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Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Kyra Sedgwick, Willem Dafoe ... see more see more... , Brian Larkin , Jerry Levine , Josh Evans , Jamie Talisman , Anne Bobby , Frank Whaley , John Getz , David Warshofsky , Rocky Carroll , Cordelia González , Tony Frank , Jayne Haynes , Bill Allen , Melvin Allen , Daniel Baldwin , Stephen Baldwin , William Baldwin , Cody Beard , Peter Benson , Tom Berenger , Claudio Brook , Claude Brooks , R.D. Call , Robert Camilletti , Reg E. Cathey , Frank Cavestani , Eagle Eye Cherry , Holly Marie Combs , Peter Crombie , John Del Regno , Edith Diaz , John Falch , Markus Flanagan , Corky Ford , John William Galt , Jason Gedrick , Erika Geminder , Frank Girardeau , Abbie Hoffman , Elizabeth Hoffman , Lucinda Jenney , Jodi Long , Ivan Kane , Wayne Knight , Samantha Larkin , Andrew Lauer , Ed Lauter , James LeGros , Damien Leake , Bruce MacVittie , Rick Masters , Gale Mayron , Annie McEnroe , Jack McGee , John C. McGinley , Sean McGraw , Byron Minns , Willie Minor , Norma Moore , Kevin Harvey Morse , Mark Moses , Billie Neal , David Neidorf , J.R. Nutt , Richard Panebianco , Chris Pederson , Begonia Plaza , Jessica Prunell , Paul Sanchez , Tom Sizemore , Beau Starr , Mike Starr , Sean Stone , Brian Tarantina , Lili Taylor , Jenna von Oÿ , Christopher Walker , Jake Weber , Michael Wincott , Dale Dye , Ron Kovic , Joseph P. Reidy , Oliver Stone , Alan Toy , Lane R. Davis , Richard Poe , Paul Abbott , Philip Amelio , Réal Andrews , Lisa Barnes , Ryan Beadle , Edie Brickell , David Carriere , Sami Chester , Michael Compotaro , Amanda Davis , Vivica A. Fox , Dan Furnad , Geoff Garza , Fred Geise , Richard Grusin , Michael Smith Guess , Greg Hackbarth , Richard Haus , David Herman , Michelle Hurst , Ed Jupp Jr. , Jason Klein , Elbert Lewis , Richard Lubin , William Mapother , Kevin McGuire , Michael McTighe , Christopher W. Mills , Chip Moody , Liz Moore , Lorraine Morin-Torre , Stacey Moseley , Pamela S. Neill , Karen Newman , Ken Osborne , Kristel Otney , Jimmy L. Parker , Ellen Pasternack , Anthony Pena , Chuck Preiffer , John Pinto , Melinda Ramos Renna , Eduardo Ricardo , Keri Roebuck , Sergio Scognamiglio , Michael Sulsona , Bob Tillotson , Norm Wilson , Harold Woloschin , Joy Zapata , William A. Wallace , Bob Gunton , Ben Wright , Don 'The Dragon' Wilson , William Hubbard Knight , Michael Miller , Seth Allen

The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of... read more read more... Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by enlisting with the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. Once he is overseas, however, Kovic's gung-ho enthusiasm turns to horror and confusion when he accidentally kills one of his own men in a firefight. His downfall is furthered by a bullet wound that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns home, spends an appalling, nightmarish stint in a veterans' hospital, and follows an increasingly disillusioned and fragmented path that ultimately leaves him drunk and dissolute in Mexico. However, Kovic somehow turns himself around and pulls his life together, becoming an outspoken anti-war activist in the process. The film is long but emotionally powerful; many consider it Stone's best work and Cruise's best performance. Both were nominated for Oscars, as was the film itself, but only Stone, who co-wrote the film with Kovic from the latter's book, won for Best Director. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

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69% liked it

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89% liked it

37 critics

R, 2 hr. 24 min.

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Release Date: December 20, 1989

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DVD Release Date: April 28, 1998

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Stats: 1,889 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,889)

