Kovic, Stone Star at UCI Seminar : Lecture: The possible congressional candidate and film maker talk to an enthusiastic audience about movies and war.

Anti-war activist and could-be congressional candidate Ron Kovic and film-maker Oliver Stone recounted the difficulties of bringing “Born on the Fourth of July” to the screen to an enthusiastic crowd of about 3,000 people Wednesday night at UC Irvine.

The pair, both Vietnam veterans, met in 1977 in the first attempt to bring Kovic’s life story to film. Kovic was paralyzed in a 1968 combat mission in Vietnam.

“This film has changed my life,” Kovic told the crowd. “It has turned my bitterness into joy.”

Stone and Kovic each spoke for about half an hour before giving way to questions from a panel as part of a seminar on the depiction of war in Hollywood films. While Stone gave a low-key and droll recounting of his film career, Kovic took an inspirational tone.

At the urging of national Democratic Party leaders, Kovic is considering running against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) in this year’s election. The Redondo Beach resident has been touring Orange County to gauge interest in his candidacy but has not yet announced whether he will run.

Dornan has wasted no time in meeting the potential challenge, sending out 60,000 mailers last weekend to past political contributors, asking for financial help against Kovic.

“His stands are the antithesis of a county that named its airport after John Wayne,” Dornan has told The Times. “This guy has attacked everything John Wayne stood for.”

Kovic, who responded that he is “proud to be the antithesis of John Wayne,” has said repeatedly in interviews that Hollywood movies starring Wayne and others glamorized warfare and incited young men such as himself to go to Vietnam.

“The movie,” Kovic said, “is about breaking through, breaking down walls . . . of ignorance, of lies, of half-truths.”

As depicted in the film, Kovic grew up in a strict Roman Catholic family on Long Island. The son of a grocery store manager, he volunteered for service in the Marines and was paralyzed from the chest down during a 1968 combat mission. Upon his return, he battled depression and alcoholism before directing his energies to anti-war activities.

During the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami, Kovic and another disabled Vietnam veteran got onto the convention floor and disrupted the proceedings. The event, depicted in the film, put Kovic in the spotlight as a spokesman for anti-war efforts. In 1976 he published his autobiography, “Born on the Fourth of July,” on which the film was based.

Stone first became involved with turning Kovic’s story into a film in 1977, when he was asked to write a screenplay for a movie to star Al Pacino. But financing for the project fell through, and the screenplay languished until Stone scored a commercial and artistic success in 1986 with “Platoon,” also set during the Vietnam war.

The director revived the project, this time with Tom Cruise as the star, and it was released just before Christmas. The film received mixed reviews, but so far the $18-million movie has made more than $44 million in ticket sales.

Wednesday’s seminar, originally scheduled for a lecture hall on campus, had to be rescheduled for the Bren Events Center after drawing an unexpected amount of public interest. The event was sponsored by UCI’s Global Peace and Conflict Studies program.