Born on the Fourth of July

A biographrical film by Oliver Stone in the same vein of The Doors. Stone tells an intense story that starts with a definite image of a man and his beliefs and then goes full circle to see how he completely changes. The subject in the film is Ron Kovic and his life altering experience in Vietnam. Stone doesn't focus on ideas with the story but focuses on the experience of Kovic's change. Ideas are within the narrative, but Born on the Fourth of July and The Doors lack the large themes in Nixon and JFK. They focus on the brutal details their main characters go through to discover their revelation (in Born on the Fourth of July) or demise (in the Doors). To make this concept of storytelling work Stone has to be a gifted and challenging filmmaker and he surely is. The sweet moments at the beginning of the film have as much grace as a quality Speilberg film and the tough moments aren't repititions of the same gritty shots, but filmmaking at different speeds and camera objectives. The film is wonderfully nuanced and features the actor Tom Cruise when he was ambitious and considered one of the young premiere acors. He is convincing both as a naive youth and a broken down crippled soldier.