7. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Based on Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic's autobiography, Born on the Fourth of July was directed by Oliver Stone, and features Tom Cruise as Ron. The film was a huge commercial hit and won many awards. We see the teenage Ron dancing with his sweetheart before he goes to enlist. We next see him as a sergeant on his second tour of duty and a scene in which his troop kills a village of Vietnamese people, mistakenly believing them to be the enemy. In the confusing retreat, Kovic accidentally shoots and kills a fellow soldier. His executive officer tells him to forget about it. In the next bout of conflict, Ron is critically wounded and paralysed from the chest down. We follow his rehab is a really hellish Veterans Hospital. He returns home in a wheelchair, an embittered ex soldier. His worldview is at odds with those around him. He sees students having protests and burning American flags. Is this what he gave up the use of his legs for? Growing increasingly bitter about the world around him, Ron travels to Mexico where he has a sexual experience with a prostitute. He wants to marry her but then sees her with another client and reality kicks in. Coming back to the States, Kovic goes to visit the family of the soldier he shot. The widow cannot forgive him but the soldier's parents are more forgiving as the father had fought in the Pacific arena of World War Two. For the rest of the film, Ron spends his time crusading against the war. It is doubtless that Oliver Stone delivered a very powerful anti-war statement with Born on the Fourth of July and as much as I, Clare 'sleazemonger' Simpson dislike Tom Cruise and the type of films he stars in, he does give a very good performance as Ron Kovic. The film is vehemently anti-war- young soldiers get shot by accident by their own side, the enemy is misidentified leading to the pointless killings of civilians, young men are broken and maimed out in combat. And what was it for? For Kovic to come home and find everyone protesting against a war he believed in, and fought in the name of America? That he gave up the use of his legs for? At least he gets some kind of peace talking to the US soldier he killed parents. The film is very good in its depiction of spinal rehabilitation and paralysis. Being paralysed for life is a terrible thing, I know because my sister had an accident and is paralysed from the chest down. I think it is worse for a man than a woman because they feel so impotent - like their maleness has taken a knock. S tone does an excellent job in portraying this through Ron's bitterness, his attempts at sexuality, the limits he faces in a wheelchair unfriendly society. Was his paralysis a payback for shooting the young soldier? But ultimately Ron does not give up and yield to a bitter fate. His campaigning is a constructive use of his paralysis because he is a real life - look at me sitting in a wheelchair - visceral depiction of the horrors of war. A film to be applauded in very many respects.