What was the movie Born on the 4th of July about?

Synopsis

A story of innocence lost and courage found

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

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Alternative Titles

Born On The 4th Of July, Geboren am 4. Juli, Né un quatre juillet, Született július negyedikén, Nascut pe patru iulie, Född den 4 juli, Nato il 4 luglio, Urodzony 4 Lipca

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War and historical adventure Politics and human rights war, soldiers, combat, fought or military political, democracy, president, documentary or propaganda political, president, historical, politician or democracy war, wwii, combat, military or duty propaganda, historical, war, political or historic Show All…

Popular reviews

• Seduced and abandoned by myth.

• the cheap illusion of traditional american masculinity, sold to and paid for by the kids

• An unbearably sad, earnest masterpiece. Cruise’s best. Stone’s best. Richardson’s best.

• Born on the Fourth of July hit me like a goddamn freight train.

  I'm writing this having finished the film only moments before, so I apologize in advance if this comes out unstructured and messy.

  My mother's father—my grandpa—is a Vietnam War veteran. For as long as I've known the man, I've always had a very specific image of him in my head. He's tall, like me, and thin—very thin, stemming from health problems caused by his time in Vietnam. In my head, I picture him with a beard, though through my life he's alternated between being clean-shaved, mustachioed, and bearded. It just seems to fit him the best. He's also had shoulder-length hair for a long time now—probably since…

• TOM CRUISE was almost 'Born on the Fourth of July' but alas, he was born on July 3rd!

  
  Olivier Stone's Born On The Fourth of July is an ambitious, powerful and melodramatic biopic on the life of Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic. A deconstruction of American iconography & masculinity, this is a better anti-war movie than Stone's own Platoon. People often forget that Tom Cruise is a fantastic actor, this is one of Cruise's best and bravest performances. And the John Williams score was so beautiful.

• i think it's tempting to dismiss what stone is doing here as pure melodrama, to lean so hard into subverting the mythic imagery of mid-century america in a way that goes beyond the typical critic's desire for 'subtlety', but i say fuck that. in today's era, literally no one cares enough or is allowed to make an unequivocal condemnation of the iraq war, the afghanistan war, or any of the imperialist actions by the united states; born by comparison feels completely alien to our pseudo-ambiguous but actually hyper-jingoistic cinema. there used to be a space in american filmmaking for actual political discourse; now, when tentpole franchises (the only movies allowed to exist in the popular consciousness) are funded/supported by the US military and CIA, there really isn't.

• Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket are some of the prime examples of great movies about the Vietnam. Among this, there are countless docs and feature films that depicts the lives of those civilians being affected by the war and the many crimes committed during that particular war - and yet, something about this movie feels so unique and striking. Maybe its the fact that this is an autobiography, whilst many of the other films are mostly about fictional characters.

  Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic -on first Oscar nominated, Golden Globe winning performance- steals the show and proves what a fantastic actor he truly was before he attempted to kill himself on screen (and we pleasingly loving him for…

• In Chuck Klosterman's new book (But What If We're Wrong), he talks about how films inevitably reveal more about when they were made as opposed to the time they were made about. So true with this one. In 1989, Vietnam was still The Last War; and as the Cold War, too, was coming to and end, audiences at the time could be forgiven for believing that Vietnam might just be the LAST war. Because lessons were learned. And there is no better illustration of that belief than the final minutes of this film - a celebration of the anti-war movement's taking part in the 1976 Democratic convention. 17 years and a couple of wars later it seems a confoundingly anti-climactic…

• The unsuccessful foreign policy mistake of America was attempting to bring doctrine to the Vietnamese, except we killed a lot of them by mistake or killed a lot of them through disregard of cultural otherness. Ron Kovic was barely in his teens when he killed women and children in Vietnam. In a shroud of guilt, he carelessly went gung ho with gunfire leaving himself bare open to get shot. He was paralyzed from the chest down for life. He was a good-looking kid, but he never had love with a woman nor had he ever had sex with a woman. Tom Cruise as Kovic goes from handsome and fit Marine to drooling lip paraplegic. This is perhaps the best performance…

• WATCHED ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
  
  Happy Birthday America!

  The second installment in Stone's trilogy of films about the Vietnam War, what better day to watch this anti-war film. It was a tad bit long and a whole chunk of second act could've been cut. The last 20 minutes is the most powerful and essential part of the film and that's what makes the film stand out. Incredible oscar nominated performance by Tom Cruise as well.

  The whole world's watching!

• Oliver Stone flexes his stock move of imbuing the arc of post-war American history with a tragic, Shakespearean grandeur that provides a patriotic, masculine catharsis for the counterculture. You can still be a man and an American if you lose your dick and faith in the red, white and blue. This is a solid movie, but I'd like it more if Stone employed his other trademark flourish: insane montage editing where we'd get clips of Indian rain dances intercut with napalm exploding and Nixon on Laugh-In. Great performances by Tom Cruise and Willem Dafoe.

• Rolling Thunder '65
  65 movies that focus on the Vietnam War

  #16 - Born on the Fourth of July

  Oliver Stone's second Vietnam film, like Platoon before it, landed him the Academy Award for Best Director, but unlike his previous effort, Born on the Fourth of July feels much more engineered towards awards contention - complete with a typically emotion-tugging score from John Williams and a standout performance from superstar Tom Cruise in a role that was fairly against his type for the time.

  The story is based on Ron Kovic's autobiography of the same name, following as the determined young marine eagerly joins the war effort in Vietnam. In an early scene featuring a cameo from Tom Berenger as…