Couldn’t pick a better day than the 4th of July to talk about BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.
I knew it was an Oliver Stone blockbuster starring Tom Cruise, released in 1989, but didn’t know it was also an autobiographical best-seller by Ron Kovic in 1976.
The story’s about a kid growing up on Long Island, a patriotic little bastard who wants little more than to serve his country. He joins the Marines & risks life & limb in Vietnam.
In fact, he comes home from Vietnam paralyzed & confined to a wheelchair. He also comes home to a rude awakening and feels betrayed by the country he fought for. This realization transforms him into an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist.
The next two paragraphs from BORN TO BE WILD describe the Vietnam Era:
“Flower children bloomed, hippies flashed peace signs and donned love beads, and teenagers were running away from home in droves to join hippie communes – many of them in San Francisco. A generation of teenagers started smoking pot, copping ludes, popping speed, dropping acid, shooting dope, huffing glue, and doing their thing with banana peels and mushrooms.
Peaceniks burned draft cards, draft dodgers crossed the Canadian border to avoid the military, and National Guardsmen gunned down protesting college students at Kent State. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, medics kept shipping home brave American patriots in body bags.”
Born to Be Wild, Warner Books, 1992, by Barry Bowe
Check out the trailer for Born on the Fourth of July:
Tom Cruise gave an excellent portrayal of Ron Kovic’s trials & tribulations. Kovic collaborated with Oliver Stone on the screenplay. And all three won an Oscar.
Here’s one of Cruise’s lines from the movie:
“They burned the flag and they demonstrated against us. It’s on the cover of the paper today. They have no respect. They have no idea what’s going on over there, Mom. The men are sacrificing their lives. People are dying every day over there, and nobody back here even seems to care. It’s a bunch of goddamn shit if you ask me!”
IMDB listing for Born on the Fourth of July
The movie’s long – 2 hours & 25 minutes – but good. Takes some wicked turns. Pretty much a one-man show until Willem DaFoe enters the scene late in the movie to provide an excellent foil who both helps & hinders Cruise.
Kyra Sedgwick & Tom Berenger have minor roles. Kyra Sedgwick as Cruise’s girlfriend in high school & Tom Berenger as a Marine recruiter. Frank Whaley is a walk-on during the high school years – & who could forget Frank Whaley in Pulp Fiction?
For a touch of irony, Oliver Stone hired Abbe Hoffman for a couple scenes. During the Vietnam Era in question, Hoffman was a world-class protester & agitator. He was one of the ringleaders in the “Chicago Eight” group that disrupted the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was arrested, tried, & convicted for conspiracy & inciting a riot.
To him, protesting was mostly fun & games.
Both verdicts were later overturned on appeal. He died from an intentional overdose of phenobarbital in 1989.
One last question – Where did the title come from?
Answer: Ron Kovic was born of the Fourth of July in 1946.
Barry Bowe
America’s Best Crime Writer
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