Born on the Fourth of July: 35 Years On

Tom Cruise is devastating as real-life Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone’s powerful and moving masterpiece

Credit: Universal

I’m often irritated by dismissals of Tom Cruise’s acting abilities. There is so much more to him than his action-man heroics in the likes of Top Gun (1986) and the Mission: Impossible series. Major roles including Rain Man (1988), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Magnolia (1999), and Collateral (2004), as well as his hilarious small part in Tropic Thunder (2008), demonstrate a much greater range than he generally gets credit for. In Born on the Fourth of July (1989), his performance as real-life Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic is an absolute tour-de-force; a searing, devastating, utterly convincing turn that rightly earned him an Oscar nomination.