Born on the Fourth of July - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Born on the Fourth of July



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Coming off of the high of making the smash hit Platoon, Oliver Stone decided to go to work on a much more personal type of Vietnam film in the vein of The Deerhunter. So stone decided to adapt the work of Vietnam veteran turned anti-war activist Ron Kovic’s autobiography and fleshed it out into a full blown epic drama, taking a young Tom Cruise and actually getting him nominated multiple times for best actor. It allowed Stone to dissect the culture and time period more precisely, taking the point of view of a man who’s come BACK from the war vs. going through it, and peels back those onion layers on what sort of effects the conflict had on veterans returning home. Back in 1989 we had just discovered what PTSD really was, and just how prolific it was on vets returning from wars across the ocean, and Stone was FASCINATED on the damage that it cause. Born on the 4th of July is a fantastic epic that is probably one of Stone’s most nuanced and sensitive works, humanizing and bonding with Cruise’s portrayal of Kovic, before Stone decided to experiment with hyper violence and conspiracy theories for the rest of his career.

Ron Kovic (Cruise) was an average teenager growing up in Massapequa, New York. He had the hots for a girl (Played by a 23 year old Kyra Sedgwick), he played baseball, and he wanted to continue his family legacy of going to war and serving his country, just like his old man. Leaving his idyllic life style behind, Ron heads off to Vietnam where he comes face to face with the realization that war is not the heroic thing that he though it was. The jungle warfare turned out to be a living hell for the men, as they fought Viet Cong peasant soldiers, accidentally murder a batch of civilians, and finally end up in a military hospital completely paralyzed from the waste on down.

Coming home was no picnic either. Ron spent months in the crummy base hospital, only to get home and realize that he never left the war. It still lived on in his head, eating away at his soul driving him to drink (quite literally). At first his family tries to deal with their son coming home broken in more ways than one, but drink by drink, day by day, Ron drives them away till all he can do is take his military benefits and move down to Mexico where he can drink and whore to numb the pain.

However, Ron finds strength in one thing. The stalwart decision to make sure that what happened to him never happens to anyone else. So instead of drinking himself to LITERAL death, he makes a life choice. To come back to the states and take up the mantle of the anti-war crowd, protesting the extended Vietnam war front so that what happened to him would not happen to other 18 year old ideologue teenagers who just wanted to serve their country.

Personally I love the film, even though ideologically I’m pretty opposite to Kovic. Myself personally I feel that the war itself wasn’t the problem nearly as much as how the administration mishandled it completely. That being said, the mistreatment of Nam vets is the stuff of legends. The warhawks only loved them when the vets supported the war, while the doves spit on them and called them baby killers due to the fact that the Viet Cong would use civilians as shields. I have family members who were alive during world War II and Korea, and family members that served during Nam, and every single one of them will tell you that Vietnam was the war that turned grown men into shattered husks in ways that their wars never did.

Stone’s take on Kovic’s life is very rough and raw, but nuanced and sensitive as well. He’s not stranger to showing experimental violence and crazy things on screen, but it’s done with purpose here. We get to see Ron’s downward spiral into depression and undiagnosed PTSD in real time, as he slowly slips away into one of those drunken vets who no one wants to be around. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and Stone does a masterful job taking Kovic’s journey and bringing him into his redemption arc by the end of the 2.5 hour film. It’s not perfect, but one of Stone’s best works alongside Platoon.




Rating:

Rated PG for thematic elements and brief smoking




4K Video: Video:

It had been YEARS since I had seen Born on the Fourth of July (I think when the Universal Blu-ray was released if I remember correctly) and I SWORE this looked a bit different. Yanking out my “Universal 100th anniversary set” I was definitely right. The film has had a new remaster and it looks a bit different. The old Blu-ray was always good, but definitely a bit dimmer than I remembered from my 35mm print viewing in high school (though that is subjective as memory is like that sometimes) and while most of the time a 4K UHD with HDR/Dolby Vision dims the picture a bit, it’s the exact opposite here. The new 4K UHD looks clearer and brighter, without that dark hazy look to it from the aging Blu-ray. Not to mention the framing is ever so slightly different in some shots (such as when Cruise and Dafoe are out there in their wheelchairs).

