Sai and Shujath talk Cinema

I’ve heard of this movie before but looking at the title I thought it must some routine World War II movie…but lately when I glanced over the DVD cover I found that it was by Oliver Stone and featured Tom Cruise. It was then that I decided to watch this and I wasn’t disappointed a bit. This movie was released three years after Stone made Platoon (which was based on his experience in the Vietnam War). I did like Platoon but I liked this one more. The themes in both movies are the same…which have their root in Stone’s disillusionment with the Vietnam War.

Cruise plays a young marine who is sent to Vietnam where he gets shot and subsequently paralysed from chest down; but not before he kills a few civilians (which pretty much happens to be everyone else’s experience as you’d know later in the movie) and one of his own squadron member. Once he is back from the war, he is distressed with the anti-war protests happening because he wants to believe that the reason he was sent to the war still holds good. Over a period of time his experiences with different people around him slowly make him come to terms with reality and he ends up becoming a promiment anti-war protestor. This story is actually based on the autobiography of a real war veteran named Ron Kovic. The movie is very gripping throughout…which I didn’t really expect given the theme. Another thing I loved is the background score by John Williams. This movie belongs to Tom Cruise and he delivers probably the best performance of his life. I would rate this to be Oliver Stone’s best along with JFK and a must watch for everyone.