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And he said there's gonna be a
big wall. What is it? Then?

2
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Vietnam? And he said that that
the Marines are gonna be the first

3
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ones in and ain't gonna last you. That's right. So if you don't

4
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sign up soon, we're gonna miss
it. I've already sided. I'm going

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in, really just like, uh, I'm not waiting. I'm going in

6
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now. Come on, Rnnie,
you're crazy. No, you're crazy.

7
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Our dad's got to go to WW
two. This is our chance to do

8
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something, to be part of history. Guys. Yeah, just like our

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dads. You should think about what
you're doing. You know, Ronnie,

10
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you could be dangerous overday. You
know you could get yourself killed. Did

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you ever think about that? Where
you're going? Squirrel ahead college? Well,

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I want to do something with my
life. Yeah, I can get

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a degree in business administration. And
you don't think you need to serve your

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country. Don't get my namebody be
yourself. Huh? Better dead than red.

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And I got missiles point at us
everywhere ICBMs. They're coming in all

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around US. Cuba now ninety miles
away. Ronnie, you're taking up What

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are we gonna stop them? Huh? He ain't superman. You can't stop

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them away. So sory communism is
moving in everywhere. Oh yeah, sure

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where Ronnie. I don't see him. They're not right here in massive people.

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So I'm just gonna take care of
Number one, Jimmy Stevie, Number

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Stevie, Stevie. It's okay,
because someone's got to stay home with the

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women and children while the men go
do the fighting. And I'm getting out

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of you all. I'm saying you
should just think about it, you know,

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just think about it, Ronnie,
Hey, Stevie. Who are you

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taking on? Problem? Wendy danil
Wendy Dan Wendy Daniel to go away?

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Are you taking Joey? These youths
were many youths in the early sixties that

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were on the cusp of adulthood.
They were faced with the decision to serve

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their country, go to college,
or just simply work. Many made the

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choice to enlist, and that led
to them fighting one of the most controversial

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wars in American history, the Vietnam
War. For the man that is the

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subject of this week's film, it
led him down a path of despair,

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heroism, and ultimately renowned activist.
Released in nineteen eighty nine, and based

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off the autobiography of the same name. Born on the fourth of July is

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the story of ron Kovic, played
by Tom Cruise, a man that enlists

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in the Marines and serves two tours
of duty in Vietnam. It is during

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his second tour he is wounded and
suffers a severed spinal cord due to a

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gunshot. This causes him to be
paralyzed and sets him on an eventual path

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of activism. Our next clip is
from a nineteen seventy seven interview with Kovic

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following the release of his autobiography.
In this clip, he speaks about his

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life growing up and why he chose
to serve and the wretched treatment he faced

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upon returning from Vietnam. Pop it
all off. He was born on the

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fourth of July, so that every
fourth of July, when the country was

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celebrating his birthday, ron Kovak was
celebrating his birthday as well a country celebrating

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its birthday. Ron Kovak went to
Vietnam and served not one, but two

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tours of duty, and the second
tour of duty, as you may already

46
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know, he was shot twice,
once in the foot and the second time.

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I think through his back shattered his
spinal cord, and he ron Kovak

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was paralyzed from the chest down.
This experience, that he relates in his

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book called Born on the Fourth of
July, is one of the most painful

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and ugly experiences I've ever read about. And I've wanted to have him here

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on midday to share some time with
you for a long time. So ron

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Kovak is with us. You may
remember he nominated Fritz Ephau at the Democratic

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National Convention here in New York last
summer. Last week, he was arrested

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00:03:52,759 --> 00:03:58,520
for the tenth time at Kent State
protesting the controversy there about a gymnasium.

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Ron You know how I feel this. I'm fine. How are you good

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00:04:01,479 --> 00:04:05,280
to see? I want to share
something Normally, if you're one of my

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00:04:05,319 --> 00:04:11,039
regular viewers, if you watch our
show, I'm essentially pretty relaxed during the

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interview. I am not going to
say what will happen to me during this

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I have found reading this book Born
on the fourth of July, which I

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finished about eight eight twenty this morning, to be a real emotional experience for

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me. I could feel your pain
as I was reading this book. Let's

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not assume that everybody has read the
book. Well, let's not assume that

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everybody knows everything about you. Let's
just find out a little bit about your

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I was born on the fourth of
July in nineteen forty six, and I

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guess you could say it was an
all American boy. I love this country.

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I believe in what John Wayne said
and Howdy Doty Rudy Kuzuti, Sergeant

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York. I was a child of
the fifties. I can remember you remember

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John F. Kennedy ask not what
your country can do for you, but

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what you can do for your country. I believe that Bill, and I

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believed in American I believed that what
we were doing in Vietnam was right.

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And I went, like millions of
other young when did you first go on?

