Born on the Fourth of July

Stone plays bumper cars with the camera and uses cutting to jam you into the action, and you can’t even enjoy his uncouthness, because it’s put at the service of sanctimony.

A score from John Williams and aggressive direction from Oliver Stone make this the pre-eminent Vietnam War movie.

Stone niftily strings together a batch of cuttingly effective dramatic sequences.

Tom Cruise, who takes Kovic from clean-cut eager teen to impassioned long-haired activist, is stunning.

A compelling, elegiac film, particularly encouraging after the simplified morality of Platoon.

Born on the Fourth of July is...the most ambitious nondocumentary film yet made about the entire Vietnam experience.

More than one man's story, it’s a reminder of the rites of passage and disposal in a military complex built on failure and fattened pockets, of the meaningless muscle memory of carnage, of the plague war has (and will) cast on every American generation.

It’s a taxing watch, but the themes are potent and timeless.

Aided by John Williams' majestic score and Oliver Stone's taut, no-holds-barred direction, this film shows the dark side of what happened when Johnny came marching home.

Stone made emotional gut-punches during this era that provided the opposite side to what patriotism is...