ThiefHott Too much of everything

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

merelyaninnuendo Born On The Fourth Of JulyStarring : Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava and Willem Dafoe Screenwriter : Ron Kovic and Oliver Stone Director : Oliver Stone3 and a half out of 5Born On The Fourth Of July is a character driven feature whose protagonist goes through a challenging emotional phase in his life after encountering some inedible and gut-wrenching truth back at the war. Such war based features often follow a rudimentary process that undermines the creativity or the originality of the material, but in here, it stands along on its format, as each single lose thread of the feature is reconnected or used up again wisely by the makers attaining the perfect balance of the drama of the characters and the brutality of the practicality projected in here. The camera work is plausible even though it could have been shot with more appetizing or at least attention seeking work, and it may be short on background score, sound effects and art design but is perfectly edited.Oliver Stone; the screenwriter-director, keeps the audience engaged through its brilliant execution skill and his manipulative dramatic shots that easily breaks down into tears. Tom Cruise is in his A game (especially break down sequence where he confesses his sins) and doing some of his career's best work despite of not getting the essential support from the cast except for Willem Dafoe who helps him survive a mid-act sequence.Born On The Fourth Of July is resurrected on incarcerating, both the good and bad deeds, whose unexpected influence led humankind to its doom.

slightlymad22 Continuing my plan to watch every Tom Cruise movie in order, I come to Born On The 4th Of July (1988)Plot In A Paragraph: The biography of Ron Kovic (Crusie) Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.Anyone who thought Cruise was just a pretty boy, who could not act, were proved wrong with this powerful movie. He was rightly nominated for an Oscar, and I don't think there will have been too many complaining had he won. He really showcased his acting chops here. The movie was nominated for 8 Oscars winning 2. Best Film Editing and Best Director for Oliver Stone. I can see why this powerful movie is not to everyone's taste. It certainly isn't one I watch a lot, but that doesn't mean it is not a brilliant piece of movie-making. This is the first serious drama Cruise has not had a more famous co lead, and he does not disappoint. If anyone has not seen this movie I urge you to check it out!! The battle scenes are exactly how I imagine the confusion of gunfight in a war zone to be and the scenes in the hospital are brutally honest in their horror. It could have been easy for Cruise to fall into a number of traps with this performance and he doesn't!! Similar with Stone, his direction could have wondered into other directions, but it doesn't!! It sticks true to the heart of its story!! As painful as it is. It's interesting that the movie poster has a youthful Cruise on it, as it's not how he looks for the majority of the movie. Born On The Fourth Of July grossed $70 million at the domestic box office, to end the year the 17th highest grossing movie of 1989.

JaydoDre Born on the Fourth of July is one of the more cheesier movies out there. In the beginning there is a line a mother says to her boy with a crazy smile as they are watching TV: "I had a dream, Ronnie, the other night, that you were speaking to a large crowd just like him…just like him, and you were saying great things"! And in the background a wondrous orchestral theme is playing. Now that particular line does pay off eventually, but large parts of the movie are like that: artificial and full of pomp and cheese, all for the sake of the message.That music keeps on coming back and it is always either the adventurous tune from every children's adventure movie ever or else the saddest tragedy tune. It really affects the mood of the movie and is one of the few movie scores that is persistently noticeable. This music on its own is good but in the film it is a major contributor to that cheesy feeling as it helps push the anti-war meaning.It is as if a hippie tried to do an anti-war movie and tried to stay respectful and tasteful. He thinks he is but he still can't help but push his point through in every scene.This brings me to another issue related to its pushy point: the issue with content variety. Of course a movie should have a point, but everything in this movie is about "war is bad". We see the young hero of the film being a promising young man and the rest of the film we spend watching the negative effects of war on him. Almost everything is related to that. Just pick a scene. Is war still bad? Yup, it is still bad. And how about this scene, what is the mood of this scene? War is bad. Even in the beginning, before the main character experiences war, the obvious music and themes remind you that war will be bad. It is only towards the end of the movie that something more positive and meaningful starts coming through but this is a long movie and you have to wait a while for that pay-off.This movie makes me appreciate The Thin Red Line more. That is another movie with an anti-war message but it is much more subtle. Born on the Fourth of July, just like its title, is not.Having said that, there is a point and a good structure to support it. Things seeded earlier in the story grow fruits later on. The progression in the main character and the change in his beliefs feels realistic and well-spread over the course of the film. There is also a good side to the movie being obvious, namely that it is clear and easy to grasp. Raw and dirty scenes may be forced in the viewer's face, but on the other hand the movie has interesting raw and dirty scenes that give the film texture.On top of that, the movie has a good cast of many familiar faces appearing in different parts of the film. Tom Cruise in the main role gives it his best as he usually does. It would have been cooler if Willem Dafoe stayed for longer in the movie than he did but maybe then he would have chewed the scenery too much and outweigh the film.Generally, the movie seems to get better as it progresses because the good structure starts becoming more and more apparent and the ideas start paying off, but I wish it was not so pushy.

thesar-2 Exactly 25 years ago today, I went to my normal, daily summer routine of watching everything and anything in the theatres. Mostly dollar cinemas – yeah, when they actually were a dollar, since I never had any real funds. Luckily, this movie was still playing and I thought so appropriate that I would see this on the Fourth of July. But, unluckily, the film broke half-way through the feature and we were all given free passes to return. I never did. Well, at least to this movie.Not that I didn't like it. I was actually getting into it. But, I had other movies to watch. Then, it obviously came to home video, but I never got around to it. Coincidentally, I chose the quarter of a century anniversary for me to finally return to it and finish it once and for all.I'm glad I did. It was an extremely well-made movie and far ahead of its time with its dealing with PTSD and a country divided. Yeah, this dealt with the Vietnam War, but, it fits events today as well. Cruise, who oddly enough was ALMOST born on the Fourth of July (7/3/62,) was excellent and it was heartbreaking what happened to the real-life character he played. Sadly, America's head got way too big from the WWs, and even though Korea was a bust, there was still enough patriotism to fool more men to go fight a no-win war. Thankfully, there were protesters, or people who stood up and questioned what was force-fed us.I'm getting a little political here, or, more accurately, anti- political, but that's this movie. I just happen to agree with it. Miserably, a lot of the same politics play today with more brainwashing and mercifully, there are still people who will stand up against the fear mongers. I digress. Very good movie and you shouldn't wait 25 years to see this. See it now.