Katana VentraIP

Born on the Fourth of July (film)

Born on the Fourth of July is a 1989 American epic biographical anti-war film that is based on the 1976 autobiography of Ron Kovic. Directed by Oliver Stone, and written by Stone and Kovic, it stars Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick, Raymond J. Barry, Jerry Levine, Frank Whaley, and Willem Dafoe. The film depicts the life of Kovic (Cruise) over a 20-year period, detailing his childhood, his military service and paralysis during the Vietnam War, and his transition to anti-war activism. It is the second installment in Stone's trilogy of films about the Vietnam War, following Platoon (1986) and preceding Heaven & Earth (1993).

Born on the Fourth of July

Ixtlan Productions[1]

  • December 20, 1989 (1989-12-20)

145 minutes[2]

United States

English

$17.8 million[1]

$162 million[3]

Producer Martin Bregman acquired the film rights to the book in 1976 and hired Stone, also a Vietnam veteran, to co-write the screenplay with Kovic, who would be played by Al Pacino. When Stone optioned the book in 1978, the film adaptation became mired in development hell after Pacino and Bregman left, which resulted in him and Kovic putting the film on hold. After the release of Platoon, the project was revived at Universal Pictures, with Stone attached to direct. Shot on locations in the Philippines, Texas and Inglewood, California, principal photography took place from October 1988 to December, lasting 65 days of filming. The film went over its initial $14 million production budget and ended up costing $17.8 million after reshoots.


Upon release, Born on the Fourth of July was praised by critics for its story, Cruise's performance and Stone's direction. The film was successful at the box office as it grossed over $162 million worldwide, becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 1989. At the 62nd Academy Awards, it received eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cruise, his first nomination, and the film won for Best Director, Stone's second in that category, and Best Film Editing. The film also won four Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Plot[edit]

In 1956 Massapequa, New York, 10-year-old Ron Kovic is playing with his friends in a forest. On his Fourth of July birthday, he attends an Independence Day parade with his family and best friend Donna. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy's televised inaugural address inspires a teenage Kovic to join the United States Marine Corps. After attending an impassioned lecture by two Marine recruiters visiting his high school, he enlists. His decision receives support from his mother, but upsets his father, a World War II veteran who lost many of his friends to the war. Kovic goes to his prom, dances with Donna and kisses her before leaving for recruit training.


In October 1967, Kovic is now a Marine sergeant on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam, during his second tour of duty. He and his unit kill a number of Vietnamese villagers after mistaking them for enemy combatants. After encountering enemy fire, they flee the village and abandon its sole survivor, a crying baby. During the retreat, Kovic accidentally kills Wilson, a young private in his platoon. He reports the action to his superior, who ignores the claim and advises him not to say anything else. In January 1968, Kovic is critically wounded during a firefight, but is rescued by a fellow Marine. Paralyzed from the mid-chest down, he spends several months in recovery at the Bronx Veterans Hospital in New York. Conditions in the underfunded and understaffed hospital are poor; the doctors, nurses and orderlies ignore patients, abuse drugs, and operate using old equipment. Against his doctors' requests, Kovic desperately tries to walk again with the use of braces and crutches, only to severely injure one of his legs, nearly requiring its amputation.


In 1969, Kovic, now permanently using a wheelchair, returns home and turns to alcohol to cope with his growing depression and disillusionment. During an Independence Day parade, he is asked to give a speech, but is unable to finish after he hears a crying baby in the crowd, triggering a flashback to Vietnam. Kovic visits Donna in Syracuse, New York, where the two reminisce. While attending a vigil for the victims of the Kent State shootings, they are separated when Donna and other protestors are arrested by police.


In Massapequa, a drunken Kovic has a heated argument with his mother, and his father decides to send him to Villa Dulce, a Mexican haven for wounded Vietnam veterans. He has his first sexual encounter with a prostitute, whom he falls for until he sees her with another customer. Kovic befriends Charlie, another paraplegic, and the two decide to travel to another village after getting kicked out of a bar. After annoying their taxicab driver, they are stranded on the side of the road, and an argument turns into a fight. They are picked up by a passing motorist who takes them back to Villa Dulce.


Kovic travels to Armstrong, Texas, where he locates Wilson's tombstone. He then visits the fallen Marine's family in Georgia to confess his guilt. Wilson's widow Jamie expresses that she is unable to forgive Kovic, while his parents are more sympathetic. In 1972, Kovic joins the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and travels to the Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida. As Richard Nixon is giving an acceptance speech for his presidential nomination, Kovic expresses to a news reporter his hatred for the war and the government for abandoning the American people. His comments enrage Nixon's supporters, and his interview is cut short when police attempt to remove and arrest him and other protestors. Kovic and the veterans manage to break free from the officers, regroup, and charge the hall again, though not successfully. In 1976, Kovic delivers a public address at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, following the publication of his autobiography.

Born on the Fourth of July (Motion Picture Soundtrack Album)

December 19, 1989

56:45

John Williams

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

The film grossed $172,021 on its first week of limited release, an average of $34,404 per theatre. More theatres were added on the following weekend, and it grossed a further $61,529 in its second weekend, with an overall gross of $937,946.[41] On its third weekend, the film entered wide release, grossing $11,023,650 and securing the number one position at the North American box office.[41][42] The film fell 27.2% the following week, grossing an additional $8,028,075 while remaining first in the top-ten rankings.[41][52] On its fifth weekend, it earned an additional $6,228,360 for an overall gross of $32,607,294.[53]


The film grossed $4,640,940 in its sixth weekend, dropping to second place behind Driving Miss Daisy.[41][54] The following weekend, it moved to third place, earning an additional $4,012,085.[41][55] On its eighth weekend, it had dropped to fourth place and earned $3,004,400.[41][56] It stayed in fifth place for the next three weekends, and by March 4, 1990, the film had an overall gross of $59,673,354.[41][43]


The film grossed $70,001,698 in North America[3] ($151,650,800 when adjusted for inflation),[57] and $91 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $162,001,698.[3] In the United States and Canada, it was the seventeenth highest-grossing film of 1989.[58] Worldwide, it was the tenth highest-grossing film of 1989,[59] as well as Universal's second highest-grossing film released that year, behind Back to the Future Part II.[60]

, the first installment in Oliver Stone's Vietnam War trilogy

Platoon

, the third installment in Stone's Vietnam War trilogy

Heaven & Earth

, another 1989 film set during the Vietnam War, based on the 1966 incident on Hill 192

Casualties of War

Vietnam War in film

United States–Vietnam relations

at IMDb

Born on the Fourth of July

at the TCM Movie Database

Born on the Fourth of July

at Box Office Mojo

Born on the Fourth of July

at AllMovie

Born on the Fourth of July