Some say taking a critical eye is patriotic. Others will flatly disagree or at least disagree when the opinion runs counter to their own. In the lead-up to celebrating the country's 236 years since independence ML is spotlighting the critical eye calling for change - acts that are very American. For every image of the country as that "Shining City on a Hill" there are perceived dissenters over American exceptionalism on screen. War, health care, the death penalty, poverty, racism have all been tackled in one form or another by Hollywood and beyond. Some of course consider these films a political/cultural "attack," while others say they're merely a "call to arms" to right a wrong, lending transparency to perceived ills in an open society. Perhaps some of the most successful films that take on culture and politics straddle both sides of a debate that opposing sides can call their own. Forrest Gump is probably one of the best examples in relatively recent times. But there are others that have taken decidedly more ideological bent and made waves doing so. Here are six we picked - undoubtedly, depending on one's interpretation, the list goes on...
Born on the Fourth of July
Director Oliver Stone
Writer: Oliver Stone (screenplay), Ron Kovic (book and screenplay)
Cast: Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava
Tom Cruise received an Oscar-nomination for his spectacular performance in this 1989 film, an autobiography by Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic. Stone (also a Vietnam vet) co-wrote and directed the film that is considered part of his trilogy of Vietnam pics along with Platoon (1986) and Heaven and Earth (1993). The film covers Kovic's life from a carefree childhood turned ardent Marine in Vietnam where he is critically wounded. Paralyzed from the chest down, he receives…
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