BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
A film review by Eugene Miya
in the public domain
Born on the Fourth of July Directed by Oliver Stone
Why would anyone want to see this film? Sounds like a Springsteen song.
Some people like Tom Cruise. I can understand; I paid ASC dues for a while. It's not comedy, and it's not one of those macho man films, but I think there were some people in the audience who thought it might have been. This film won't have many repeat attendees. It was emotionally draining for a few people.
It is a long film, nearly 2.5 hours. A few of the scenes might seem down and out. I guess life is kind of like that, and as I get older, I have tended to get tired of some of the current same-as-always fare. So you might not like this (my) view. I don't know if people want Vietnam films, judging from popular expression of support in Panama--an irony it happens at the same time.
I went to see this film because when I was growing up I remember Dad watching the tube and seeing a fellow named Ron Kovic in a wheelchair and my Dad exclaiming, "That man is a Communist." It happened more than once, and that was my introduction to The Vietnam Veteran Against the War.
This film is not for weak stomachs. It does not show some aspects of life in a very positive manner: values, non-White races, women [to a degree], Catholicism, the VA [especially], people with handicaps, and others "we" don't treat well. Especially the VA: I know that from personal experience because I remember spending lots of time at VA hospitals [Westwood and Long Beach] with my Dad who was a Legionnaire (and I was a Son: still recall the preamble, visiting WWII vets, and I know that those and other earlier Vets tended to look down up the Nam vets.
The obvious comparison is Hal Ashby's COMING HOME. This is a different story, a real one. You can go borrow Kovic's book from a library (is it still in print?). So you can check the deals as I did for Michael Fox's CASUALTIES OF WAR. I do not think it is possible to spoil the film by recounting the sequence of events: it is a very graphic, very visual film.
I think this is one of the most powerful films of the year. It is very similar in tone to Stone's earlier PLATOON (incidental music is the same). There are no BIG names in this film. Tom Berringer and Wilhelm Dafoe from that earlier film appear in this film: Berringer as a recruiting sergeant (I remember when that happened in my life) and Dafoe as another vet in a chair. The details are well taken care of, perhaps too obvious in attention to having a few long scenes: the anti-war books before Kovic changed his mind (JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN and ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT), Life Magazines, the TV footage; oh, Stone himself appears as a newscaster interviewing a colonel on the tube. Ron Kovic himself is in the film as another wheelchair-bound vet.
This is another one of those "male-bonding" films, to use the cliche. It does not speak well of fixed roles, or how we treat our fellow man. A signal the film sends out (from the 50s) is that it is an honor to give your life for your country: the ultimate sacrifice. But the film shows that to die is preferable to coming back "less than whole." These men who returned have made the ultimate sacrifice.
I don't know how well it will do in the box-office in the long run. I went to see the film at a nearly full Saturday matinee when I was waiting for a long computer run. Do I used Leeper's scale? Dare I gave it a +3? Sure. May even be a +4. But people like Kovic's mother would question that (remember, I said that some women do not appear in a favorable light). That's Leeper's scale. Only time will tell.
Okay, you had your chance (that concludes commentary). Synopsis follows-- nothing else. Again, it's visceral, so I don't think I will give any earth- shattering thing away.
The film begins with two boys paying Army (Ron) on Long Island in 1956. (I remember the surplus helmet I had.) Well done, down to throwing the dirt. It's the 4th of July, Ron's birthday. They attend a parade, see the soldiers, the disabled vets. One first notices one of the vets wincing at the sound of firecrackers (I never saw anything like that growing up, but the parade was well done; I've walked in three or four myself). Ron's future "sweetheart" is shown. Not into girls yet. It moves to a time when Kennedy is stepping into office (the "ask not what you country can do for you..." speech; this evoked the only cheer in my audience). But Ron's mother is worried about Communism. Said many times through the film.
The next scenes show Ron getting older. He's into wrestling, and he loses. He's working very hard, the American dream. His mother catches him with a Playboy (I am surprised she did not do the equivalent to washing his mouth with soap). The group pressure is shown. A recruiting team visits. He decides to become a Marine. His Dad, a WWII Vet, isn't so sure he should do this, not saying why, not a strong-willed father figure. The concept of duty to country was well shown. His brother playing Dylan.
It's too bad the film is as long as it is. It would be a great film if it had the training scenes from FULL METAL JACKET at this point, but the film now cuts to a beach near the DMZ. It's a village they are preparing to check out. They open fire early, the confusion starts, and the pressure of authority (command) is there. Ron, on his second tour (that part seemed a bit less probable), and his men (one new) check out for friendly casualties. They wasted a few. The wounds are very graphic--there is a way the skin parts on a grazing wound and they show this. But then they are under attack. The confusion of battle and retreat is well portrayed. NVA, bullets. Looking toward the sun, movement, Ron shoots. It's the new man. From Georgia. Not a pretty sight.
The Major denies Ron killed his own man, but Ron is feeling it. They don't tell you that 10-12% of the casualties of a war are caused by "friendly fire" (explored by a Carol Burnett film of that title). Remember that when you see Panama casualty figures.
Ron is getting a bit frosty; his mind is off somewhere else. Some months later, Ron's squad is advancing on another village. The NVA open up. Someone gets it thru the head. Ron gets his heel blown off, but still the fighter, he keeps shooting. He gets hit. Point of view includes getting hauled out. This is the only film I know which shows the exit wound as well as an entry wound. Ron has a gaping hole in his back. The aid station is a nightmare. Soldiers dying. Just when you thought it was bad....
The VA hospital is shown as a real nightmare. COMING HOME was clean compared to this. Ron tries real hard; he still has his fighting spirit. He's trying to regain the use of his legs when the doctors are telling him no hope. When he falls, it's a compound fracture on a paraplegic. He tragically loses his leg. The chair forever now. This whole sequence is not for weak stomaches. And it forebode more: "America Love it or Leave."
He finally goes home. Things are different. One "sleeze" peer has gone into business (was in college). He gets a chance to feel better; he's in parade dress and to speak on the 4th from a platform. When he gets a memory from a baby crying. He can't finish, but he runs into an old buddy who has also been there. Lost friends are discussed in a way only a Vet can joke about.
He sees his sweetheart. A demonstration [Readjustment Blues by John Denver would have been right here]. Ron is slowly becoming a problem. His hair starting to get longer. He has a confrontation with a WWII Vet. He blows up in front of his Mom, Catholicism, and his Dad suggests Mexico.
Down in Mexico, he sees other wheelchair-bound vets. He is killing time. Gets into a fight with Dafoe, tragic humor at its best. What are you going to do, Ron? He visits the parents of the man he killed. Many tokens of past soldiers in the house. You can guess for yourself if he tells a story of bravery or the truth. A powerful moment.
The film concludes which Ron (a Republican) getting into the 1972 Republican convention and "disrupting it." One of the vets is really an undercover cop, trying to get him specifically (this really happened). The media coverage. Then the 1976 Democratic convention. His book is out. He is "home."
This film would appear a real downer except at the very beginning and end. The problem is that many of these people, policies, attitudes still exist. It would be really hard to create an uplifting ending. It is a film about principles.
It is somewhat ironic the film was shot in the Philippines where so much recent blood has been shed. One hears a a couple dozen killed in Panama, but few remember that over 300 Americans were wounded, some by friendly fire, some to probably go thru what Kovic did. Then what of the 1000 Panamanians? What of the millions of Vietnamese? Okay, so this is commentary. Finis.
Another gross generalization from
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov {ncar,decwrl,hplabs,uunet}!ames!eugene
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