"Born on the Fourth of July," the powerful Vietnam drama, won Golden Globes for best director and screenplay in an emotional awards ceremony Saturday night.
Ron Kovic, the disabled veteran whose story was the basis for the movie, received a standing ovation in accepting the screenwriter award with co-writer and director Oliver Stone at the 47th Annual Golden Globe Awards.Injured in the war 22 years ago to the day, Kovic said in his acceptance speech that when he was shot, "I didn't even know if I was going to get off the field and live. This is the happiest day of my life."
The film, a chronical of Kovic's transformation from a patriotic soldier to a war protester, was 12 years in the making. "On nights like this, for just one fleeting moment, you know you did the right thing," Stone said in accepting the best director award.
In the television competition, the CBS series "Murphy Brown" won as best musical or comic television series and "Lonesome Dove" won for best miniseries or television movie. Robert Duvall also won for best actor in a miniseries or TV movie for "Lonesome Dove."
The other early multiple winner was "Driving Miss Daisy," which captured trophies for best actor and actress in a musical or comic motion picture, for Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy.
Diane English, the executive producer of "Murphy Brown," accepted her trophy in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel with the decoration from her dinner salad in her hand.
"Obviously, we're totally unprepared for this because I brought my dinner up here," English said, holding aloft what appeared to be a real frog, somehow preserved.
Other winners were Ted Danson for his role on "Cheers," and Jamie Lee Curtis for her role in "Anything But Love."
NBC's "L.A. Law" was the most-nominated television show, with eight nods.
In all, 170 feature films, 83 miniseries and television movies were eligible for this year's awards ceremony, as well as all prime time television series.
The Academy Award nominations won't be announced until Feb. 14, but the Golden Globe list again shapes up as a likely yardstick for Oscar consideration. Hosts Cybill Shepherd and Sam Elliott presided over the ceremonies, which were broadcast on cable television.