Those minor tweaks aside, the 4K UHD is a good bit nicer than the old Blu-ray (though Shout Studios gives us a new Blu-ray in the set that shares the same master) with fantastic detail levels and a stunningly “1980s” layer of heavy film grain over everything. Maybe I’m showing my age a bit, but LOVE the look of 1980s film stock, and this is a stunner in that department. Nice natural grain layer, some sepia and light olive green tones to simulate the 1960s and early 70s, and a rich look that just looks “perfect” to my eyes. Outdoor daylight shots are incredible (such as Ron giving his speech when he gets home) with amazing colors, a vibrant “pop” of primary shades and wonderful detail, while night time shots that have that slightly “grungy” look to them (such as when he’s drinking himself to death down in Mexico). All in all, this is a very impressive 4K presentation that does the film justice, and serves as a VERY healthy upgrade over the aging Blu-ray.





Audio:

Like most Shout Studios 4K upgrades, Born on the Fourth of July sports a brand new Dolby Atmos track alongside the original 5.1 DTS-HD MA track from previous years. I wasn’t sure if the film would really show much upgrade considering the type of film it is, but the Atmos does do a solid job expanding the sound stage a good bit. The opening trumpet barrage makes good use of the mains, followed by clean vocals from the narration, only to soften a good bit as we get into the back story of Ron Kovic during his teenage years. Once he gets over to Nam things explode BIG TIME with the soldiers fighting for their very lives, engulfing the listener in a hail of gunfire, explosions, and the somber score. Bass attacks are heavy and powerful during the war time scenes, while most of the time it simply adds some extra oomph to certain scenes while outside the theater of war. Overheads get a little bit of use during the battles, as well as applause during a crowd, or some fireworks, but this isn’t the type of track to really be an Atmos power house. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed how the Atmos mix really highlights precision and accuracy while it spreads out the effects a bit more, but the older mix just isn’t going to be a modern track. It’s impressive in ways and definitely gets the job done, but is limited by the style of film making and the fact that Oliver Stone never framed the film as a blow out action movie.






Extras:

DISC ONE - 4K BLU-RAY

• NEW 4K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative Supervised and Approved By Director Oliver Stone
• DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
• DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK
• NEW Audio Commentary By Film Critic Matt Zoller Seitz
• Audio Commentary By Director Oliver Stone
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature

DISC TWO - BLU-RAY

• NEW 4K Restoration from the Original Camera Negative Supervised and Approved By Director Oliver Stone
• NEW Audio Commentary By Film Critic Matt Zoller Seitz
• NEW Interview With Director Oliver Stone
• NEW Interview With Special Makeup Effects Artist Gordon J. Smith
• NEW Interview With Associate Producer Clayton Townsend
• Audio Commentary By Director Oliver Stone
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailers
• Edie Brickell and New Bohemians "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" - Music Video
• Optional English subtitles for the main feature

Final Score: ​

Born on the 4th of July falls into the same category as The Deerhunter to me. And by that I mean that it is a fantastic movie that I find very hard to watch and truly ENJOY except years between viewings. It’s a rough film that really makes you FEEL the pain that these wounded vets felt when they came home and not only had to suffer the pain of bodily injury, but also how they were treated by their fellow citizens as well. The Nam war was a gold mine for anti-war films during the 70s and 80s, and for very good reason. This was not a pretty time in American history, and reflects on a war that showed more brutality than most soldiers had ever seen due to the jungle warfare, and a time in our history when we as civilians treated them poorly. Born on the 4th of July showcases legendary anti-war protester (and wounded Nam vet) Ron Kovic’s personal journey from idealistic teenager to a man who wanted nothing more than to protect his fellow soldiers from falling prey to what he suffered, and persevered. The 4K UHD disc is fantastic, with a ton of new extras, a great remaster, and a solid tweaking to the audio mix. Highly recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry, Bryan Larkin, Willem Dafoe, Kyra Sedgwick
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Written by: Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic (Book)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout! Studios
Rated: R
Runtime: 145 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 12th, 2024

Recommendation: Highly Recommended