Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Oliver Stone, USA, 1946
Budget: $14 mil
Gross: over $232 mil
Synopsis: Ron Kovic is an aspiring young man who decides to enlist in the Marines and fight in Vietnam. While there, he accidentally shoots a fellow Marine dead, is himself injured while serving a second tour and returns home, paralyzed. He is a changed man in terms of his view on the war, formerly believing in the political viability and justification for the war in Vietnam, and convinced to believe that the war was wrong.
Narrative/Visual keywords: Patriotism, First person POV, Vietnam, 1960s, Republican National Convention 1972, VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War), Post traumatic stress disorder, Mexico, dramatic irony.
Main character/Arc: Ron Kovic is transfixed by the behavior of liberal Americans, formerly against protests and demonstrations, but eventually comes to understand and believe in their cause.
Political/Social Commentary: Liberal take on the war in Vietnam, favoring democratic ideals. Shows contrast very well from the beginning parade in 1956 (post WW2 parade) with the welcome home parade of 1969, showing the social divide of American society. Shows how patriotic protesting American foreign policy can be.
Camera/Lighting Techniques: shot in anamorphic format, a first time experience for cinematographer Robert Richardson (this generally means shooting in a widescreen type of format). The visual strategy is nostalgic-looking, capturing light glares through the lens. Captures the time period very well in terms of color correction. The beach scenes in Vietnam look very orange and sunny. There's an interesting edit near the end when we see Tom Cruise on video, then it dissolves to film, suggesting a shift from "outside the box" to real life.
Historical recognition/relevance: Tom Cruise was given Ron Kovic's Bronze star medal by Kovic himself for his accurate portrayal in the film. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Actor Tom Cruise (who lost to Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot), Cinematography by Robert Richardson, and won two Oscars, for Directing (Oliver Stone) and Film Editing (David Brenner & Joe Hutshing). Hailed as a great film for year 1989.
Notable collaboration: John Williams scored the music for the film. Alex Kitman Ho produced the film.
Fun facts: Ron Kovic has a cameo in the beginning, in the parade scene, he is wheeled along on the street when rifles fire off and he flinches, showing a negative reaction to war sounds. Oliver Stone has a cameo as a news reporter in Vietnam on television in the Kovic living room. Filmed in the Philippines. ALSO, in the Mexico scenes, when Tom Cruise is in a room at a desk, you can see Erich Remarque's book "All Quiet on the Western Front" in the lower right corner of the frame!! This is aptly symbolic.
Mark's review:
Patriotism seems to be a two-faced creature. That's the theme Oliver Stone is exploring in his film, Born on the Fourth of July, a war film that starts as pro-war, but ends as an anti-war film; this shift is what makes the film so viable and gains the audience's trust. We embark on a journey thinking that fighting for ideals and freedom is worth it, when in the end it's the brainwashing ideals of men in power who take stock in war-profiteering (e.g. Kellogg, Brown and Root, Halliburton). Oliver Stone succeeds in showing the abrasiveness of American society concerning Vietnam, showing protests, demonstrations--a clear divisiveness between Left and Right.
Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, a man who aspires to join the Marines when two Marine officers visit his high school and give a speech rallying support to join. He's the bright-eyed boy who looks up to them as if he's looking up the Heavens in awe. During this first act of the film Kovic is in control of his destiny; he knows where he wants to go, and why. To fight for the protection of America against communism is his main goal in life. He sits down with his parents in the living room and honestly admits to loving his country. His family watches Kennedy give his inaugural address, his words "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
The patriarch figure of Kovic's father is strict yet loving. His father manages a grocery store, hurrying his son Ronny to move quicker. Their family is big; several siblings. The film starts as a very masculine portrayal (in a 1950's kind of way), showing Kovic as a young kid in love with his girlfriend. Then in their high school years Kovic runs in the rain to the prom, desiring the same girl, and dances with her whilst all drenched in rain. These vignettes are innocence incarnate. In the last act, we see Kovic confessing to killing his fellow soldier to the dead Marine's family in Venus, Georgia. This bravery shows a facet of his masculinity and honesty.
Another aspect of masculinity that is ominous: a scene when Kovic reports to his XO (Executive Officer) in Vietnam that he thinks he may have shot a fellow soldier. The XO brushes it off as if the incident didn't even happen, suggesting that things in war are confusing. This shows the XO's lack of judgment and knowledge, and reveals a common state of masculinity (or lack thereof) in times of war.
Born on the Fourth of July is so overly charged with liberal political fervor; but this doesn't hurt the film. It's just noticeable. What makes the film so great are the colors and the editing, and well, everything else makes it watchable. Oliver Stone is so aware of every minute detail--especially in the Bronx hospital scenes, the poor quality of the facilities Vietnam Vets were subject to, suggesting the incompetence of the U.S. government's efforts to rehabilitate them (e.g. rats in the hospital, and general uncleanliness). The behavior of Americans during the 1969 welcome home parade scene suggest how accurate the divide in social America actually was, and still is today!
Ron Kovic's destiny changes dramatically in the film. In the middle of the story, we see Kovic start to shift from a conservative (he has a fight with his younger brother in the kitchen due to difference in political opinion) to a full fledged liberal (protesting the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami). By the end he has a clear agenda, to educate the public about what Vietnam was really about--not about freedom or fighting against communism, but that is was all a false promise.
Tom Cruise's performance is revealing. He shows Kovic going through a rough and disorganized mental state, leaving Massapequa, New York for Mexico, where he meets other paralyzed Vietnam Vets, who seem to live by the mantra, "fuck the States." It's there he meets the Willem Dafoe character, who makes a point to Kovic that he shot a Vietnamese baby while in the war. Kovic is lost in a negative way in the Mexico scenes. Earlier in the movie he yells out, "America--love it or leave it!" and he eventually leaves, comes back, and realizes he has to fulfill a positive destiny for himself, to make sure a war like Vietnam never happens again.
The film is like The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, and Best Picture Oscar winner), about World War Two soldiers returning home and being alienated in America. Stone's film is similar, showing the return home as an alienating process. The character arc from beginning to end goes: 1. positive, 2. negative 3. positive again. Maturity is a theme that is relevant in this film, and is virtuous.
(Note: I recommend checking out Oliver Stone's Oscar acceptance speeches for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July on Youtube. He utters brave, historical words. I've also seen this film before some years ago. I have not read the best selling autobiography by Ron Kovic, by the same title.)
Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone.
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Another excellent review of a great film. One of the more interesting topics in this review that stuck out for ME was how you compare the divided country of the Vietnam era to how our country is divided today.
ReplyDeleteIt is true and sad as I've experienced this first hand. When the events of 9/11 took place, our country was behind the military 200%. It was almost "trendy" to be behind the military (another sad fact).
These days, it seems as if people have forgotten 9/11 and have gone back to the days of taking the country, and its' military, for granted.
History is cyclical. It appears we have come around full circle again. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for your thoughts. This review makes me want to watch this film again.