Jeremy Clarke reviews
Born on the Fourth of July
Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE
Cast:
Tom Cruise (Jerry Maguire, Far and Away, Days of Thunder, Mission: Impossible)
Kyra Sedgwick (Something To Talk About, Singles, Heart And Souls)
Raymond J. Barry (Sudden Death, Dead Man Walking)
Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Wild At Heart, The Last Temptation Of
Christ, Speed 2, Clear and Present Danger)
Jerry Levine
Frank Whaley (Broken Arrow, The Doors, Platoon)
Caroline Kava
Lili Taylor (The Addiction, Ransom, I Shot Andy Warhol)
Oliver Stone's
second Vietnam movie is based on Ron Kovic's eponymous
and autobiographical book about both Kovic's experiences in that war and
his subsequent shift in political viewpoint following his return. Kovic
came back from Vietnam paralysed from the waist down - and effectively
castrated. Stone's casting of that symbol of American machismo Tom
Cruise is therefore a masterstroke, with the actor giving as good as he
gets in one of his all-too-rare, superlative performances.
Kovic belongs to a "good" family, where Catholicism is used to justify
social mores. His mother on the one hand vilifies him for reading
Playboy and on the other explains that it's God's will for teenage Ron
to join the Marines. Yet the War not only ruins the rest of his own
life, but ultimately turns him against the State - and indeed the family
unit that endorsed it - that sent him off to fight. Worthy themes, no
doubt, but BO4J is an incredibly manipulative piece of film making,
piling the emotion (and John Williams' haunting if overly repetitive musical
motif) on thick as and when required, quite possibly in a bid
for whatever Oscars were going begging. (Sure enough, Cruise won one for
Best Actor.)
Somehow, it never quite gets to grips with the real injustices at hand.
Kovic's final triumph as a successful anti-Vietnam War speaker gives the
uneasy feeling that the film is taking the easy way out by endorsing the
American Dream that if you try hard enough, you will eventually succeed,
no matter what the obstacles. Perhaps a more downbeat ending would have
been more effective (but won less Oscars).
Nor is Pioneer's PAL disc without its problems. Central to the film is
the sequence under fire in Vietnam where Kovic is convinced he's just
shot one of his own men. (Later, in coming to terms with inner demons,
he visits the dead man's family in one of the finest scenes in the film,
here presented on side three's CAV.) This incident takes place in a sort
of orange haze which (whether for reasons of poor source print or sloppy
transfer is unclear) just doesn't look that good here - and that tends
to mar the remainder of the proceedings. A pity, because two side breaks
and chaptering (thirty two over three sides) are both well chosen, while
side three's CAV features night riot scenes and Kovic's closing rally
speech.
If almost a decade later, BO4J remains a fascinating (if heavily flawed)
film, anyone considering buying this disc should be warned it doesn't
really do the film justice. A great shame.
Film: 4/5
Picture: 3/5
Sound: 5/5
Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1997.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
