Thoughts on Born on the Fourth of July

via The Fan Carpet

"Sometimes I wish, I wish I'd - The first time I got hit, I was shot in the foot. I could have laid down, I mean - who gives a fuck now if I was a hero or not? I was paralyzed, castrated that day; why? It was all so - stupid! I'd have my dick and my balls now, and some days, Timmy - some days I think I'd give everything I believe in - everything I got, all my values, just to have my body back again, just to be whole again. But I'm not whole; I never will be, and that's - that's the way it is, isn't it?"

" ... For Christ's sake, Ronnie, it's your birthday. You're alive. You made it! Smile."

Born on the Fourth of July, directed and co-written by Oliver Stone from co-screenwriter Ron Kovic's autobiography, might be another example of timelessness. Yes, Kovic fought and was paralyzed in the Vietnam War. Perhaps his story was best told in the post-Vietnam, pre-Gulf War era. Still, there's an air of old-fashioned, shameless melodrama throughout the movie that just ended up leaving me cold. I haven't read Kovic's book, so I want to be careful with my criticism, but dialogue like that? Kovic and Stone probably didn't intend it, but I heard the echo of Ronald Reagan wondering, "Where's the rest of me?"

Ron (Tom Cruise) reaches his early adulthood with beliefs in Kennedy's call to ask what we can do for America, the Domino Theory and of a short or at least winnable Vietnam War. Several innocent people overseas are accidentally killed by Ron, including fellow soldier Wilson (Michael Compotaro), before he's wounded in battle. Back in the states, Ron endures squalid veterans hospital conditions before returning to his hometown of Massapequa, Long Island.

"Tom Cruise is America's all-American boy. The film's journey is more powerful when it is made by the maverick from Top Gun. It's not only Ron who goes through this wrenching story, it is Tom Cruise -- our perception of Tom Cruise."

-- Tom Pollock, then-head of Universal Pictures

"I saw this kid who have everything. And I wondered what would happen if tragedy strikes, if fortune denies him ... I thought it was an interesting proposition: What would happen to Tom Cruise if something goes wrong?"

-- Stone

There's those timeless feelings again. I'm getting such a vibe of the studio system here, that it's not so much about "a young man is scarred by his wartime experience" as it is "Tom Cruise is scarred by his wartime experience. Luckily for all involved, he delivered.

I was moved by the scenes from 1968-1970, which included some moments of subtlety. You didn't have to have it spelled out to know that Mr. Kovic (Raymond J. Barry), the family and the entire neighborhood are trying too hard with the homecoming. Or that Ron and Donna (Kyra Sedgwick) are living different lives. This delicacy is in sharp contrast to the scenes where it turns out that Ron's brother Tommy (Josh Evans) is "hanging around with longhairs who take drugs," or when Ron finally calls his mother (Caroline Kava, who in some ways had a role as hard as Cruise's) on her bullshit.

"In church, they say it's a sin if you play with your penis. I just wish I could."

"Don't say 'penis' in this house!"

"Penis!"

"Stop!"

"Penis! Big fucking erect penis, Mom!"

"Stop!"

"Penis! Penis!"

Stone received the brunt of any criticism for Born on the Fourth of July's intensity. There's a decent amount of it in the wartime and protest scenes, but it's most pronounced in moments like Ron having it out with his mother and later, with fellow paralyzed veteran Charlie (William Dafoe). Maybe I'm reading the scene wrong, but it probably isn't really about how many Vietnamese infants either men killed. It's about these two guys -- and we can assume Charlie was also denied the chance to fully own up to any wartime sins -- painfully and completely confessing.

Born on the Fourth of July belongs in the record books for a few reasons. We can point to it as Tom Cruise's "Hey, he can act!" movie (my apologies to fans of The Color of Money and Rain Man). We can point to it as the movie where Oliver Stone went from being a mere filmmaker to a creator of epics. And despite my claims otherwise, we can point to it as a piece of art clearly tied to its time. A time, however brief, when we thought a little more and a little more clearly, about our veterans.

*Nixon is accepting the nomination to run for a second term as Ron is interviewed.*

"People say 'If you don't love America, then get the hell out,' well I love America. We love the people of America very much but when it comes to the government, it stops right there. The government are a bunch of corrupt thieves, they are rapists and robbers. We are here to say that we don't have to take it anymore. We are here to say - we are here to tell the truth. They are killing our brothers in Vietnam. We want them to hear the truth tonight."

*A small melee breaks out, while 'Four more years!' resounds through the convention center. Ron is able to continue the interview.*

"... this wheelchair, our wheelchairs, this steel, our steel, is your Memorial Day on wheels. We are your Yankee Doodle Dandy come home."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $70 million on an $18 million budget, this had a wide release in January 1990 and came in at No. 17 for 1989.

-- Awards Watch: Nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, this won for Stone's direction and David Brenner and Joe Hutshing's editing. By comparison, this swept the Golden Globes, with wins for Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Lead Actor - Drama, Best Direction and Best Screenplay. Cruise and the screenplay were BAFTA nominated, losing to Philippe Noiret in Cinema Paradiso and Goodfellas, respectively.

-- Critics Corner, the movie: "An impassioned movie, made with conviction and evangelical verve," Hal Hinson wrote in the Washington Post. "It's also hysterical and overbearing and alienating." David Denby, New York: "A relentless but often powerful and heartbreaking piece of work." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "(It does) more than show what happened to Kovic. (This) fervent, consistently gripping film shows why it still urgently matters." "Long and tortuously earnest ... self-righteousness masquerading as art," according to Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly.

-- Critics Corner, Cruise: "Tom Cruise gives an astounding, deeply felt performance ... (he) takes us on a grueling journey," Travers wrote. Richard Corliss, Time: "He carries the film heroically." It was "harrowing and inspiring" work, Vincent Canby wrote. It was effective, according to Janet Maslin, because of the look and image Cruise brought. "He's all wrong," according to Desson Howe, the Post. Gleiberman: "He's fatally miscast ... he simply doesn't have the emotional range to play (Kovic)."

-- Critics Corner, Stone: He "reaches out instantly to his audience's gut-level emotions and sustains a walloping impact," Maslin wrote. His sincerity is unmistakable, but he's less interested in making a point than he is an impact, Sheila Benson wrote in the Los Angeles Times. Hinson: "In essence, he's a propagandist and, as it turns out, the least effective representative for his point of view." Denby: "Someday, he may discover that art can be a way to truth rather than an escape from it."

-- There's one more quote that I want to share, from Roger Ebert. "We do apologize for our mistakes in this country, but we let our artists do it instead of our politicians."

-- Hey, There's ...!: Tom Berenger, Jenna von Oÿ, William Baldwin & Jason Gedrick, Rob Camilletti, Stephen Baldwin, Ed Lauter, David Herman, Vivica A. Fox, Mark Moses, Edie Brickell, Tom Sizemore, Holly Marie Combs, Lili Taylor, Daniel Baldwin, Eagle Eye Cherry, John C. McGinley, Wayne Knight and Abbie Hoffman (for whom the film is dedicated), to name a few.

-- Who's hungry for a "Boyer Burger?" I can't believe Steve's customers wouldn't miss the extra meat, but anyway ... it was that moment and the '69 parade scene that caused my mind to drift and imagine a world where Oliver Stone wasn't making political epics but smaller, dead-on satires. Like I said, the kind of movies Michael Ritchie used to make. I guess we kinda get that with The Doors. And Natural Born Killers? W? I still need to see those two.

-- Next: Roger & Me. On deck: Always. I wrap this project up for good by Sunday night.