Born on the Fourth of July (film)

Born on the Fourth of July
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Oliver Stone
Screenplay by	Ron Kovic Oliver Stone
Produced by	A. Kitman Ho Oliver Stone
Starring	Tom Cruise Kyra Sedgwick Raymond J. Barry Jerry Levine Frank Whaley Willem Dafoe
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Joe Hutshing David Brenner
Music by	John Williams
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 20, 1989 (1989-12-20)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$14 million
Box office	$161 million

Born on the Fourth of July is a 1989 American war drama film adaptation of the best-selling autobiography of the same name by Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic.

Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, in a performance that earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Oliver Stone (himself a Vietnam veteran) co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic, and also produced and directed the film. Stone wanted to film the movie in Vietnam, but because relations between the United States and Vietnam had not yet been normalized, it was instead filmed in the Philippines. The film is considered part of Stone's "trilogy" of films about the Vietnam War—following Platoon (1986) and preceding Heaven & Earth (1993).

Born on the Fourth of July was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two, for Best Director and Best Film Editing; it also won four Golden Globe Awards and a Directors Guild of America Award. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $161,001,698 worldwide.

Plot

In the summer of 1956 in Massapequa, Long Island, New York, 10-year-old Ron Kovic plays war in the woods and attends a Fourth of July parade. After watching President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, it inspires him to enlist in the Marines. Later, Kovic attends an impassioned lecture about the Marine Corps. He decides to enlist and misses his prom because he is unable to secure a date with his love interest, Donna. He confronts her at the prom and has a dance with her on his last night before leaving.

Now a Marine sergeant and on patrol during his second Vietnam tour in October 1967, Kovic's unit kills a number of Vietnamese civilians in a village, believing them to be enemy combatants. During the retreat, Kovic accidentally kills one of the new arrivals to his platoon, a younger Marine private first class named Wilson. During a firefight in January 1968, Kovic is critically wounded until a fellow Marine rescues him. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down, he spends several months recovering at the Bronx Veterans Administration hospital where the hospital conditions are poor with rats roaming the floors and the doctors and nurses ignoring patients and abusing drugs and the equipment being too old to be useful. He desperately tries to walk again with the use of crutches and braces, despite repeated warnings from his doctors.

In 1969, Kovic returns home, permanently in a wheelchair with his leg intact. Though he tries to maintain his dignity as a Marine, Kovic gradually becomes disillusioned despite being paralyzed and resorts to alcoholism. In Kovic's absence, his younger brother Tommy (Josh Evans) has already become staunchly anti-war, remarking to Kovic what the war had done to him. During an Independence Day parade, Kovic shows signs of post-traumatic stress when firecrackers explode. When he is asked to give a speech, a baby in the crowd starts crying. After being unable to finish the speech and wheeled off stage, he reunites with his old high school friend Timmy Burns, who is also a wounded veteran, and the two spend Kovic's birthday sharing war stories. Later, Kovic goes to visit Donna at her college in Syracuse, New York, where the two reminisce and she asks him to attend a vigil for the victims of the Kent State shootings. He and Donna are separated after she and her fellow students are taken away by the police at her college for demonstrating a protest against the Vietnam War. Ron goes to a bar, almost getting into a fight with a fellow Marine and after a heated argument with his mother, Ron's father decides to send him to Mexico.

He arrives in ("The Village of the Sun") that seems to be a haven for paralyzed Vietnam veterans. He has his first sexual experience with a prostitute whom he believes he loves, until he sees her with another customer. Hooking up with another wheelchair-bound veteran Charlie, the two travel to what they believe will be a friendlier village. After annoying their taxicab driver, they end up stranded on the side of the road. After arguing with each other, they are picked up by a man with a truck and driven back to the "Village of the Sun." Going back to Long Island, Kovic travels to Georgia to visit Wilson's parents and family. He tells them the true story about their son's death and confesses his guilt.

