Born On The Fourth Of July details

Born On The Fourth Of July
Formats: 18 DVD, Blu-ray
Starring: Byron Keith Minns, Jerry Levine, Kyra Sedgwick, Raymond Barry, Frank Whaley, Willem Dafoe, Tom Cruise
Director: Oliver Stone
Genre: Drama - General
Studio: UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK
Collections: 100 Eighties Greats
Name Discs
Born On The Fourth Of July
18 Feature

DVD Information

Run time: 2 hours 18 minutes
Rental release: 09 May 2005
Main languages: English
Dubbed: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech
Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
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Most helpful review Born On The Fourth Of July

  • Haunting and Disturbing

    Rated - 5.0 stars  
    By John H Glen from London, England , 30 Jul 2004

    [Highly rated reviewer]

    First, for those who think that Tom Cruise is just another pretty boy, this movie sets that mistaken view to rest. He is nothing short of dazzling in a role that is extremely demanding, physically, mentally, artistically, and emotionally. I don't see how anybody could play that role and still be the same person.

    secondly, Stone's handling of the sex life of Vietnam Veterans in wheelchairs is entirely without sentimentality. There are no rose petals and no soft pedalling. There was no Jane Fonda, as in Coming Home, to play an angel of love. Instead the high school girl friend justifiably went her own way, and love became something you bought if you could afford it.

    Thirdly, Stone's portrayal of America, and this movie in reality is about America, from the 1950s to the 1970s, from the simplicity of childhood war games and 4th of July parades down Main street USA to having your guts spill out in a foreign land and your comrades being sent home in body bags, was as ineffaceable as black ink on white paper. He takes us from pleased mothers and fathers and patriotic homilies to the discreditable disregard in our Veteran's hospitals to the bloody clashes between anti-war demonstrators and the police outside convention halls where revelling conventioneers wave flags and mouth spurious slogans.

    I have seen most of Stone's work and as far as faithfulness to genuine detail and continuous attentiveness, this is his best. There are a thousand facts that Stone got exactly right, from Dalton Trumbo's paperback novel of a paraplegic from WW I, Johnny Got His Gun, that sat on a tray near Kovic's hospital bed, to the black medic telling him that there was a more important war going on at the same time as the Vietnam war, namely the civil rights movement, to a mother throwing her son out of the house when he no longer fulfilled her trophy case vision of what her son ought to be, to Willem Dafoe?s remark about what you have to do sexually when nothing in the middle moves.

    Also striking were some of the scenes. The confession scene at the home of the boy Kovic accidentally shot; the Mexican brothel scene of sex/love desperation, the drunken scene at the pool hall bar and the pretty girl's face he touches, and then the drunken, hate-filled rage against his mother, and of course the savage hospital scenes, these and some others were deeply moving.

    Yes, predictably, Oliver Stone's political message weighed heavily upon his artistic purpose. Straight-laced conservatives will find his portrait of America one-sided and offensive and something they'd rather forget. But I imagine that the guys, who fought in Vietnam and managed to get back somehow and see this movie, will find it redeeming. Certainly to watch Ron Kovic, just an ordinary Joe who believed in his country and the sentiments of John Wayne movies and comic book heroics, go from a depressed, enraged, drug-addled waste of a human being to an enlightened, focused, articulate, and ultimately triumphant spokesman for the anti-war movement, for veterans, and the disabled was wonderful to see. As Stone reminds us, Kovic really did become the hero that his misguided mother dreamed he would be.

    No previous Vietnam War movie haunts me like this one. There is something about coming back less than whole that is worse than not coming back at all that eats away at our perception. And yet in the end there is here displayed the triumph of the human will and a story about how a man might find redemption in the most appalling of situations.
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All reviews

(21)
  • it was just so so.

    Rated - 2.5 stars  
    By emperor10 (203 reviews) from newcastle upon tyne , 23 Nov 2012
    a good true story, but i found the film so so. Also, i didnt really think cruise's acting was as amazing as everyone makes out, it was adequate. In fact, what got in the way of his acting, was the ridiculous joke shop wigs and tashes.
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  • Grit and revelation

    Rated - 4.0 stars  
    By a customer , 02 Jan 2012
    I enjoyed this film very much. Tom Cruise surprised me with the depth of his acting; he has gone up in my estimation.

    A gritty,down to earth story, showing many levels of the human condition and public reaction, depicting a soldier's entry and return from the war zone; from high hopes to disenchmentment.
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  • Cruise can really act!

    Rated - 4.0 stars  
    By chiltsy (9 reviews) , 31 Aug 2011

    [Highly rated reviewer]

    I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise particularly but this must be the best thing I've seen him in. He is utterly convincing and the proved to me that he can actually act! An excellent film!
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  • Born out of greatness

    Rated - 5.0 stars  
    By RJNeb2 (924 reviews) from London , 16 May 2009
    Oliver Stone has some great films under his belt ('Platoon', 'JFK') but this is probably his finest, a searing portrait of America at war with itself, as seen through the eyes of patriot Ron Kovic who served his country in Vietnam and was rewarded with paralysis and humiliation. Stone brings all the heavy guns out to bear and fills his movie with some real gutpunch scenes, put over by an amazing cast. Prior to this, only 'Rain Man' really demonstrated Cruise's range - here, he delivers an extraordinary, revelatory performance. The film is not an easy watch but it's an unforgettable one.
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  • Long winded

    Rated - 1.0 star  
    By a customer from Devon, England , 05 Sep 2008
    Far from 'great' and not a 'top' movie. Watch Coming Home instead - very similar story but much better acting & a better pace, so you don't fall asleep!
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