Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

Tom Cruise: Ron Kovic

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Quotes 

• Mrs. Kovic : [almost sobbing]  Don't say penis in this house!

  Ron Kovic : Penis! Penis! Big fucking erect penis, Mom!

• [in the Bronx VA hospital] 

  Ron Kovic : This place is a fuckin' slum!

  Marvin : You want out of here, man? Fine. We take that leg of yours, and we can get you out of here in two weeks!

  Ron Kovic : I want my leg.

  Marvin : Why?

  Ron Kovic : I want my leg!

  Marvin : Why? You can't feel it no how!

  Ron Kovic : [incredulous and angry]  It's my leg! I want my leg, you understand? Can't you understand that? All's I'm sayin' is that I want to be treated like a human being! I fought for my country! I am a Vietnam veteran! I fought for my country!

  Patient : [off-camera]  Shut the fuck up!

  Ron Kovic : And I think that I deserve to be treated... decent!

• Steve Boyer : You could start out as a cashier... and then work your way up to becoming a manager of one of these places - just like your dad.

  Ron Kovic : I get $1700 a month from the government. I think I'm just going to lay low, and look around...

  Steve Boyer : [dismissively]  That's charity money, Ronnie; this isn't.

  Ron Kovic : Charity?

  Steve Boyer : All I'm saying is that you got to - you got to put the war behind you, you know; you got to forget about this chair you're in!

  Ron Kovic : [leans forward]  Sometimes, Stevie, I think people, they know you're back from Vietnam, and their face - changes: the eyes, the voice, the way they look at you, you know.

  Steve Boyer : I know what you mean, Ronnie, but people here - they don't give a shit about the war! Yeah! To them it's just a million miles away. It's all bullshit, anyway. I mean, the government sold us a bill of goods and we bought it, and got the shit kicked out of us, and for what, huh?

  Ron Kovic : What do you mean, "we," Stevie? You were in college, man.

  Steve Boyer : [shrugs shoulders]  You bought that Communist bullshit, Ronnie. Yeah, they were going to take over the world, you remember that? Fenelli, you, Walsh - the whole town was devastated.

  [pause] 

  Steve Boyer : For what? For lies, for bullshit lies?

• Ron Kovic : [to Charlie]  I had a mother; I had a father, things - things that made sense. Do you remember things that made sense? Things you could count on? Before we all got so lost? What are we gonna do, Charlie? What am I gonna do?

• Ron Kovic : We went to Vietnam to stop communism!... We shell women and children!

  Mrs. Kovic : You didn't shoot women and children! What are you saying?

  Ron Kovic : That was the war, communism, the incidious evil! They told us to go.

  Mrs. Kovic : Yes, yes that's what they told us.

  Ron Kovic : Thou shalt not kill, Mom. Thou shalt not kill women and children! Thou shalt not kill! Remember? Isn't that what you taught us? Isn't that what they taught us?

  Mrs. Kovic : Stop it! Stop it!

• Mrs. Kovic : [enters the room, beaming]  Ronnie, Ronnie, you're doing the right thing! Communism has to be stopped! It's God's will that you go, and I'm proud of you.

  [gently pats his shoulder] 

  Mrs. Kovic : Just be careful, that's all.

  [pause] 

  Ron Kovic : Don't you know what it means to me to be a Marine, Dad? Ever since I was a kid I've wanted this - I've wanted to serve my country - and I want to go. I want to go to Vietnam - and I'll die there if I have to.

• Ron Kovic : [confessing that he had accidentally killed their son in Vietnam]  I'm sorry, I just had to come here to tell you. I've been afraid for years to come here to tell you. But I've lived with this long enough. I can't live with it anymore... I can't bring him back. Forgive me... I want to live. I want to go on with my life. I'm sorry, but that's what happened. That's the way it happened, and I can't change a thing.

  Jamie Wilson - Georgia : What's done is done, sir. I can't ever forgive you... but maybe the Lord can.

  Mrs. Wilson : We understand, Ron. We do understand the pain you've been going through.

  Mr. Wilson : We understand, son, we understand the way... these things happen.. in war.

• Doctor : We want to make one thing very clear to you, Ron. The possibility of your ever walking again is minimal... almost impossible. You're a T6 - paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Probably... you'll be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. (pause) Do you understand what I'm saying?

  Ron Kovic : Well, doctor...

  Doctor : Hmm?

  Ron Kovic : Doctor, will I ever be able to - to have children?

  Doctor : No.

  [pause] 

  Doctor : No, but we have a good psychologist. He's helped a lot of people.

  Ron Kovic : I'll walk again.

  Doctor : No you won't...

  Ron Kovic : No, I know I'll walk again!

  Doctor : No, let me tell you something, Ron. You will NEVER walk again.

• Ron Kovic : When I was in the hospital, I thought, yeah - yeah, this makes sense.

  Timmy Burns : What makes sense?

  Ron Kovic : Because I failed, Timmy.

  Timmy Burns : What are you talking about?

