Born on the Fourth of July
USA
1989
Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, a young man who goes off to fight in the Vietnam War and returns home as a paraplegic. Ron is initially devastated by his injury, but comes to see his purpose as a protestor against the evils of the Vietnam War. There are some great scenes and Cruise plays the part brilliantly, but Paradevo has two major complaints with the movie. First, it's primarily a movie about the evils of war and Ron's injury is secondary. Second, Cruise is usually one of the most attractive men in Hollywood, but he badly needs a shave and a haircut in this movie. Tom Cruise at his best as a paraplegic is orgasmic, but as is he gets only three stars.
This is one of my favorite movies. It was sort-of my first devo movie. As much as Tom Cruise didn't look like his usual self, he did look very much like the man he was portraying! This movie is based on an auto-biography of the same name. It was interesting to me to see the transformation from someone who was excited to fight for his country to someone who thought Vietnam was a mistake. Then again, I was an impressionable young girl of thirteen when I first saw it!
ReplyDeleteI think it was my first devo movie too. I think I realized I was a dev when Tom Cruise was trying to do pull ups.
ReplyDeleteI also read the book, which was pretty good as well.