Born on the Fourth of July

A big budget, a name star like Tom Cruise, a renowned director such as Oliver Stone (Platoon), a true story about Vietnam...these are perhaps just a few reasons why everyone has embraced this film. Nominated for Best Picture, this story based on the experience of Sergeant Ron Kovic who was wounded in Vietnam, and returned to the United States, confined to a wheelchair, and paralyzed from mid-chest down is, at times, almost laughable in its overextended dramaturgy. The theme is simple: Kovic (Cruise), a good Catholic boy, discovers that war is hell, and returns home to wallow in self-pity while his childhood ideals about God, country, and mom gradually erode. While espousing his holier-than-thou conservatism followed by his holier-than-thou liberalism, he has meaty confrontations with his brother, his mother, and just about everyone else in the movie. None of these confrontations are ever resolved. Ron says his piece and that's that. Mom drops out of the picture, his brother disappears, his girlfriend (actually its hard to say what the relationship here is) convinces Ron to become a protestor against the war, and then she's never seen again. A song from the period, meant to reflect the social and political confusion of the times, also sums up the film: "There's something happening here/What it is ain't exactly clear." Born on the Fourth of July has some powerful moments, but the huge gaps in the story line, as well as abrupt changes in cinematic style, leaves one with the feeling that the movie was put together with band-aids. In a year dominated by heavyhanded, depressingly simplistic, films, however, this one topped some 60 critics ten best lists. So go figure. Sure to be requested. (R. Pitman)