38 BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
interest, Donna (Kyra Sedgwick), but decides to go at the last minute and ends up
dancing with her on his last night before boot camp. Three years later, in Octo-
ber 1967, Kovic is a Marine sergeant on his second tour of duty in Vietnam. His
unit kills several Viet nam ese civilians, mistakenly believing them to be Viet Cong.
Then Kovic accidentally kills a member of his own platoon, a new arrival named
Wilson (Michael Compotaro). Four months later, during the Tet Offensive, Kovic
is critically wounded in a firefight. Rendered a paraplegic, he spends several months
recovering at a decrepit, rat- infested Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in the
Bronx. Returning home disabled in 1969, Kovic succumbs to despair and alcohol-
ism. During a Fourth of July parade, Kovic shows signs of post- traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) when he is deeply unnerved by the sound of firecrackers explod-
ing. Asked to give a speech, he gets overcome by emotion and is forced to leave
the stage. Kovic meets up with a high school friend, Timmy Burns (Frank Whaley),
who is also an injured ser viceman, and swaps stories about war time experiences.
Later, Kovic visits Donna at her college in Syracuse, New York, but the two are
separated as she and other student demonstrators are arrested for standing against
the Vietnam War. Back home, Kovic finds himself in a bar, close to blows with a
WWII veteran. Afterwards, Kovic argues passionately with his mother, and his
father sends him to Mexico. He arrives in “The Village of the Sun” (i.e., the town
of Ajijic in the state of Jalisco, Mexico), a safe space for injured Vietnam veterans.
There Kovic has his initial sexual encounter with a prostitute and befriends another
dissolute wheelchair- bound veteran named Charlie (Willem Dafoe). Going back
to Long Island, Kovic visits Wilson’s family and confesses his responsibility for
Wilson’s death. Kovic then joins Vietnam Veterans against the War (VVAW) and
attends the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami. He shares his Viet-
nam experience with a reporter and speaks out against the Vietnam War, enrag-
ing the Nixon supporters at the convention. Security guards remove him from the
hall. Four years later Kovic’s strug gles are fi nally vindicated when he is invited to
speak at the 1976 Demo cratic National Convention and publishes his autobiogra-
phy, Born on the Fourth of July.Reception
Released just before Christmas 1989, Born on the Fourth of July grossed $5.3 mil-
lion by the third week of its run, ranking #1 at the box office. The film went on to
earn $70 million domestically and $91 million overseas for a total of $161 million
in worldwide ticket sales— a smash hit, considering that the film’s production
bud get was less than 10 percent of that sum. Among many other accolades Born
nearly swept the Golden Globe Awards and received eight Oscar nominations, with
Oliver Stone winning for Best Director and David Brenner and Joe Hutshing win-
ning for Best Editing. Likewise, the critical response was overwhelmingly favor-
able, though not unan i mous. For example, Jonathan Rosenbaum felt that the film’s
ending cheapened its other wise somber message: “The movie’s conventional show-
biz finale, brimming with false uplift, implies that the traumas of other mutilated
and disillusioned Vietnam veterans can easily be overcome if they write books and
turn themselves into celebrities” (Rosenbaum, J., n.d.).