Born on the Fourth of July Blu-ray Review - Recommended (1 Viewer)

Born on the Fourth of July has arrived on Blu-ray with a new 2K transfer that is a great improvement over some of the non-Collector’s Edition catalogue releases from Universal this year.  This time, we get a fairly clean transfer with a stunning color range.  The movie itself continues to move me, even if it hasn’t aged as well as one might have hoped.  There’s still some great performances here, particularly from Willem Dafoe and Caroline Kava, and the middle of the movie features one of the most harrowing looks ever seen inside a veterans’ hospital.  The Blu-ray comes with the extras from the 2004 DVD, and includes that DVD along with a code for downloading a digital copy.  The release is Recommended for rental or purchase.

BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

Studio: Universal

Year: 1989

Length: 2 hrs 25 mins

Genre:  Drama/1970s/Vietnam/Oliver Stone

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

BD Resolution and Codec: 1080p, VC-1 (@ an average 30 mbps)

Audio:  English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (@ an average 3.5 mbps, up to 5.2 mbps), French DTS 5.1, Spanish DTS 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Film Rating: R (Language, Violence, Drug Use, Oliver Stone)

Release Date: July 3, 2012

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Kyra Sedgwick, Raymond J. Barry, Jerry Levine, Frank Whaley, Caroline Kava and Willem Dafoe

Screenplay by: Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic

Based on the Book by   Ron Kovic

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Film Rating: 4/5

Born on the Fourth of July is a curious movie.  Clearly a heartfelt rendering of Ron Kovic’s explosive autobiography, the film details how a young, gung-ho Marine was transformed to an embittered anti-war activist following a paralyzing war wound.  As with most Oliver Stone films, there is not a lot of subtlety to be found here.  Many scenes simply jump off the screen at the viewer, both in terms of showing the horrors of the Vietnam War, and the misery that many vets returned home to confront.  Looking at the movie today, I am struck less by the in-your-face methods now known to be normal for Stone films, and I’m more impressed by the quieter moments that creep up here and there.  The movie is known for the performance of Tom Cruise as Kovic, one that landed him his first Academy Award nomination, but while he is good at various moments, there are other performers who shine brighter.

Born on the Fourth of July can be seen as the middle panel of Oliver Stone’s triptych of movies about the Vietnam War experience.  The first panel was Platoon, a movie based on Stone’s own experiences in a combat unit, and one that took him over a decade to actually get anyone to finance.   Since he was a talented screenwriter, he was able to get past his early directorial misfires like The Hand and continue onward until Salvador made it possible for him to get a shot at doing these movies.  First came Platoon in the fall of 1986, helping to really open a floodgate of movies and TV shows openly discussing a war most people had not wanted to talk about in public.  In the midst of this, and in the midst of several other movies Oliver Stone was now able to direct, Born on the Fourth of July was put into production.  An early attempt to do it with Al Pacino in the lead in the 1970s had been cancelled before shooting began, leading both Stone and Kovic to wonder if a movie was even possible.  With the clout from Platoon, Stone was able to restart the process and attract a star like Tom Cruise to the project.  The result was a much more sprawling work than Platoon, and a bracing indictment of America’s treatment of its Vietnam veterans.  The triptych would be completed in the early 1990s with Heaven and Earth, this time looking at the war from the perspective of a Vietnamese woman.

SPOILERS HERE:  Born on the Fourth of July has a bit of a rambling quality to it.  It’s not as tightly constructed as Platoon, which focuses squarely on the experience of the combat unit in the field.  And it’s not quite an epic, although it has moments where it reaches in that direction.  It’s more of a series of character-building moments, detailing Ron Kovic’s evolution from one side of the political spectrum to the other.  An accurate review from 1989 described this as showing in a pretty scary fashion how you could see someone go from being the fresh face of the recruiting poster to an angry, bitter veteran.   The movie’s early moments really lay on the haze of Kovic’s youth and patriotism – emphasizing the Mom and Apple Pie look while containing a few moments of foreshadowing of the pain to come.  The scene then shifts to Vietnam for what really amounts to a pair of combat engagements.  The second one is the one where Kovic is paralyzed as his whole squad is cut to pieces.  But it’s the first one that resonates with a deeper impact.  In the first engagement, Kovic’s squad opens fire on a village suspected of harboring VC fighters.  Except that when they move in to check the huts, they find they have actually massacred civilian families and children.  In the midst of the confused retreat from this, Kovic is cut off from the others and begins firing wildly at targets around him.  When another figure comes over the hill at him, he turns and shoots it, realizing in a moment that he has just gunned down one of his own men, Private Wilson.  The deaths of the villagers, and the death of Wilson will hang over him for the rest of the story.  It is at this point that Stone switches the movie into slow-motion, to emphasize how much impact these moments will have on Kovic.  After being rebuffed by his CO’s refusal to listen to a confession of killing Wilson, Kovic is next seen months later in the engagement that wipes out his squad and leaves him paralyzed for the rest of his life.  In his commentary, Stone describes this injury as being a kind of penance for the killing of Wilson.