Kovic joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) and travels to the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami. He tells a reporter about his negative experiences in Vietnam and the VA hospital conditions, that the Vietnam War is wrong, and that the Vietnamese people are a proud people fighting against the US for their independence, fueling rage from the surrounding Nixon supporters. His interview is cut short when guards eject him and his fellow vets from the hall and attempt to turn them over to the police. They manage to break free from the police, regroup, and charge the hall again, though not successfully this time. Kovic speaks at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, shortly after the publication of his autobiography, Born on the Fourth of July.

Cast

• Tom Cruise as Ron Kovic
  • Bryan Larkin as Young Ron Kovic
• Raymond J. Barry as Eli Kovic
• Caroline Kava as Mrs. Kovic
• Josh Evans as Tommy Kovic
  • Seth Allen as Young Tommy Kovic
• Frank Whaley as Timmy Burns
• Jerry Levine as Steve Boyer
• Kyra Sedgwick as Donna
  • Jessica Prunell as Young Donna
• Rob Camilletti as Tommy Finelli
• Stephen Baldwin as Billy Vorsovich
• Tom Berenger as GySgt. Hayes
• Willem Dafoe as Charlie
• John Getz as Marine Major – Vietnam
• Michael Compotaro as Wilson
• Cordelia González as María Elena
• Holly Marie Combs as Jenny
• Vivica A. Fox as Hooker in VA hospital
• Wayne Knight as Official #2 – Democratic Convention
• James LeGros as Platoon – Vietnam
• Ed Lauter as Legion Commander
• R. D. Call as chaplain – Vietnam
• Ron Kovic as World War II veteran
• Oliver Stone as television interviewer
• Abbie Hoffman as protest speaker
• Edie Brickell as cafe singer
• Reg E. Cathey as Speaker

Production

Oliver Stone, also a Vietnam veteran, read Ron Kovic's best-selling autobiography Born on the Fourth of July and was stunned to learn what Kovic had suffered after the war. He bought the rights to the autobiography, and wanted to make it into a film. After buying the rights, Stone had to find a distributor for the film. Stone offered the project to Universal Pictures and they accepted. Stone then had to find a producer for the film. Eventually, he along with A. Kitman Ho became the producers. Tom Cruise was cast as Ron Kovic while Stone directed. Stone met with Ron Kovic and they discussed their experiences in Vietnam. Kovic wrote the screenplay with Stone, and appears in the film himself during the opening parade sequence as a soldier who flinches at the sound of exploding firecrackers—a reflex Cruise's Kovic will adopt himself later in the film.

Stone wanted to film the movie in Vietnam, but since the relationship between Vietnam and the United States had not been resolved, Stone decided instead to film it in the Philippines (where Stone had previously filmed Platoon). Other scenes which do not include combat were filmed in the U.S., particularly Dallas, Texas. The film was cinematographer Robert Richardson's first experience shooting in the anamorphic format. Of the stars he worked with in this film, Stone worked again with both Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe, who originally starred in Platoon. Another star, Frank Whaley, would join Stone for the 1991 films The Doors and JFK.

Reception

Box office

The film was released on December 20, 1989, grossing $766,942 during its opening week, in limited release. Over the course of its second week, the film grossed $1,464,345. At its third week of release, now in wide release, it grossed $5,343,453, ranking #1 at the box office. The film remained in the number one position up until its sixth week of release. The film stayed in the #11 position of the top ten grossing films of 1990 until its last week of release. The film grossed $70,001,698 domestically and $161,001,698 worldwide, significantly surpassing its $14 million budget.

Critical response

Reviews of the film were extremely positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 90% of positive reviews by critics, based on 37 reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars. Metacritic reported that the film had an average score of 75 out of 100. The New York Times says: "It is a film of enormous visceral power with, in the central role, a performance by Tom Cruise that defines everything that is best about the movie." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says: "Stone has found Cruise the ideal actor to anchor the movie with simplicity and strength. Together they do more than show what happened to Kovic. Their fervent, consistently gripping film shows why it still urgently matters." Many critics also praised Tom Cruise's performance and Oliver Stone's direction of the film. Stone would later be awarded with an Oscar and a Golden Globe for directing while Tom Cruise received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

Notable critics who gave the film negative reviews include Jonathan Rosenbaum, who said: "[T]he movie's conventional showbiz finale, brimming with false uplift, implies that the traumas of other mutilated and disillusioned Vietnam veterans can easily be overcome if they write books and turn themselves into celebrities." Hal Hinson of the Washington Post called the film "hysterical and overbearing and alienating." Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "[T]he director has lost the specificity that made Platoon so electrifying. In its place he uses bombast, overkill, bullying."

