Tom Cruise plays a man who loses the use of his legs and finds his voice. That’s the engine of Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July,” a biographical drama about Ron Kovic, a Marine paralyzed in the Vietnam War who turned into an anti-war activist. The film runs 145 minutes and was released in 1989, directed by Stone and written by Stone and Kovic himself. It’s the second entry in Stone’s trilogy about the Vietnam War, following “Platoon” and preceding “Heaven & Earth.”
Trailer, via Universal Pictures.
Kovic’s Story
The movie spans three decades of Kovic’s life. It begins in 1956, where 10-year-old Ron plays with his friends in a forest on his birthday. Later, he joins his family at an Independence Day parade along with his best friend Donna. In 1961, the story balances between President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address inspires a teenage Kovic to join the Marines. He enlists after a visit from Marine recruiters at his high school, with his mother’s support and his father’s disapproval — the father is a World War II veteran who lost many friends to the war.
Donna and Kovic dance together at his prom before he departs for recruit training. By October 1967, he’s back in South Vietnam as a Marine sergeant on his second tour there. His unit kills several South Vietnamese villagers after mistaking them for enemy fighters, then flees a village while abandoning its lone survivor, a crying infant. During the withdrawal, Kovic mistakenly kills a young private named Wilson from his own platoon. He reports the incident to his superior, who ignores it and instructs him not to speak of it further.
On January 20, 1968, Kovic is critically wounded during a firefight. A fellow Marine rescues him. He’s paralyzed from the mid-chest down and spends several months in recovery at the Bronx Veterans Hospital in New York. Conditions there are poor: doctors, nurses and orderlies ignore patients, abuse drugs and operate with old equipment. Against his doctors’ requests, Kovic tries to walk again with braces and crutches. He falls, breaks his leg and nearly needs it amputated.
He comes back permanently in a wheelchair in 1969, and there he turns to alcohol before eventually finding his way into the anti-war movement. The film traces his path from patriotic teenager to activist, showing the sense of betrayal he feels toward the nation that sent him off to fight.
Cruise’s Performance
The film centers on Cruise’s arc, and he earns every scene, carrying the weight of the physical transformation across a 20-year span from boyhood through adulthood. His performance is strong, playing Kovic with conviction throughout.
Stone approaches the material with a documentary-style urgency that fits it well. The film travels swiftly through its various periods, and the handheld camera work in the Vietnam sequences heightens the feeling of disorder and grief. Stone and Kovic adapted the script from Kovic’s own 1976 autobiography, and it remains frank about both the war and the political turmoil that came after it.
“I saw this kid who has everything,” Stone said of his casting choice. “And I wondered what would happen if tragedy strikes, if fortune denies him … I thought it was an interesting proposition: What would happen to Tom Cruise if something goes wrong?”
The Development Road
Martin Bregman secured the book rights in 1976 and brought in Stone, a man who had fought in Vietnam, to work alongside Kovic on the screenplay. At one point, Al Pacino was set to play Kovic. But when Stone took out the book in 1978, the project ran into trouble after Pacino and Bregman moved away from it. Stone and Kovic then set it aside.
The project came back to life at Universal Pictures after “Platoon” became a hit, with Stone attached to direct. Filming ran from October through December 1988, shooting on locations in the Philippines, Texas and Inglewood, California, over 65 days of production. The film eventually exceeded its original budget, finishing at $17.8 million after reshoots.
| Film | Director | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Platoon | Oliver Stone | 1986 |
| Born on the Fourth of July | Oliver Stone | 1989 |
| Heaven & Earth | Oliver Stone | 1993 |
Casting Choices
Stone considered other actors for Kovic, including Sean Penn, Charlie Sheen and Nicolas Cage. In 1987, Stone’s agent Paula Wagner showed “Platoon” to Tom Cruise after Cruise expressed interest in working with Stone. Cruise met with Stone to discuss the role in January 1988.
Stone dismissed Cruise’s previous film, “Top Gun,” as a “fascist movie.” But he was drawn to Cruise’s “Golden Boy” image. “I saw this kid who has everything,” Stone said. “And I wondered what would happen if tragedy strikes, if fortune denies him … I thought it was an interesting proposition: What would happen to Tom Cruise if something goes wrong?”
At first Kovic was cautious about Cruise, but he changed his mind after the actor came to see him at his home in Massapequa, New York. Cruise devoted a full year to getting ready for the part, going to veterans’ hospitals, studying books on the Vietnam War and working in a wheelchair. Stone once floated the idea of giving Cruise an injection of a chemical drug that would leave him paralyzed for two days, thinking it might help him convey the challenges of living as a paraplegic. The insurance company blocked the plan, worried about lasting harm.
Cruise’s participation in the production was daily, and Kovic joined him for rehearsals. Kovic also makes an appearance in the film as a World War II veteran at an Independence Day parade who flinches at exploding firecrackers, a reflex that Cruise’s character develops later.
The Ensemble
A host of actors round out the film, led by Raymond J. Barry as Mr. Kovic and Caroline Kava as Mrs. Kovic, with Kyra Sedgwick playing Donna and Willem Dafoe appearing as Charlie. Jerry Levine takes on Steve Boyer, while Stephen Baldwin steps into the role of Billy Vorsovich. Josh Evans plays Tommy Kovic, Rob Camilletti appears as Tommy Finnelli, Vivica A. Fox shows up as Hooker, Lili Taylor portrays Jamie Wilson, and Tony Frank rounds out the group as Mr. Wilson. Dale Dye, a decorated Marine and Vietnam veteran, appears as an infantry colonel. Stone appears as a TV reporter. The real Ron Kovic makes a cameo as a veteran in a wheelchair at the start of the film.
At Syracuse University, the Chicago Seven anti-war protester Abbie Hoffman is cast as a student strike organizer. The singer Edie Brickell shows up as a folksinger there too. Hoffman passed away before the film reached audiences, and his death is marked by an “In Memoriam” in the closing credits.
Where It Falls Short
The film does not attempt to hide its political stance. It devotes significant attention to Kovic’s activism as the natural result of his experiences, and it does not spend much time countering the arguments raised against him. The section covering his recovery and early activism drags, adding length without much new substance. Viewers might also notice an uneven rhythm as the story moves across three separate decades.
The film’s commitment to its subject is unwavering, even when the storytelling slows in the recovery sections. Stone’s direction is assured, Cruise’s performance is central, and the film’s emotional weight comes from Kovic’s personal journey rather than any single scene.
“Born on the Fourth of July” is a flawed but powerful film. It asks big questions about patriotism, sacrifice and the cost of war, and it answers them with a personal story that resonates beyond its era. It’s a film that demands attention, even when it stumbles. It deserves its place in Stone’s trilogy and in the canon of Vietnam War dramas.
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