B
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BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
SCENE PROFILE
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Fourth 01 July celebrations: 00:01 :56 - 00:05:45
appearance
setting
Ronnie: dark hair; big, brown eyes; dressed in striped T-shirt and
shorts -7 ordinary, 'All-American', little boy: cute, sporty,
time: July 4th, 1956 -7 national holiday,
good-looking
Mother: permed hair; khaki summer dress with white collar; make-up
-7 prim, conservative
Donna: pretty; long, curly hair; looks older than Ronnie; sleeveless top
-7 too attractiue and grown-up to be interested in a tittle boy
patriotism
place: Massapequa, Long Island, main street
-7 small-town USA,normal, conservative ideas
plot
little dialogue, boys chase each other -7 R is accepted in his peer
Fourth of July parade, different groups from the
community participate (police escort, marching band
with cheerleaders, high-school students, soldiers
and veterans) Ronnie Kovic watches the parade
with his parents; his friend Donna fights her way
through the cheering crowd to give him a birthday
present: a baseball cap with a New York Yankees
emblem, he agrees to meet her later to watch the
fireworks -7 protagonist's special connection to bis
group, leader
country's bistory and traditions
bodylanguage
Ronnie silling on his father's shoulders to watch the parade
-7 elevated position, protection, dreams/illusions, parents' darling
Put back on his feet to accept Donna's present connection to reality
use of language/communication
Ronnie, "Look, Daddy, soldiers!" -7 excitement, fascinated by the army
after Ronnie has put on his new baseball cap: Mother, "There's my
Yankee Doodleboy"/ Father, "Ain't he a little Fourth of July firecracker
in that hat?" -7 proud of tbeir son, patriotic, protectiue, dominant
Characters
suspense
What is Ronnie's attitude to Donna? Is he too
young for romance? Will he understand that blind
patriotism is dangerous?
Action
Narrative techniques
Main function of the scene:
Introduces the protagonist and foreshadows his future
Camera operations
Different lengths of shots/fast cuts/camera in motion
-7 underlines the excitement of the event
Mainly combination of medium and full shots of certain characters
-7 visual introduction of main cbaracters
close-up of Ronnie sitting on his father's shoulders looking at a
crippled war veteran -7 foreshadows Ronnie's fate (he will return
from Vietnam as a cripple)
high-angle and low-angle point-of-view shots when Ronnie has
opened his present from Donna and his parents look down at him
-7 parents appear ouerpouering; shots stress tbeir strong
influence on him; proteetue but restriettue
Special effects
slow motion (used twice):
1. Ronnie watches the veterans
-7 empbasizes the streng impression they make on the little boy
2. At the end of the scene a cheerleader throws abaton high
into the air and the camera follows it slowly
-7 highlights a symbolic action
contrast (at the end) between sad music and laughing parents
-7 impression of discord/disbarmony
Visual symbols
• American flags (also in Ronnie's hand), birthday cake
in US colours, New York Yankees baseball cap
-7 patriotism
• Firecrackers -7 joy/celebration vs. tbreat/danger
• Flying baton (at the end, cf. slow motion)
-7 possibiy indicates Ronnie's high hopes
Film music/sound effects
First music played by marching band, then Rock'n Roll
(period music) -7 make the scene more authentie,
cheerful, noisy (mass appeal)
when soldiers march past there is a new tune (film music
by John Williams): dramatic, in a minor key, melancholy,
mournful string instruments -7 foresbadoui Ronnie's
disillusionment/borrors to come
sound of guns when soldiers and veterans march past,
veteran in wheelchair cringes -7 memories of battles,
shell-shoek
explosion of firecrackers -7 authentie detail, harmlessfun
but potentially dangerous
© Ernst Kielt Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2004. Filmanalyse, Klettbuch 577463
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