Awards and nominations

Awards
Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Outcome
1989	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards	Best Director	Oliver Stone (2nd place)	Won
		Best Cinematography	Robert Richardson (2nd place)
	National Board of Review	Top Ten Films	Born on the Fourth of July
	National Society of Film Critics	Best Actor	Tom Cruise (3rd place)
	New York Film Critics Circle	Best Actor	Tom Cruise (2nd place)
1990	Academy Awards	Best Picture of the Year	A. Kitman Ho and Oliver Stone Winners were Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck for Driving Miss Daisy	Nominated
		Best Actor in a Leading Role	Tom Cruise Winner was Daniel Day-Lewis for My Left Foot
		Best Director	Oliver Stone	Won
		Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published or Produced	Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone Winner was Alfred Uhry for Driving Miss Daisy	Nominated
		Best Cinematography	Robert Richardson Winner was Freddie Francis for Glory
		Best Sound Mixing	Michael Minkler, Gregory H. Watkins, Wylie Stateman, and Tod A. Maitland Winners were Donald O. Mitchell, Gregg Rudloff, Elliot Tyson, and Russell Williams for Glory
		Best Film Editing	David Brenner and Joe Hutshing	Won
		Best Music, Original Score	John Williams Winner was Alan Menken for The Little Mermaid	Nominated
	American Cinema Editors Guild	Best Edited Feature Film	David Brenner and Joe Hutshing Winner was Steven Rosenblum for Glory
	American Society of Cinematographers	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases	Robert Richardson Winner was Haskell Wexler for Blaze
	BAFTA Film Awards	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Tom Cruise Winner was Philippe Noiret for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso)
		Best Screenplay – Adapted	Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone Winners were Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas
	BMI Film & TV Awards	BMI Film Music Award	John Williams	Won
	Berlin International Film Festival	Golden Bear	Oliver Stone Winners were Larks on a String and Music Box	Nominated
	Casting Society of America	Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama	Risa Bramon Garcia and Billy Hopkins Winner was Howard Feuer for Dead Poets Society
	Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Best Picture	Born on the Fourth of July Winner was Do the Right Thing
		Best Actor	Tom Cruise	Won
	David di Donatello	Best Foreign Actor (Migliore Attore Straniero)	Tom Cruise Winner was Philippe Noiret for Life and Nothing But	Nominated
		Best Foreign Director (Migliore Regista Straniero)	Oliver Stone Winner was Louis Malle for May Fools
	Directors Guild of America	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Oliver Stone	Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Drama	Born on the Fourth of July
		Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama	Tom Cruise
		Best Director	Oliver Stone
		Best Screenplay	Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone
		Best Music, Original Score	John Williams Winner was Alan Menken for The Little Mermaid	Nominated
	Motion Picture Sound Editors	Best Sound Editing – ADR	Born on the Fourth of July	Won
		Best Sound Editing – Sound Effects	Wylie Stateman and Michael Minkler Tied with Dody Dorn and Blake Leyh for The Abyss
	Political Film Society	Democracy	Born on the Fourth of July
	Writers Guild of America	Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium	Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone Winner was Alfred Uhry for Driving Miss Daisy	Nominated

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Ron Kovic – Nominated Hero
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated

Home media

The film was released on VHS in 1990 and on DVD in 1998. The DVD contains commentary by director Oliver Stone. The special edition DVD was released on October 19th, 2004. The DVD contains commentary with Director Oliver Stone and the original NBC documentary of the making of Born on the Fourth of July. In 2007, the film was released on the HD DVD format. On September 1, 2011 Universal Australia released the film on Blu-ray Disc. It was released in the US on July 3, 2012.

External links

• Born on the Fourth of July at IMDb
• Born on the Fourth of July at AllMovie
• Born on the Fourth of July at Rotten Tomatoes
• Born on the Fourth of July at TomCruise.com
• Movie stills