Born on the Fourth of July

I think this might be the only film in which I’ve seen Tom Cruise actually act! It’s an inspired piece of casting from Oliver Stone that puts this pretty boy Ron Kovic front and centre as the Vietnam War rages half way around the world from his American home. This lad’s family have history fighting for their country, and despite some reservations from his father (Raymond J. Barry) but with the active support of his mother (Caroline Kava), he enlists. His time in Asia is fraught with danger; their enemy ruthless and tenacious and their command structure isn’t the most cohesive, but he does form a solid bond with his colleagues as they face their daily perils. Those perils impact increasingly more directly on Ron until he is transported back without the use of his legs, or anything much else below his waistline. The doctors are brutally frank with him. No walking and no children. He’s determined, however, not to lose these limbs and it’s that fortitude that sees him returned home to a family ill-equipped to deal with his or their own demons. One of his friends suggests he gets a job, but with a decent government cheque coming in each month he shuns that idea and is soon an unfulfilled drunken drug addict with nobody around him having any idea how to help. Perhaps salvation for this man might come from an unlikely quarter as he begins to fight against the indifference shown by Uncle Sam to it’s veterans once their usefulness has expired. He turns out to be quite an orator and is swiftly galvanising not just the victims but the entire anti-war effort across his country - much to the chagrin of the powers that be. The effort from Cruise here is transformative. He morphs convincingly from the handsome idealistic boy-next-door to the foul-mouthed, scruffy looking, protester with what I think is his most natural of performances. He positively oozes an embittered toxicity against the authorities who now consider him, and many thousands like him, little more than an inconvenience. He is a bit of a pig to be around, is Ron, and that puts enormous pressure on his friends and family - well extolled by Kava, Josh Evans as his younger brother Tommy and by Barry as a father dealing with his own feelings of helplessness and guilt. Away from the personalities, this film effectively illustrates just how abandoned many of the injured were. With insufficient medical care, facilities and staff often meaning their recovery processes were delayed and the psychological effects of that on both the injured and those charged with their care is writ large, too. Stone understands how to convey the horrors of war and the scarring it causes and the originally adapted screenplay by Kovic himself is gritty and realistic on both a military and personal level. The man has flaws and he knows it, but once he has a conduit for his considerable energy he can become formidable. This isn’t an easy watch, but as an antidote to so much glamorised wartime fiction, it works well.