Based on the autobiographical writing of Ron Kovic played by Tom Cruise this can be, at times, a depressing story. Ron Kovic is your average young American all rounder who never fails at anything. His father served in the war and his father before that. So Ron is intent on serving his country in the tradition of his family. When the Marines come to town to recruit he is right there jumping on the bandwagon, much to the disgust of some of his friends. He also has a hard time dealing with leaving his love, Donna (Kyra Sedgwick).

Ron serves two tours of duty in Vietnam, and on the second tour is faced with some horrific atrocities. In the glaring sunlight he accidentally shoots one of his own men and is having a lot of trouble dealing with this. In the ensuing days he is wounded badly and is taken home to the Bronx Veterans Hospital where he is kept in appalling conditions. Here he recovers slightly but is left paralysed from the chest down. He returns to his hometown a war hero, and then has to deal with people staring, and him being made a spectacle of. The remainder of the film is a rather emotional look at they way he deals with his disability and it’s effects on his family and himself.

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
I’m sorry to say that this letterboxed only transfer leaves a lot to be desired. There appears to be no consistent picture (or audio) level. There are some scene’s in the film, which might be a remnant of the feeling Oliver Stone was trying to achieve but I was not impressed. Generally the colour was flat and lifeless and at times annoying to look at. It did improve towards the end of the film but was not consistent. There is a noticeable yellow tone to the early scenes in the film, which while it is effective can be distracting. There are a couple of instances where glare and reflections make it difficult to see the images. In the first five minutes there are instances where glare almost completely cuts out the film. Overall the general transfer is extremely grainy, and at times makes you flinch with ailiasing. There are also some obvious glitches during the telecine processing. (Same sort of problem as in Die Hard 3… but not MPEG artefacting) A Good example is a shot of a Bitumen road towards the end of the film. I don’t know how this passed quality control and I hope it’s not a common occurrence in the future.

The audio transfer is somewhat better than the video but still isn’t anything to write home about. There was a lot of potential for the audio to be fantastic but it falls short by a long way. There is a lot of noticeable background noise throughout the film. While the dialogue was clear it is not a balanced volume level and I was constantly turning the volume up and down to be able to hear the dialogue. There did not appear to be any sync problems. Not much use of the surrounds or base channel, except in some of the war scenes. The soundtrack composed by John Williams was powerful and emotional and fitted well with the film.

Extras were very light on for such a popular film. Nothing I can even really comment on. Then menu was pretty bland, and needed some sort of effort to spice it up. Other than that you get the normal Theatrical trailer, Production Notes and Cast and Crew Filmographies.