“Not everybody can become United States Marines. We want the best and we settled for nothing but the best, because there is nothing prouder, nothing finer, nothing standing as straight as a United States Marine. Now they got the Air Force, they got the Navy, they got the Army, they got the Coast Guard – and if you want to join them, go ahead. They got plenty of room. But if you want a challenge, if you want to try something difficult, try to achieve the impossible – try 13 weeks of hell at Parris Island, South Carolina, and find out if you got what it takes, find out if you really are a man, then the Marines might be what you are looking for. Tarawa … Iwo Jima … Belleau Wood … the frozen Chosin Reservoir. First to fight, we have never lost a war. We have always come when our country has called.”
Born On The Fourth Of July has been both a controversial film as well as one of Tom Cruise’s first breakout roles. Over time the film has become appreciated more as feelings on the Vietnam War have pretty much come full circle in the American political mind. Now it can be viewed for the remarkable performance Tom Cruise delivers and the rather stark reality check Ron Kovic’s autobiography provided in 1976 to a nation that might not have been ready to hear it. Times have changed, and I think they’re well reflected in Oliver Stone’s film Born On The Fourth Of July, which Shout Factory has now made available in 4K for the first time.
It took a long time for Stone to bring the film to the box office. The film was first optioned by a production company called Artists Entertainment Complex, with Al Pacino slated to play the part of Ron Kovic. Martin Bergman was set to produce, with Paramount signed to handle the film’s distribution. But it was a tenuous relationship, and the film scared away a lot of studio brass who thought the film might be too controversial, and it was for that time. United Artists took over the project with Daniel Petrie signed to direct. While the film was playing musical production chairs, Oliver Stone took notice of the book and went and met with Ron Kovic. They bonded over their shared Vietnam experiences, and now the project had a strong advocate. But it was still stalled when Coming Home was released in 1978. Everyone thought the material was too close to the same, and Ron Kovic even acted as a consultant to that film. Everything went into hibernation with the film until 1986. It finally opened in 1989 to a five-city limited release and did very well and was in wide release in early 1990.
Tom Cruise took over the part when Al Pacino finally left. It wasn’t a popular choice. Cruise was just getting the kind of buzz that would make him a huge star, and the worry was how do you take a viral guy like Tom Cruise and put him in a wheelchair for over half the movie. Stone and Cruise stuck to their guns, and the film finally saw the light of day. To put it over the top, both Stone and Cruise waived any salary for their work and opted for points. It all pretty much worked out for everyone, and honestly this might still be Tom Cruise’s best acting performance of a rather stellar career. John Williams joined for the score late in the project and actually worked from a rough print of the nearly finished film. He didn’t need to compose much since there was a ton of source music used in the film. It wasn’t until nearly the end of his work that Williams thought of the idea of that iconic trumpet solo that was performed by Timothy Morrison, who used an American trumpet instead of the expected military design. The results added just that final touch of emotional beats to the film.
Ron Kovic (Cruise) is a middle-American student who was inspired by JFK and learned to have a deep patriotic love for his country. He often played war as a child with a John Wayne swagger and passion. When Marine recruiters come to his high school, he decides to enlist. Some of his friends jeered, but he was about as gung ho as you can get. The war changes his experience. He sees some of the cruelty and is part of some disaster mistakes. He’s wounded and paralyzed, but still displays the same pride and determination. It takes a while for him to come to grips with the reality he’d never walk again or father children. Home starts out rather sunny, but soon he descends into a darkness that pulls his family apart. He ends up in Mexico, where he indulges in some rather hedonistic behavior and finally returns to the United States where the Kent State Massacre among other things begins to turn him around. He becomes an active Vietnam vet against the war and finally finds his voice as the film concludes.
It’s a story of coming of age in a rather stark and sudden way that reality has a habit of enforcing upon us. Tom Cruise carries the film almost entirely on his back, and it’s that performance that makes the film as impactful as it has become. He looks so young here, but the kid still had charisma that is still on display so many years later.
Video
Born On The Fourth Of July is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 75 mbps. The ultra high definition is a remaster of the 35mm negative so is native 4K. This is a highly textured film, and that with the film stock grain are important elements here. There is some evidence of DNR, but I’d say it’s acceptable for the most part. The clarity here allows you to really appreciate the way Cruise emotes here. The colors are a little saturated to provide that period-piece atmosphere, and as we move later in time, the color starts to adjust to a more natural look. Black levels are strong with good shadow definition, particularly in the Vietnam scenes.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. Anything more would ruin the atmosphere of the original film. I’m not sure anything is gained here by the Atmos, but I appreciate the effort. A lot of the film is there to serve the dialog, and it works just like it always did. That trumpet cuts through just as it was intended, and the source music is nice and clear throughout. That’s all you really need, and you get it here. Less is sometimes better.
Special Features
There are no extras on the UHD disc, allowing all of the bandwidth for the film. Shout provided new interviews as extras on the Blu-ray copy that you get in this set.
The Battlefield At Home – Interview With Oliver Stone: (13:15)
The Ghost Generation – Interview With Special Makeup F/X Artist Gordon J. Smith: (12:00)
The War Continues – Interview With Associate Producer Clayton Townsend
Music Video: (3:57) A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall by Eric Brickell and New Bohemians.
Final Thoughts:
My only complaint about the film is the political shading the climax adds to the film. We see Kovic treated badly at the 1972 Republican National Convention and then welcomed as a hero 4 years later at the Democratic National Convention. Stone makes it look like an ideological difference but it was the times. Johnson is the one who got us fully into the war with his lies about the Gulf Of Tonkin and it was actually Nixon who finally got us out of the war. Stone intentionally shades it quite differently. That’s a shame because it’s a powerful film that should not be tainted by forced ideological spin. “Do you remember when things made sense?”
