Review of Born on the Fourth of July (1989) by Chris C — 16 Jun 2012

Born on the Fourth of July, Great Movies.

Is this a movie that I'd just watched? Wow, I'm really impressed from everything that I've seen, from start to end, in the viewpoint of one man's struggle for rights and patriotism, and that is Ron Kovic (played exceptionally by Tom Cruise), he is I think one of the most courageous and honest man I've ever known, not in films, but in the real world, dead or alive. Again, Oliver Stone made this film, so what could I expect, it won an academy award for best directing, so everything that you're gonna see in this picture is very magnificent. Stone makes films that are so incredibly remarkable and stands on it's own hands, unlike his other films nowadays, they're non-sense or out of this world story. Think about this one, think about the Vietnam war as the Iraq war today, is it similar, well if yes, then this film true and brutal and honest about it's message. And to Mr. Kovic, as he said, Americans don't care about the war or to the war, well he thinks his fellow citizens doesn't care about burning the US flag, killing innocent people in Vietnam, and being a communist. Those things made me look back to some great war stories I've seen, and believe me, no matter how great they were, this movie, yes this movie, is far by the most enthusiastic storytelling about why those men are serving their country and why do they go to this non-sense war if only innocent people are being killed. And also we get to see that Mr. Kovic regrets everything, he's paralyzed and nobody cares about him. So, now is it making sense now? If not, then let's go what this film has a lot.

Again, Cruise's performance here is I think his very best of all that he's ever done for 22 years and he's never been a bad actor here, so does the directing of Oliver Stone is smart. And whatever war movie I'm gonna see in the next days, this would be a reminder first, and then start to think, what's the point of this war movie, why those soldiers have to kill, and why do they want to serve their country. This is one of the best films I've ever seen, and also Cruise's best.

And again lastly, to Mr. Anthony Lawrie, you quite misunderstood this movie, this is a very very very great movie, 4.5 stars, WRONG! this deserves 5 or more stars. And yet to also dislike some other great war films like Saving Private Ryan, how dare you?