  • TheGame90
    February 12, 2012
    TheGame90
    This is some fine directing right here from Mr. Political Subject himself. This movie uses one of the oldest tricks in the book for dramatic effect....Slowmotion....and it does it really well. Tom does possibly his best role here? And it's a very interesting story. Willem Dafoe m... read moreakes a brief but oscar worthy apperence. There are a lot of very beautiful shoots in this movie. Escpecially that first shoot after we cut to the war. That is just iconic. This movies story draws many similarities to The Deer Hunter but it's still very diffrent and uniqe. A really good movie and a great work by Tom Cruise
  • moonrivers
    May 29, 2011
    moonrivers
    Cruise pulls out all the stops in his visceral portrayal of a guy who goes from trusting and unthinking patriot to wounded and wondering casualty of the Vietnam War. Certainly one of the very best of this genre, it's core point simply a question : when has blind obedience ever b... read moreeen an American ideal?
  • garyX
    April 19, 2011
    garyX
    A biopic based on the life of Ron Kovic, an idealistic poster boy for the American dream who volunteered for Vietnam only to return home to a different world both traumatized and paralysed. I've never been a big fan of Tom Cruise, but he gives the performance of his career as the... read more Vietnam vet who became the spokesman of a disenfranchised generation. Being based upon Kovic's own book the film is a very personal journey and as such is a little episodic, often resembling one of those "triumph of courage" daytime telemovies rather than the overt politicism of many of Stone's other films of the time. It also limits his Vietnam experiences to the bare minimum which means that it lacks both the context and outright anger of Salvador and the emotional drama of Platoon leaving something of a half way house between the two. The supporting cast also don't get much of a look in so it feels a little superficial but it is an intelligent, well made film carried by a strong central performance. It does lack the power of Stone's best work however.
  • ythelastman89
    November 29, 2010
    ythelastman89
    This is without a doubt my favorite Oliver Stone movie. It has all of the passion and and emotional depth in ten minutes that most Vietnam movies try to attain for 2 hours. Tom Cruise played an amazing Ron Kovic, you were able to see the entire breakdown and redemption of his cha... read moreracter. I loved the message of the movie, it wasn't so much about action and physical damage of the war. It was about the complete destruction of hope for so many individuals. It's so heartbreaking to see such a good person have to suffer through so much.
  • SirPant
    September 24, 2009
    SirPant
    A more honest account this time from Stone which shows the brutal reality of the Vietnam war, it?s far superior to Platoon. Possibly the only time I think Cruise has really been great!
  • sononothing
    March 3, 2009
    sononothing
    Some movies act like a microcosm of history. They take one little part of an enormous picture and use it to show how the little piece of the big picture affected each other.

    With Born on the Fourth of July Oliver Stone shows us how gung-ho America was going into the Vietnam war ... read moreand how that conflict affected millions of lives by looking at one life in that war: Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise). The film opens with the youngster Kovic watching a Fourth of July parade in the 1950's that reeks of apple pie and Eisenhower. Kids played soldier in the woods to mimic their dads and uncles stories from Europe in the decade before. Jump ahead to Kovic near graduation and deciding to join the Marines. He is still gung ho and ready to die for his country in a war in Vietnam that will be "over before we get there". He goes to Vietnam where two tragic events change his life forever in which one of them is taking a NVA bullet that renders him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns to a different America, polarized by the war and finds himself slowly seeing that the war wasn't as honorable as he thought it was.

    Tom Cruise finally got some respect from this film, proving that he could be more than the guy in his underwear dancing to Bob Seger or flying airplanes. By his return home he is a beaten man and it shows in his appearance. To me, this is Tom Cruise's first great performance. The remainder of the film from his return is mainly Stone showing Kovic's reaction to the turmoil that was the late '60's and the early '70's. The film shouts at us that this is how a million people reacted to it by looking at this one, lone man. It's a fascinating journey that Stone takes us on with ups and downs and the resentments and triumphs that go along with it. A terrific biopic.
  • ajaymuthecooldevils
    June 25, 2008
    ajaymuthecooldevils
    Actually the story was pretty good, a story about a Vietnam veteran soldier because of the war.. Tom Cruise brilliantly portrait Ron Kovic, the young soldier with great ambition for the Vietnam war but yet he got wound in the war so he become a Vietnam veteran soldier in such a ... read moreyoung age... This movie really describes how awful the war is... But, since I watched the cut version of this movie, so I'm not too understand with this movie... Even that, Tom Cruise shows his great talent at that time... And now, he should be disappointed knowing in his success as a celebrity, he didn't get an Oscar for his acting..
  • movieguru12
    May 20, 2008
    movieguru12
    This movie based on a true story,was the best film. It was shocking and very sad,and was wonderfully made!!!
  • drago25
    February 8, 2008
    drago25
    It certainly seems like this is a film that got lost in the shuffle - overshadowed by more popular films about Vietnam, such as Platoon (also done by Oliver Stone) or Full Metal Jacket or even The Deer Hunter. It's interesting because like The Deer Hunter (which is also excellent... read more), Born On The Fourth Of July focuses not on the events of the war itself but on the after-effects. I had wanted to see it for the longest time mainly because it's one of Tom Cruise's early roles, and I love Tom. It's also in my opinion his first truly great, or major role. Though he had good roles in The Color Of Money and Rain Man before this, it's Born where he really gets to show his chops as an actor for the first time. The film, based on the true biography of the main character, Ron Kovic (who was involved in the making of the film based on his book), is definitely an ambitious one, spanning much of the very involved life of Mr. Kovic and featuring a large ensemble cast. Stone, as he is able to do most of the time, handles the ambitious project very well. However, the film largely rests of the shoulders of Cruise, and he was obviously very up to the challenge, even this early in his career. This is one of the films that is just so vast it's almost hard to critique - but I know that I enjoyed it very much, and it featured some awesome surprises such as Willem Dafoe's role. Basically you have to see this if you enjoy Vietnam films or Oliver Stone or Tom Cruise or any combination thereof.
  • DrZeek
    February 6, 2008
    DrZeek
    Ron Kovic: People say that if you don't love America, then get the hell out. Well, I love America.