  Ron Kovic : Because I - I killed some - people; I made some terrible - mistakes!

  Timmy Burns : Oh, for Christ's sake, Ronnie, we all made mistakes. I mean, you - you had no choice. That's something that those goddamn pansy demonstrators ain't never gonna understand! Now, you don't even have to talk about it, Ronnie; I mean, it was insane over there! It was crazy!

  Ron Kovic : Sometimes I wish, I wish I'd - The first time I got hit, I was shot in the foot. I could have laid down, I mean - who gives a fuck now if I was a hero or not? I was paralyzed, castrated that day; why? It was all so - stupid! I'd have my dick and my balls now, and some days, Timmy - some days I think I'd give everything I believe in - everything I got, all my values, just to have my body back again, just to be whole again. But I'm not whole; I never will be, and that's - that's the way it is, isn't it?

  Timmy Burns : [after a slight pause]  For Christ's sake, Ronnie, it's your birthday. You're alive. You made it! Smile.

• Ron Kovic : They burned the flag and they demonstrated against us; it's on the cover of the paper today. They have no respect. They have no idea what's going on over there, Mom - the men that are sacrificing their lives. People are dying every day over there, and nobody back here even seems to care. It's a bunch of goddamn shit if you ask me!

  Mrs. Kovic : Ronnie, don't take the Lord's name in vain - not in front of the children. I agree with everything you say!

  Ron Kovic : I served my country - and they just want to take from it - just take, take! Love it or leave it, that's what I think.

• Ron Kovic : [to the reporters on a news camera]  I'm here tonight to say that this war is wrong, this society lied to me, lied to my brothers. They've deceived the people of this country - tricked them into going 13,000 miles to fight a war against poor peasant people who have a proud history of resistance, who have been struggling for their own independence for 1,000 years - the Vietnamese people. I can't find the words to express, and the leadership of this government sickens me. People say that if you don't love America, then get the hell out. Well, I love America. We love the people of America very much, but when it comes to the government it stops right there. The government are a bunch of corrupt thieves, they are rapists and robbers. And we are here to say that we don't have to take it anymore. We are here to say we are here to tell the truth; they are killing our brothers in Vietnam! We want them to hear the truth tonight!

• [Ron is attempting to walk in the hospital; Willie is beside him] 

  Ron Kovic : Am I good? Hey

  [drags himself forward] 

  Ron Kovic : , am I good?

  Willie : Man, you're one crazy Marine, Kovic - so gung-ho and everything, but you don't know shit about what's really happenin' in this country.

  Ron Kovic : Fuck you, Willie.

  Willie : I'm serious man. It ain't about burnin' the flag and Vietnam, man. While we fight for rights over there, we ain't got no rights at home. It's about Detroit and Newark, man. It's about racism, man.

  Ron Kovic : Is that right?

  Willie : Because you can't get no job at home. Vietnam is a white man's war, a rich man's war.

  Ron Kovic : [contemptuously]  Where's my money?

  Willie : I'm serious, man, you gotta read some books. There's a revolution going on, Kovic. Brothers are gettin' it together, and if you ain't part of the solution, man, then you're part of the problem.

• Chaplain - Vietnam : How are you?

  Ron Kovic : [weakly]  Tell them - they have to operate on me. There's something wrong with me.

  Chaplain - Vietnam : The doctors are real busy right now. There's a lot of wounded here today. No time for anything except trying to stay alive, so you got to try and stay alive, okay? You hear me? Try and stay alive.

  [pause] 

  Chaplain - Vietnam : I've come to give you your last rites. Are you ready?

  Ron Kovic : [weakly]  Yeah.

  Chaplain - Vietnam : I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. You brught nothing into this world, and it is certain that you will take nothing out of it. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

• Ron Kovic : [to the reporters on a news camera]  Why do they want to hide us? Why won't they let the veterans of that war speak tonight? Because they don't wanna know, they don't wanna see us. They wanna hide us because they've lied and cheated to us for so long - but we're not gonna run away and hide anymore. We're gonna win because we love this country. We love this country more than they could ever know. We fought for it. We gave our bodies because we loved it and believed everything it stood for, and tonight we're ashamed of it. And we've come from all the little towns, thousands of us to get this country back again; to make it whole again. Truth, honesty, integrity - this is the lost American dream here tonight, and we're gonna take it back!

• Ron Kovic : [to the reporters on a news camera]  Is that what we get? Spit in the face! I've got as much right to be here as these delegates. I fought for that right. You're not gonna stop me! You're not gonna shut me up! I'm gonna remind you of this war for the rest of my life so what happened there never happens again! We're never, never gonna let the people of the United States forget that war, because the moment we do, there's gonna be another war, and another, and another. That's why we're gonna be here for the rest of our lives telling you that the war happened - it wasn't just some nightmare - it happened, and you're not gonna sweep it under the rug because you didn't like the ratings, like some television show. This wheelchair, our wheelchairs, this steel, our steel is your Memorial Day parade on wheels, we are your Yankee Doddle Dandy coming home...