MORE SPOILERS:  At this point in the movie, the action shifts to the horrors of first a field hospital unit and then a slum VA hospital in New York where rats and filth are common.  After an agonizing sequence of Kovic first trying to will himself to his feet and suffering another leg injury as a result, the movie returns Kovic to his family home.  And this moment, over an hour into the running time, is when the real story begins.  We are shown in blunt fashion how both Kovic’s family and friends react to his wheelchair-bound status.  Between his mother’s inability to deal with what has happened to him, his friends’ indifference, and the growing public resistance to the war, Kovic is frustrated at every turn.  This is where the movie really has its best moments – away from the bombast of the combat scenes or the later epic moments.  There’s a great scene between Tom Cruise and Kyra Sedgwick as his high school sweetheart where you can see her struggling to say the right things to him, and you can see him realizing she isn’t there for him.  (She talks about “wanting to visit” him when he was in the VA hospital, but the movie makes it clear that he was abandoned there – meaning that she’s making an empty promise after the fact.)  There’s a great scene between Cruise and Frank Whaley as a neighborhood friend and fellow vet where the two sit and quietly recount the damage the war has done to them.  Hovering over all of this is the quiet power of the performance of Caroline Kava as Kovic’s mother, whose hostility to her own son sees its restraints come off during a drunken confrontation by Kovic.   Cruise is good in that scene, but the real power comes from the reaction of the mother, which is both moving and terrifying at the same time.  

STILL MORE SPOILERS:  The movie then shifts down to Mexico, where Kovic goes on a kind of retreat, at a villa populated by wheelchair-bound vets and Mexican prostitutes.  This is the point where we meet Charlie (Willem Dafoe, in a movie-stealing performance), an angry vet who could be Kovic’s future if he continues down this path.  After a few vignettes down south, the movie returns Kovic to the states for a fictional scene where he admits to Private Wilson’s family that he was responsible for Wilson’s death.  This is a controversial scene, in that it never happened in reality, but it nevertheless carries a certain amount of power.  Following this, the movie shifts to the two major political convention appearances by Kovic in the 1970s.  One is at the 1972 Republican convention, where the result is arrests and a riot.  The final one is at the 1976 Democractic convention, where Kovic is an honored speaker, in direct contrast to the violence we have just seen.   And at this point, the movie simply ends.   Looking at it now, it’s a bit of an odd ending.  We’re meant to see it as a big epic finish to all the life experiences that have gone before, but it comes across more as of a quiet finish as Kovic wheels away from us to the strains of John Williams’ moving score.   Looking at the film in 1989, this felt like a kind of triumphant ending.  Looking at it now, it doesn’t quite feel earned.  This isn’t to say the movie isn’t a good, first-class presentation that earned its awards and plaudits.  It’s just that it may not be quite the classic that people have thought it to be.

Born on the Fourth of July was released on Blu-ray on July 3^rd.  The new Blu-ray arrives with a new 2K VC-1 transfer, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix of the sound, and the extras from the 2004 DVD.  To this has been added two 2012 Universal 100^th Anniversary featurettes.  The packaging also includes the 2004 DVD and instructions for downloading a digital copy.  This is also the latest release to not have a regular Main Menu.  Instead, the movie starts up right away, and you’ll need to hit the pop-up menu to access any functionality.  

VIDEO QUALITY  4 ½/5

Born on the Fourth of July is presented in a 1080p VC-1 2.35:1 picture transfer that is a marked improvement from the catalogue releases we have seen of late from Universal.  (I am specifically referring to the non-Collector’s Edition ones this year, as To Kill A Mockingbird, All Quiet on the Western Front, Out of Africa and Pillow Talk were all quite good.)  The opening flashback scenes show a heavier amount of grain, which is an intended part of the look, while the later scenes are more transparent.  Robert Harris has already provided a fine analysis of this transfer in his A Few Words.. column, which I strongly recommend you read.

