Born on the Fourth of July (1989, 141 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed & co-written by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe, and Kyra Sedgwick. The moment that really got me in this film is when Ron Kovic (Cruise), bloody, bullet-holed, and half-paralyzed, is approached by a priest in the field hospital. “I’m going to read you your last rites,” the padre says calmly, “are you ready?” So much of “Born on the Fourth of July’s” power comes from men and women like this whom Kovic meets: sincere and good-hearted, but so often personally overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems facing the veteran and his country. Kovic’s tale takes him from the youthful idealism of the 1950s through wartime bloodshed and paralysis; mistreatment at the VA hospital; disillusionment, indifference, and drunkenness; and finally his decision to become an anti-war activist. Filmmaker Oliver Stone transforms one man’s story into the story of an entire generation, beginning with a baseball/parade/fireworks 1950s that plays like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. As usual, Stone skews traditional “left or right” interpretations by showing veterans as victims of manipulation from both sides. Similarly, we sense little or no ridicule as he plays up America’s proud militaristic heritage in the same movie that shows Vietnamese women and children being mowed down by eager GIs. Cruise is not the most talented or versatile actor in the world, but he is intense and sincere, and this works well in his scenes with his parents, other veterans, and the friends trying to understand him. His transition from hawk to dove is believable. The movie’s best moments may belong to character actor Raymond J. Barry, who plays Kovic’s father, who is silent about his WWII experiences, doesn’t really want his son to go to war, and hugs him long when he is returned. The other really fun performance is by the ever-spooky Willem Dafoe, as another wheelchair vet, wallowing in booze, prostitutes, and shrieked uses of the “f” word. He and Kovic get into a fistfight in the middle of a desert. (Tom Berenger also makes a short appearance as a hard Marine, so all we’re missing for a “Platoon” reunion is Charlie Sheen.) Three confessions mark Kovic’s journey: first, when his mother urges him to seek absolution for the “Playboy” she finds in his room; second, when he tries to confess to his captain that he may have shot a fellow soldier; and, lastly, when from his wheelchair he confronts the parents of that soldier. Oscar winner for Best Director and Film Editing, and often considered the second part of Stone’s “Vietnam trilogy,” which begins with “Platoon” and ends with “Heaven and Earth.”
for December 2005
Obsession (1976, 98 min, PG) ***1/2 – Directed & co-written by Brian De Palma, starring Cliff Robertson, Genevieve Bujold, and John Lithgow. An American property developer (Robertson) vacationing in Italy meets a young woman (Bujold) who is the spitting image of the wife he lost years ago in a thwarted kidnapping. The parallels to “Vertigo” really become apparent as he brings her back to America and begins to mold her in his wife’s image. “Obsession” plays like a nightmare about the two biggest pressures of adult manhood: looking after a family and making a lot of money. In a way, the man lost his family because he was not willing to give up the money he worked so hard to get, then he is unwilling to develop and profit from all that land because of the family he lost. When the past starts to repeat itself and the revelations are made, “Obsession” takes on the preordained quality of Greek tragedy. Director De Palma (who co-wrote the film with “Taxi Driver’s” Paul Schrader) shoots everything in the sparkling gauziness of a dream and makes great use of both Rome and New Orleans. It’s a credit to just how meticulous and seductively warped the whole thing is that, even after we’ve figured out what’s going on, we’re still spellbound. Robertson looks perfect for the role of the vaguely-handsome all-American winner, smoking slowly and so damn sure of himself all the time, while Lithgow, as his only friend, has a lot of fun with his phony Loo-zee-anna accent.
A Few Good Men (1992, 138 min, R) **1/2 – Directed by Rob Reiner, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak, and Keifer Sutherland. It’s an engaging and well-made, if obvious, military courtroom drama. After an act of unauthorized corporal punishment on a military base leads to murder, a promising young Navy lawyer (Cruise), who usually slouches through everything, is convinced by another officer (Moore) to defend the enlisted men on trial. In an industry that wants to sell tickets to everyone, “A Few Good Men” cannot be actively anti-militaristic, or anti-anything. No, in true, mushy centrist way, the only crime is taking something “too far.” And just to make sure we can tell the bad Marines from the good ones, one of heavies makes an unprovoked racist comment, while another makes a sexist one. Equally unnecessary is the hero’s issues with his late father, also a hero Navy lawyer; these scenes feel added so the film can reach feature length. Still, Cruise’s boundless enthusiasm and sincerity makes you want to watch him, and Nicholson, as the vicious colonel, chews some good scenery. There’s a taut scene in which Cruise, the junior officer, is just a little too casual, and the way Nicholson sets him straight will stick with you long after you’ve forgotten everything else about this glorified episode of “Law & Order” in uniform. The courtroom maneuvering is done well, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t really like legal dramas. But the way Cruise, Moore, and a third lawyer (Pollak) plan out exactly what they want to do the night before, and then do it exactly as they describe it, makes you think “A Few Good Men” will be best enjoyed by people who aren’t used to paying attention to movies.
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