Digital, Cable and Satellite Television: Pick of the Day

DIRECTOR OLIVER STONE has never mastered the art of understatement; indeed, many of his films have been labelled bombastic and overblown. For all that, his movies possess an undeniable visceral power. In Born on the Fourth of July (10pm Sky Cinema, right), a powerful offering based on a real-life story, Tom Cruise turns in a storming performance as Ron Kovac, a crippled Vietnam War veteran. His disillusionment with the treatment of veterans leads him to campaign against the conflict.

Bob Hoskins delivers a convincing American accent as Owney Madden, a gangster who runs The Cotton Club (8pm FilmFour), which was a famous 1920s jazz club. In Francis Ford Coppola's good-looking film, he stars opposite Richard Gere who plays a cornet player slowly drawn into Mob affairs.