AUDIO QUALITY  4/5

Born on the Fourth of July is presented in an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that carries a fair amount of oomph, obviously in the combat scenes but also in the later confrontation scenes between the protestors and the cops.  Music fills the surround speakers, both from John Williams’ score and from the many period songs featured throughout.  Standard definition DTS 5.1 mixes are also included in Spanish and French.

SPECIAL FEATURES   3/5

The Blu-ray presentation of Born on the Fourth of July comes with the same special features as the 2004 DVD, with a pair of the new 100^th Anniversary featurettes added in.

My Scenes – The usual Blu-ray bookmarking feature is available here, allowing the viewer to set their own bookmarks throughout the film.

Commentary Oliver Stone (ORIGINALLY RECORDED FOR DVD) – Oliver Stone’s thoughtful commentary is preserved from an earlier DVD than even the 2004 release.  It’s a typically thorough and interesting discussion with Stone, in which he covers everything from the original attempt to make the movie with Al Pacino to the reality of Ron Kovic’s life, to his choice to create the fictional confession scene.  It’s a very nice complement to the experience of seeing the film, and one of those commentaries that really does qualify as a “film school in a box”.

From the NBC News Archives:  Backstory: Born on the Fourth of July  (21:37, 480p, Full Frame) (FROM THE 2004 DVD) – This is actually an edited assembly of 1989 interview footage done by Bryant Gumbel with Oliver Stone, Tom Cruise and Ron Kovic at the time of the movie’s release.  Intercut with some clips from the movie are some heartfelt observations by all three men, particularly Kovic.

100 Years of Universal:  Academy Award Winners (9:35, 1080p) (BLU-RAY ONLY) – This high definition featurette discusses the Universal movies that have won the Best Picture Oscar, and then gets into the various actors and creative people who have won for their work on Universal movies.  Most of the running time is taken up with clips from the movies in discussion.

100 Years of Universal:  The ‘80s (15:03, 1080p) (BLU-RAY ONLY) – This high definition featurette is a quick walkthrough of notable Universal movies from the 1980s, with quick interview soundbites from various of their cast members or directors on the Universal lot.  Movies discussed here include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Blues Brothers, Sixteen Candles, The

Breakfast Club, Back to the Future, Born on the Fourth of July, Out of Africa, Field of Dreams and E.T.    There’s nothing particularly deep or earth-shattering about anything in this – it’s mostly just a promo package for the ‘80s catalogue.

SD DVD – (1.85:1 Anamorphic Letterbox) – As a bonus, the package also contains the 2004 standard definition DVD of the movie.   This DVD contains the movie with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps) mix, an English DTS 5.1 (755 kbps) mix, and a French Dolby 2.0 mix.  It contains the commentary and the “Backstory” material, the latter of which was first available on the 2004 DVD.

Digital Copy – Instructions are included in the packaging for downloading a digital copy of the movie to your laptop or portable device.  The instructions include a deadline of December 31, 2013 for activation. 

The movie and special features are subtitled in English, Spanish and French. The usual chapter and pop-up menus are present.  As I said, there is no Main Menu, but you can access everything you need via the pop-up option.  I’m becoming tired of noting that this can be a bit annoying, in that you have no option but to start the movie right away.  You can pause it in its first moments, but I’m not a fan of the idea of being thrown right in.  I’m sure that there are many readers who will have the opposite impression and would rather get on with it, but this is not a trend of which I’m a fan.

IN THE END...

Born on the Fourth of July is a worthy movie of being seen or revisited.  The new Blu-ray offers a solid new 2K transfer and preserves the good extras that have previously been available on DVD.  The movie may not be the classic some originally thought it to be in 1989, but it is certainly a moving experience and a Blu-ray that is Recommended for rental or purchase.

Kevin Koster

July 15, 2012.

Equipment now in use in this Home Theater:

Panasonic 65” VT30 Plasma 3D HDTV – set at “THX” picture mode

Denon AVR-3311Cl Receiver

Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray Player

PS3 Player (used for calculation of bitrates for picture and sound)

5 Mirage Speakers (Front Left/Center/Right, Surround Back Left/Right)

2 Sony Speakers (Surround Left/Right – middle of room)

Martin Logan Dynamo 700 Subwoofer