    Tom Cruise stars as Ron Kovic in the second of director Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy. Stone worked with the real Ron Kovic in order to try and capture what happened in his life,... read more from his early childhood, through his tour in Vietnam, and up to the eventual outcome surrounding his injury and what people thought about the war when he came back home.

    The movie starts off by showing us Kovic in his home town, desiring to become a marine and be a war hero like his father and the other WWII vets that he sees.

    We then shift to Vietnam, where Kovic sees and is a part of things that shock and hurt him. He is also shot, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

    This leads to the bulk of the film, which is better than what came before it. Kovic goes back home to a changed country. People take sides as to how effective this war really is and what to think about the government.

    Kovic also goes through mental anguish involving a number of things including what it means to be seen as a war hero, the loss of his legs, what America thinks of him, how he should think of America, and so on.

    He goes through a tough odyssey of sorts involving the things he is forced to deal with concerning his life and family, and what to do next.

    Cruise is very good in this role, probably among his best work as an actor. What would now easily be considered Oscar bait, playing a war hero paraplegic, is a testament to how good someone has to be to pull it off. His performance in this movie is probably overshadowed by Gary Sinese a few years later as Lt. Dan in Forest Gump, as that is probably more of a memorable film, but that shouldn't take away from how good Cruise is.

    There is also a good supporting cast that includes Raymond J. Barry as Kovic's father, Kyra Sedgwick as the girl he left behind, a number of people that were all in Platoon, including Willem Dafoe, who comes in late in the film to spice things up.

    The score of this movie, which I picked up pretty quickly as being from John Williams fits well with the themes of this movie. This goes with the style of the film visually as well. There are a lot of neat 'Stone' moments that one can recognize from the way they are setup.

    Stone, always being recognized for his editing style, makes that apparent here again for having a picture that flows well enough and moves into each scene appropriately.

    While verging on too depressing at times, mixed with enough profanity to hold anyone over for a week, this is a good story with a great performance from Cruise.

    Ron Kovic: Sometimes, Stevie, I think people, they know you're back from Vietnam, and their face - changes: the eyes, the voice, the way they look at you, you know.
    Steve Boyer: I know what you mean, Ronnie, but people here - they don't give a shit about the war! Yeah! To them it's just a million miles away. It's all bullshit, anyway. I mean, the government sold us a bill of goods and we bought it, and got the shit kicked out of us, and for what, huh?
    Ron Kovic: What do you mean, "we," Stevie? You were in college, man.

View All Born on the Fourth of July Reviews

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
June 6, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Tom Cruise, who takes Kovic from clean-cut eager teen to impassioned long-haired activist, is stunning. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

Born on the Fourth of July is...the most ambitious nondocumentary film yet made about the entire Vietnam experience. Full Review

Peter Travers
May 12, 2001
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Stone has found in Cruise the ideal actor to anchor the movie with simplicity and strength.

Hal Hinson
January 1, 2000
Hal Hinson, Washington Post

This is an impassioned movie, made with conviction and evangelical verve. It's also hysterical and overbearing and alienating. Full Review

Desson Thomson
January 1, 2000
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Stone has created a film whose overblown parts add up to far less than the epic whole he had in mind. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Nothing Cruise has done will prepare you for what he does in Born on the Fourth of July. Full Review

Kelly Kessler
January 2, 2011
Kelly Kessler, Common Sense Media

Unflinching story of Vietnam vet turned activist. Full Review

December 21, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Cruise's impassioned performance as Kovic is an impressive accomplishment. Full Review

December 21, 2008
Film4

Not the sort of movie you actually enjoy, but its thought-provoking subject matter and haunting images are not easily forgotten. Full Review

Clint Morris
September 5, 2008
Clint Morris, Moviehole

A great performance by Cruise

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    • Ron Kovic: It's my leg! I want my leg, you understand? Can't you understand that? All's I'm sayin' is that I want to be treated like a human being! I fought for my country! I am a Vietnam veteran! I fought for my country!
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Born on the Fourth of July Trivia

  • Which 1989 Oliver Stone movie was based on the life of Ron Kovic?  Answer »
  • "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989) is a story of a man, Ron Kovic, paralyzed in the Vietnam war, who goes on to become an anti-war activist. Who played him?  Answer »
  • Tom Cruise has been nominated for 3 oscars.But what is the name of the Movies he has been nominated?  Answer »
  • Tom Cruise nominated the Oscar the first time from... ?  Answer »
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