Born on the fourth of July

Moving away from the simplified morality and broad sweep of his earlier ‘Platoon’ (1986), Stone’s second film on the Vietnam war, based on the 1976 autobiography of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovac, traces two decades in his life. Beginning when Kovac (Tom Cruise) is a zealous teen who eagerly volunteers for the chance to ‘kill commies’, the narrative focuses on his experiences after he is wounded in Vietnam resulting in paralysis from the waist down. Undergoing a slow painful rehabilitation in an underfunded and unsympathetic veteran’s hospital back in the US, he gradually develops a political consciousness and begins to participate in the anti-war movement. An impassioned, compelling film, which is at times, overbearing and bombastic in its exploration of patriotism. Cast also includes Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Kyra Sedgwick, Brian Larkin, Willem Dafoe, and Lili Taylor.