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Born on the Fourth of July IQ Score 164/200

Born on the Fourth of July has an IQ Score of 164/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Masterclass tier.

dramawarbiographical
164/ 200
Masterclass

Exceptional cognitive and educational substance, delivered with craft that sustains close attention

Born on the Fourth of July poster, IQ Score 164/200, Masterclass tier on TV Intelligentsia

Score Breakdown

Legacy score. Published under our earlier workflow, before the current standard took effect in August 2026. A founder reviewed and approved it against our methodology, under a process that does not meet the standard we hold now. What this means →

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Cognitive Stimulation/50
41
Educational Value/50
41
Craft & Quality/50
41
IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4)  · How we score →
What these dimensions mean
  • Cognitive Stimulation: observable narrative complexity, conceptual density, ambiguity, inference, and sustained intellectual demands in the work.
  • Educational Value: the density and integration of substantive academic, historical, scientific, cultural, ethical, or practical information in the work.
  • Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.

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The Verdict

Best forViewers who want Vietnam's aftermath told through a veteran's body and politics, not combat
Skip ifUnsparing depictions of paralysis, VA wards, and rage make for a heavy single sitting
Use it asA history-class companion on how the antiwar movement drew from returning veterans

Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH
Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.
Formula
round((C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4)
Database scale
2,607 titles, version-controlled
TVI Canon

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The TVI Take

Oliver Stone's 1989 Tom Cruise-anchored film about Ron Kovic, the Vietnam-veteran-turned-antiwar-activist whose memoir Stone co-adapted. The structural commitment to letting Cruise's against-type leading-man performance render the canonical Vietnam-veteran trauma material, and Stone's most-direct post-Platoon political-historical work, is the canonical late-1980s Vietnam-cinema entry.

People & Production Oliver Stone · Universal Pictures · United States 21 connections

Direction & creation

Director
Producer

On screen & sound

Selected cast
Tom Cruise Kyra Sedgwick Raymond J. Barry Jerry Levine Frank Whaley Willem DafoeSelected in source order; not represented as billing order.
Cinematography

Production & release

Production company
Country of origin
Original language

Related works

Credits and relationships: Wikidata, CC0. TVI preserves production, broadcasting, and distribution as separate roles.

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Where to go next

Cite this score

Born on the Fourth of July scored 164/200 (Masterclass tier) on TV Intelligentsia's published methodology. Source: tvintelligentsia.com/titles/born-on-the-fourth-of-july/

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