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What year did you in? The
nineteen sixty four September? I joined

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the United States Marine Corps because the
ad down at the Post Office said,

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the Marine Corps builds men body,
mind and spirit. And I wanted to

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be a man. And because you
were a pretty tough guy. I mean,

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you were a very you were an
athlete, you were a star ar

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wrestler, you were best pole altered
at mass speak of high school. I

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was a real good wrestler too.
Yeah, I know that. So you

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joined the Marines, And how did
you feel about killing? I mean,

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you had played with guns and toys
when you were a kid, just like

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I had, and just like a
lot of people. Well, the first

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person that I killed build was an
American and I didn't feel good about that

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at all. And the second group
of people that I killed were Vietnamese children,

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and that made me feel worse.
But I mean, going into it

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run, I mean, you know, the whole mentality, you know,

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I believe that. I believe that
all of us grew up with John Wayne

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with a whole movie cinema image to
the Matametel submachine guns that we got every

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Christmas. The whole generation was prepped
and hyped and conditioned by our culture,

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which is so violent and which so
romanticizes war. We were ready to go,

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We were ready to fight. We
thought that the war was going to

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be like the John Wayne movies,
but it wasn't. It was different.

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And when we came home and tried
to tell the American public about the reality

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of the Vietnam War, that it
wasn't a war to help people, but

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it was a crime against humanity and
against the Vietnamese people. Then they didn't

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listen to us. They threw us
in jail, They called me a trader,

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They spin my face. In the
film, following his injury, Covid

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is forced to stay at a veteran's
hospital in the Bronx, where the nursing

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staff abuses drugs. The conditions are
horrible, with rats crawling around, impatients

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sleeping in their own feces in most
cases, and struggling to get even the

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littlest things such as a shower.
This begins his disillusionment with America and its

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government. The next clip we hear
is that this does run much deeper.

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Covid, while sitting with his childhood
friend, reflects on his injury. In

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this we can hear the despair in
his voice and the issues he has coming

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to terms with his permanent injury.
When you whend you get hit me?

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Uh? January twentieth, Yes,
someplace of Jeese, I don't even remember,

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near some river up in the DMZ. Walked into Wholeking Battalion, got

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shot in the foot, and I
just got up, running around like I

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was back in the woods again,
like I was John King Wayne or something.

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Emptying a mag screaming, come on, jolly, this loud crack above

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my right ear, and I just
felt my body drop out from under me.

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Classed. I thought I was dead
for sure? Was the h I

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was a hospital sucked? I don't
really, I don't know, man,

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I tell you something, runny.
Sometimes at night I get these headaches,

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you know, feel bad, and
uh, they just they just kind of

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come over me, you know,
and they like they just they just come,

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you know, like I'm going crazy
or something, and they I don't

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feel I don't feel like me anymore, you know. I I feel like

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when they come, I feel like
somebody else. You know. Can you

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do? What are you doing?
That happen? Nothing? The goddamn thing?

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Now? Well, mostly I do
a lot of drugs. Do anything

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you can, you know, honey, you get you get through it anyway.

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You know how when I was in
the hospital, I thought, yeah,

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yeah, this makes sense. What
makes sense? Because I failed to

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me? What are you talking about? Cause I cause I killed someone some

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people I it's terrible mistakes, Ronnie
Christ's sakes. We all made mistakes.

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I mean, y y, you
had no choice. That's something that God

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damn Pansy demonstrates. I never gonna
understand, Ronnie, you don't even gotta

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talk about it. I mean,
we was insane over there was it was

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crazy. Sometimes I wish I wish
i'd first time I got hit, I

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was shot in the foot, I
could have laid down, I mean,

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paralyzed, castrated that day. Why
so was so s stupid? I think,

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Timmy, I give everything, I
believe in everything, I got all

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my values, just to have my
body back again, just to be whole

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again. I'm that whole. I
never will be in. That's the way

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it is, isn't it? For
Christ's sake? Ronnie, to You're alive?

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It made it smile. What makes
this film truly powerful is seeing the

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evolution of COVID after the aforementioned deplorable
conditions. His depression, drinking infrequent fits

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a rage, causing a strainment from
his family. He becomes an activist and

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speaks against the war he strongly supported
for so long, even a short time

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after his injury. Our final two
clips show this difference. First, at

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a Fourth of July parade in his
hometown, ron speaks after returning home.

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However, after a baby crying causes
a flashback, he stops dead in his

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00:10:52,799 --> 00:11:01,080
tracks. Then at the nineteen seventy
two Democratic National Convention, Ron protesting and

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00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:05,639
speaks out against his government and the
war. Again, I want you all

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00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:11,960
to hear the difference in words,
in tone in Kovak with these two scenes.

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00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:16,440
What the hands A few words if
you prease, It's fun. Covac

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00:11:16,519 --> 00:11:20,159
lady, you gentlemen, was going
on a fourth of July nineteen forty six.

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Let's give a big head on his
great Burda. I just want to

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00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:39,240
say for all the guys in Vietnam
and we're doing our best. It's not

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00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:46,399
easy situation, but the boys morale
over there is real high, and you

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00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:56,759
can feel confident that we are we
are going to win that war. I

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00:11:56,799 --> 00:12:01,960
serve my country and I don't want
you to feel sorry for me. Do

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00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:07,960
not shed a tear. I have
my hands, my eyes, my ears,

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00:12:09,279 --> 00:12:22,600
I have my heart, and I
have what I feel. I have.

