit.

I understand that Ron Kovic went through a lot, but how can you really feel for him that much when he was soooo gung-ho about going into the war and loving his country and all that. He even went as far as to tell other people that they were wrong for not going over there to fight.

..Then look what happens to him! Overall the movie should be a lesson to think things through for yourself. To better your life, or make things better, you have to put yourself first, not your country! Kovic didn't even know why he wanted to defend his country so bad, so he blindly went over there and got disabled.

.End of story. The movie unfolds a lot like Forrest Gump as the 50's move into the 60's and so forth. Now, If you want to watch a movie that is FAR SUPERIOR to 'Born on the Fourth of July' Simply watch a movie that won MORE academy awards than 'Born on the Fourth of July': FORREST FUCKING GUMP man! Hell, I wont even compare this movie to Apocalypse Now! Overall 'Born on the 4th' is a good movie, but not great.

All of the acting was genuine, and I really liked Willem Dafoe's character, he was funny as hell. As for Vietnam, this movie is more based on the political side of things in the United States (peace rally's, flag burnings, anti-war etc.

.) If you want to get thrown into the scorching jungle of Nam, knee deep in all of the blood and guts of the war, watch Platoon or Apocalypse Now, nuff said. 3-starz.