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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Born on the Fourth of July

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | War
Written by:
Oliver Stone
Ron Kovic (and also book)
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 20, 1989
DVD: October 19, 2004
Running Time: 145 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Rated R for profanity and sexual situations
Starring Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Tom Sizemore, William Baldwin, Vivica A. Fox, and Lili Taylor
Based on a true story, the film follows the young Ron Kovic from a zealous teen who eagerly volunteers for the Vietnam War, to an embittered veteran paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Deeply in love with his country, Kovic returned to an environment vastly different from the one he left, and struggled before emerging as a brave new voice for the disenchanted. (Universal Studios)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Alexander Any Given Sunday JFK Natural Born Killers Nixon The Doors U Turn Wall Street World Trade Center
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Nothing Cruise has done will prepare you for what he does in Born on the Fourth of July. His performance is so good that the movie lives through it. Stone is able to make his statement with Cruise's face and voice and doesn't need to put everything into the dialogue.
Read Full Review >Empire Barry Mcllhenney
Some will find it overly long, but with such a pivotal performance by Cruise and a veritable platoon of Hollywood elite supporting, who can begrudge a bit more screen time?
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
But Stone has found in Cruise the ideal actor to anchor the movie with simplicity and strength. Together they do more than show what happened to Kovic. Their fervent, consistently gripping film shows why it still urgently matters.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Vincent Canby
It is a film of enormous visceral power with, in the central role, a performance by Tom Cruise that defines everything that is best about the movie.
Read Full Review >Variety Staff (Not Credited)
Oliver Stone again shows America to itself in a way it won't forget. His collaboration with Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic to depict Kovic's odyssey from teenage true believer to wheel-chair-bound soldier in a very different war results in a gripping, devastating and telling film about the Vietnam era.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
Stone's feisty, intensely personal style of film making is well-known. With Born on the Fourth of July we are treated to a poignant, spirited and captivating - for the broken heartedness of it all - performance by Tom Cruise. [25 Dec 1989, p.E1]
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July is a knockout, a huge angry howl of movie that uses a crippled Vietnam veteran's disability as metaphor for a country's paralysis. [5 Jan 1990, p.67]
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
The critique of masculinity is far more thoughtful and compelling than the vague ruminations about war. Nonetheless Cruise's impassioned performance as Kovic is an impressive accomplishment.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Staff (Not Credited)
Never the most subtle of directors Oliver Stone brings a jackhammer brutality to Born on the Fourth that the material no longer needs. [22 Dec 1989, p.C1]
USA Today Mike Clark
A fresh-slant Vietnam picture in which lead Tom Cruise achieves indisputable greatness, July is otherwise a "more often than not'' achievement. But though it's as full of itself as Stone's watchably windy Talk Radio, the film's roundhouse punches propel you into remote Mike Tyson-land when they connect. [20 Dec 1989, p.1D]
Washington Post Desson Howe
Stone has created a film whose overblown parts add up to far less than the epic whole he had in mind.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
This is an impassioned movie, made with conviction and evangelical verve. It's also hysterical and overbearing and alienating.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson
Possibly because Stone empathizes so enormously with co-writer Kovic, who came back from Vietnam at the age of 21 paralyzed from the chest down, the director has lost the specificity that made "Platoon" so electrifying. In its place he uses bombast, overkill, bullying. His scenes, and their ironic juxtapositioning, explode like land mines. [20 Dec 1989, p.1]
Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr
for all its flaws, Born on the Fourth of July provides the final proof that Tom Cruise is the real thing-a movie star with all the natural, unforced ability to connect with an audience that the title implies. [20 Dec 1989, p.1]
Wall Street Journal David Brooks
Born on the Fourth of July would be merely a hilariously inept gathering of Vietnam War movie cliches. Instead it is an unrelenting series of dramatic blows; almost every scene packs violence, sleaze, screamed rage and an ear-splitting music with headbutt force. For someone who despises the military, Mr. Stone is quite bellicose. [21 Dec 1989, p.1]
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Worst of all, the movie's conventional showbiz finale, brimming with false uplift, implies that the traumas of other mutilated and disillusioned Vietnam veterans can easily be overcome if they write books and turn themselves into celebrities.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ben gave it a10:
This may not be a movie you revisit very often, but it is an extremely inspiring tale of Ron Kovics life. It gives Vietnam Veterans a true face, and is a great movie to watch for anyone wondering about the political terror of the vietnam war. Also, Tom Cruise gives his finest performance as Kovics, and the film is not as in your face as some of Stones other work.
