Born on the Fourth of July
Seeing this now feels like unearthing the Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus, it’s so removed from the current reality, from all sides. But it even works as a pure drama, coming back home to meet the parents packs some extremely emotional punches.
The contents show a country turning from the “pure” Americana of the 50’s to hippies and students being murdered at Kent State University. Where guys like the protagonist are invited to talk at the DNC, when the Democrats want to win elections. Jesse Jackson was a competitive nominee (before the “Hymietown” kerfuffle).
Of course, in our current days, it’s Biden that sends the pigs wreck Columbia’s barricade. Then Trump comes along and adds ICE into the mix, abduction people in the streets for writing opinions in newspapers. The word “strike” is uttered.
The meta is also insane: the Cruiser as a lead on a Oliver Stone film is just mind-blowing. He has the acting chops, no doubt, but the political stuff just went right over his head. This is not even like Platoon, it goes deep in the party politics.
Even though the budget is large-ish, it’s still an activist film. Most of the beyond the pale government crimes are just script-based: Kent State University murders, My Lai. On the, DNC, Jesse Jackson is mentioned in passing.
But the parts that are shown, not told are still pretty strong: the supposed elite Marines are just dudes with crap equipment in a beach somewhere, the VA hospital is absolutely disgusting (closer to an horror film), cops charging over students, and the RNC security goons throwing a paralytic man on the floor.
This is arranged inside an hardcore drama where the lead is jerked around the whole film, and gets some redemption in the end.
The soundtrack is incredible, I finally found the source for Prodigy’s Hot Ride, it’s a Up, Up, and Away cover by Juliette Lewis!
He was a bona fide red-blooded American who did the sign of the cross as he entered his home, played baseball and wrestling in high school. Anti-communism is in his blood, from his parents, most of his pals at school, all the institutions. See Red Dawn.
He doesn’t win the big tournament, doesn’t take the girl to prom, his family is massive but not wealthy, he doesn’t have the intellectual chops nor the money for university. The way he sees it, his life would be similar to his dad, a supermarket clerk married to some local girl (not even his crush, she goes to University too).
He joins the Marines because the recruits come to his school, his father fought in WW2 (the big one), and he wants to preserve his way of life ans save the country. His pal that doesn’t care about the reds and will open the burger joint is too selfish. The hippies are traitors, it’s their country, love it or leave it. His father is not too keen on his going to the frontlines, but his mother goads him.
Off he goes, 20k miles away, to avoid a Southeast Asian people being independent. He murders women and children by accident, murders his fellow soldier by accident, before getting shot by NVA and evacuated.
From what I can tell, he doesn’t even see any Vietcong, he fought only the regular army defending their country from an invading force.
He is paralysed from the chest down, the VA hospital is underfunded because of the war (ironically), he tries very hard to walk again with crutches, and gets pretty far before breaking his leg in a fall. Wheelchair it is, for the rest of his life. Always dependent on someone, always wearing a catheter, unable to feel his genitals.
He gets back to his parents’ home, and is well received, but it still hurts. Most of his friends also went to war, and did not come back. There is an hippie inside his house now, getting drunk with the remaining soldiers is not cathartic also. He is too shellshocked to participate on the parade, his PTSD kicks in when hearing babies crying.
He decides to visit his old flame, at the university. He goes to protests, hearing one of the Chicago Seven rile up the crowd, and former soldiers saying Purple Hearts are worthless, the war must end. He is himself teargassed, even though he is not yet fully onboard with the anti war movement.
After clashing with his mother again and again, he goes to Mexico for a while, some sort of vacations, reading All Quiet on the Western Front. His dick and balls being worthless are a big plot point, the prostitutes do their best, but he’s still emasculated. He meets other Americans in similar situations, unable to enjoy their lives too.
He gets back state side to visit the family of the guy he shot. They are even more rural and poor, their ancestors fought in the Civil War (as rebs), on WW1, WW2, and now Vietnam. He comes clean and confesses he is the one that shot him in the confusion, and don’t treat them too badly.
After this, he is fully engaged with the anti-war movement, and interrupts Nixon speech at the RNC. Four years later, he talks at the DNC. By this time, nearly 10 years have gone by since his injury, but the war rages on.
Oliver Stone had the opportunity to do the funniest thing:
Stone proposed having Tom Cruise injected with a drug to temporarily paralyse him for two days
Those were the days.
PS: Maybe this should be tagged as “Beltway”, not exactly sure.
This is my place for ramblings about sequences of images that exploit the human visual limitation know as persistence of vision.