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What I feel is an unquiequenchable mud. And now Ron's protest what I

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00:13:11,519 --> 00:13:15,320
thought name it is not COVID.
I'm a Vietnam bitters. My name I

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00:13:15,639 --> 00:13:18,080
Quebec. I'm a Vietnam Brian.
I'm we're here tonight to say that this

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00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,960
war is wrong. Now I'm for
to society, lied to me, lied

159
00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,039
to my brothers, say the chief, the people in this country, What

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00:13:26,200 --> 00:13:31,120
has this tricked them into going thirteen
thousand miles to fight a low ard against

161
00:13:31,159 --> 00:13:35,879
the poor peasant people who have a
proud history of resistance, you know,

162
00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:41,919
who have been struggling for their own
for their own independence for one thousand years,

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00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:46,120
the Vietnamese people. You know.
I can't I can't find the words

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00:13:46,159 --> 00:13:50,799
to express how the leadership of this
government sickens me. Whatever I love,

165
00:13:50,639 --> 00:13:56,679
people say, people say, if
you don't love America, then get the

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00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:00,679
hell out. Well, I love
America. We love to keep love America

167
00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,679
very much. But when it comes
to the government, it stops right there.

168
00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:07,960
The government is a bunch of corrupt
thieves, and they are racists and

169
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,240
robbers. And we are here to
say that we don't have to take it

170
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,200
anymore. Na. We are here
to say we are here to tell the

171
00:14:13,279 --> 00:14:16,919
truth. We are killing our brothers
in Pina flag Man. We want to

172
00:14:16,919 --> 00:14:26,080
hear the truth tonight. We are
here. You're true, so they don't

173
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,080
is this We don't get short this
way, we get sam skinning the fish.

174
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:35,559
We're never gonna let it be.
We're not as ready to forget.

175
00:14:35,559 --> 00:14:37,440
You don't want to hear it.
Why did you want to hear it?

176
00:14:39,159 --> 00:14:43,039
Because it's here and you're not just
super because you didn't like the way it's

177
00:14:43,159 --> 00:14:48,159
like some television. Try this wheelchair, our wheelchairs, This steal our steel.

178
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:52,279
Is your Memorial day in wheels.
We are your Yankee doodle Dad to

179
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:54,039
come home night. They are you
want the doodle days to come home.

180
00:14:56,039 --> 00:15:13,360
I got to go up to make
us the people. It's got the law.

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00:15:15,039 --> 00:15:18,480
Some sort of scuffle or commotions broken
out on the floor of the convention.

182
00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:22,000
Disabled veterans protesting the war and Vietnam. We're gonna try to get a

183
00:15:22,039 --> 00:15:26,559
microphone down there. They can't us
in the parking lot. Why they're fighting

184
00:15:26,679 --> 00:16:22,879
us because it is too busy in
these nine when there is so much of

185
00:16:22,919 --> 00:16:26,960
a tendency the non dominate. Those
who observed americ in the past, who

186
00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:33,320
serve it the day. Let's give
those who have served the honor and the

187
00:16:33,399 --> 00:16:38,320
respect that they deserve and that they
heard. A film this powerful and memorable

188
00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:45,720
defies awards nominated for and won.
It supersedes box office straw. But as

189
00:16:45,799 --> 00:16:51,120
is tradition with this show, we
shall quickly go over those details. The

190
00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:56,840
film was the tenth highest grossing film
of nineteen eighty nine. It was nominated

191
00:16:56,879 --> 00:17:02,960
for eight Academy Awards, including Best
Picture, Best Director for Oliver Stone,

192
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:07,599
and Best Actor for Tom Cruise,
and this is the film that truly showed

193
00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,480
his range as a performer. It
won for Best Director, which was Stone's

194
00:17:11,519 --> 00:17:18,440
second award, and Best Sound Editing. However, the greatest award was the

195
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:23,640
one Covoc gave Cruise as a birthday
present and for his performance. Kovac gave

196
00:17:23,799 --> 00:17:33,119
Cruise his Bronze Star because he said
Cruise showed great bravery in his performance.

197
00:17:33,079 --> 00:17:37,799
Finally, some might be asking why
I chose this film for Memorial Day.

198
00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:42,480
I chose this film because there are
times that I feel we all have a

199
00:17:42,519 --> 00:17:48,240
skewed view of the military. These
young men and women choose to serve this

200
00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:52,400
country. They don't choose where they
are sent. They serve, knowing that

201
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,480
wherever they are sent that could end
up being the place where they take their

202
00:17:56,519 --> 00:18:02,319
final breaths. To me, the
Vietnam veterans are forgotten to a degree.

203
00:18:02,759 --> 00:18:07,680
They deserve the same respect and honor
any other veterans have surviving or otherwise,

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the only choice they made was to
defend us our honor and freedoms. They

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didn't choose where they did this,
the conditions they were under, and that

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is something that we all need to
remember, not just on Memorial Day,

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not just on Veterans Day, but
every day of every year. I hope

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you will join me next week when
we will finally look at the nineteen eighty

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nine film Major League for WMNH and
Matt Connorton, Unleashed. This has been

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a classic film review with Eric Pilcher