5 comments about Born on the Fourth of July (Widescreen Edition).

1. How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.
   
   Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.
   
   This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.
   
   Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.
   
   It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.
   
   Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.
   
   A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.
   
   This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.



2. Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...
   
   The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...
   
   Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...
   
   Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...
   
   The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...
   
   Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...
   
   Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...
   
   If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...



3. To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
   This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
   If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
   Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.



4. Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.
   
   Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.
   
   This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.



5. Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.

No comments about CBS Evening News (July 4, 2000).

No comments about Naked on the 4th of July/Playboy Exposed.

No comments about Charlie Rose with Robert Duvall and James Caan (July 4, 1996).

1 comments about Charlie Rose with Walter Isaacson; David McCullough; Joseph Ellis (July 4, 2003).

1. Ellis book is about the founding brothers of the American Revolution- Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Burr, Hamilton, Franklin. He speaks about the vision of these leaders centering on political democracy and free enterprise capitalism. He speaks about them being 'brothers' that is at the distance that they would be should he have called them 'fathers'. He tells about the most brilliant Hamilton and his fatal duel with the shady Burr. He speaks about Washington's giving up his slaves when his wife died, and Jefferson's justification of Slavery. He points out that they were often rivals, but that they knew how to work together to bring their vision into being. He says that when they signed the declaration the chance that they might prevail against the British Army seemed one in ten- thousand. Ellis stresses the element of contingency and says that what we believe today 'had to be'might never have happened at all.

No comments about Charlie Rose with Daniel Boulud; Gene Jankowski; Elaine Pagels; Patricia Harrison (July 4, 1995).

1 comments about Charlie Rose with Pauline Maier; Craig Horowitz, Elliott Abrams, Alan Dershowitz & Ismar Schorsch (July 4, 1997).

1. Charlie Rose is to be strongly commended for picking up on this subject. And this even though the show itself proved to be a not very pleasant one. Its tone was acrimonious dominated by the disupte between Alan Dershowitz and Eliot Abrams. Dershowitz calls for a new openness in Judaism and a a greater acceptance of varying forms of Jewish connection and identity. He cites the Mordechai Kaplan conception of Judaism as a Civilization as the proper way to address the problem. Abrams insist on a religious- centered identity and claims that this is the only kind which will endure over time.
   All agree that the American Jewish community is facing demographic attrition due to intermarriage and low reproductive rates. All are interested in having more Jews involved in communal life.
   Perhaps because the show was on American television and the prospective audience mostly non- Jewish there was not much talk about Israel, about Aliyah about solving the problem in the classical Zionist way.
   A number of the panelists spoke about improved Jewish education. And there is no doubt that this is a right direction. But the question of what exactly such an education should consist in, did not come up.There were some optimistic words about new kinds of Jewish cultural identity. Ismar Schorsh of JTS advocated a strengthening of synagogue life, and the allocation of community funds for that purpose.
   On the whole it was the famous 'two- Jews, three opinions' kind of disjointed discussion which might have well left spectators more confused at the end than they were at the beginning.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

No comments about Charlie Rose with Kevin Spacey (July 4, 2006).

No comments about Summer Holiday Survival.

5 comments about Born on the Fourth of July [Region 2].

1. How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.
   
   Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.
   
   This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.
   
   Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.
   
   It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.
   
   Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.
   
   A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.
   
   This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.



2. Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...
   
   The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...
   
   Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...
   
   Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...
   
   The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...
   
   Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...
   
   Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...
   
   If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...



3. To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
   This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
   If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
   Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.



4. Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.
   
   Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.
   
   This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.



5. Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.