American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 28

Photos by Roland Neveu

Born

on

the Fourth

of July

by Bob Fisher
Born on the Fourth of July is Oliver
Stone's reprise to Platoon. Reprise
should not be confused with

sequel. Platoon was about surviv¬
ing in Vietnam. This movie is
about surviving after Vietnam. The
characters, story and style of visu¬

War comes easily until his
squad shoots some innocent peas¬
ants whom they mistake for Viet
Cong. Then, Kovic accidentally

faith and the failed American
dream.
"Oliver had the script for
this movie for 10 to 12 years," said

cinematographer Robert Rich¬
ardson. "The script passed
through various hands, and differ¬
ent leading men were considered.
We talked about the story while we
were
working on other pictures, so

in Mas-

kills a U.S. soldier. At sunset, in the
confusion of battle, he sees a sil¬
houette rising before him and
thinks it is an enemy soldier.
He tries to confess his

sapequa, Long Island, during the
late 1950s. The audience meets an

anguish to a major, but is told to
forget it. The guilt builds so that

idyllic Ron Kovic when he is nine
years old growing up on the lower
middle class fringes of suburbia.
For the young Kovic, God and the
country were his life.
Kovic says, "I loved God
more than anything else in the
world back then and I prayed to
him and the Virgin Mary and Jesus
and all the saints to be a good boy
and a good American."

when Kovic is shot, it almost be¬
comes an act of penance. Hell de¬
scends and confusion reigns. Kovic
is thrust from an athletic man to a

alization

are

all different.

The movie opens

paraplegic, "a living corpse,"
Kovic

it.
Kovic returns home

as

sees

ex¬

pecting a hero's greeting. But in a
4th of July parade, he's jeered as
well as cheered. Some people
won't look him in the eye.

Others

When he is 18, Kovic
chooses to enlist instead of going to

confront him for the role he played
in Vietnam. When he sinks deeper

college. He is the true believer, like

into

crusader determined to rid the

pit of self-destruction, his
family shuns him. This is a graphic

Holy Land of infidels. The Viet¬

tragedy about the limit of beliefs,

American

February 1990

a

26

nam

Cinematographer

a

it had been in the works for
time."

some

However, conceptualiz¬
ing a movie is one thing. Translat¬
ing a script into moving images is
something else. In some ways
there was precious little room to
maneuver. "To reflect
reality
to believe in its autonomy
and therefore use it as a model. The
exercise of limits will always be
means

Produced

by A. Kitman Ho

and Oliver Stone
Directed
Robert

by Oliver Stone

Richardson,

Director of

photography



American Cinematographer - February 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1990

American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 2
American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 3
American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 5
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