History Literature / BornOnTheFourthOfJuly

** Ron's XO refuses to cooperate and threatened his life if he continued to bring up Private Wilson's death. U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Fred Peck interviewed the real XO, who revealed a formal investigation was conducted and found it unlikely Ron was responsible for Wilson's death.
** The 1970 Syracuse University strike is shown to have unprovoked PoliceBrutality, with Ron being beaten on the head despite being wheelchair-bound. According to New York State Sen. Nancy Larraine Hoffmann (D), who attended Syracuse and participated in that strike. "It was totally unlike the characterization in the movie," she says, describing the peaceful week-long strike. "There was no police presence even within sight. At no time was there any show of force, or any attempt to disperse students listening to speakers. It troubles me to see police officers maligned for Hollywood sensationalism."

The autobiography of Vietnam War [[TheVietnamVet Vet]]. Ron Kovic, ''Born on the Fourth of July'' was published in 1976. In 1989, the film version directed by Creator/OliverStone and starring Creator/TomCruise as Kovic was released. Stone won his second Oscar as director, his third overall, and Cruise got his first Oscar nomination. This is also his second film about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, following ''{{Film/Platoon}}'' and followed by ''Film/HeavenAndEarth''. These three films are often said to form a "trilogy", although they merely share subject matter and do not take place in a shared continuity.

* PoliceBrutality: In every protest scene, the police attack the protesters with batons flying even if they're completely peaceful, and the Kent State incident (where four were shot) gets mentioned too. In the scene where Ron is arrested for distrupting the Republican National Convention, an undercover police officer throws him out of his wheelchair and beats him.

* PoliceBrutality: In every protest scene, the police attack the protesters with batons flying even if they're completely peaceful, and the Kent State incident (where four were shot) gets mentioned too.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the Fourth of July parade that Ron watches as a boy, some of the Korean War and WWII Vets on parade are paraplegics in wheelchairs or multiple amputees. Another flinches every time he hears a firecracker go off, probably due to PTSD. These vets show what turns out to be in store for Ron and several of his friends, and are a reminder on an otherwise happy day that war is not all glory.

* EveryHelicopterIsAHuey
* Foreshadowing: In the Fourth of July parade that Ron watches as a boy, some of the Korean War and WWII Vets on parade are paraplegics in wheelchairs or multiple amputees. Another flinches every time he hears a firecracker go off, probably due to PTSD. These vets show what turns out to be in store for Ron and several of his friends, and are a reminder on an otherwise happy day that war is not all glory.

* MoralEventHorizon: The undercover policeman who arrests Kovic throws him out of his wheelchair and beats him up. Certainly beating a paralyzed man was a new low even for him.

* ClusterFBomb: Lots of them. There are a couple of scenes where that's almost the entire dialogue.

* SignificantBirthDate: Ron Kovic was born on July 4th, 1946; hence, the title of the book and film.

Ron Kovic, a young man from Staten Island, goes off to fight in Vietnam. During his second tour of duty, Kovic accidentally kills a fellow soldier, Private Wilson, which deeply scars him emotionally. During a firefight, Kovic is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Once he is discharged, Kovic comes home a changed man. He feels that his country hasn't done much of anything to help his fellow Vietnam veterans. Subsequently, he joins the anti-war movement. And goes to Mexico.

* OnlySaneMan: Stevie is the only one of Ron's friends who doesn't but into the macho Marine rhetoric or the fear mongering about communism and to see the Vietnam War as a terrible idea.

%%* WarIsHell: Very much so.

* PhysicalTherapyPlot: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] After getting shot (which damages his spine) during a tour in Vietnam, Ron Kovic spends months at a poorly-ran Veterans' Hospital. He attempts to learn how to walk again with his crutches and braces, despite the doctors' warnings. He ends up having a bad fall that causes a fracture on his femur. He ends up back in bed, fighting with the staff over amputating his legs. When Ron finally comes back home, he spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
* ReturningWarVet: Ron Kovic.

* WarIsHell: Very much so.

* AnachronicOrder: The book starts off in the middle of the Vietnam War, then jumps back to the author's childhood to early adulthood, then jumps to the period after he has been discharged, then jumps back to the period leading up to where he started the story in Vietnam.

* AdaptationExpansion: While the original book, written in 1974, ends with the 1972 Miami riots, the film adaption has Kovic speaking at the 1976 Democratic convention, as well as signing hie titular biography that is the film's namesake.

The autobiography of Vietnam War Vet. Ron Kovic, ''Born on the Fourth of July'' was published in 1976. In 1989, the film version directed by Creator/OliverStone and starring Creator/TomCruise as Kovic was released. Stone won his second Oscar as director, his third overall, and Cruise got his first Oscar nomination. This is also his second film about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, following ''{{Film/Platoon}}'' and followed by ''Film/HeavenAndEarth''. These three films are often said to form a "trilogy", although they merely share subject matter and do not take place in a shared continuity.