all three films, with the clear belief on the part of the filmmaker that the leadership was not only out of touch with the real needs of the people they served but was also dedicated to hiding mistakes, intentions, and the "real story" in general. A few authentic individuals are able to see through this facade and bring the truth to the public, for which they are vilified and marginalized.
In the opening sequence of Born on the Fourth of July, Stone uses a sense of nostalgia to evoke not only a sense of the past but the idea of the American dream, the solidity of the American family, and the values of small-town American life, all supposedly related to a belief in the leadership of America. Stone here uses some of his most naturalistic techniques to create the childish war games in the woods, footage that will have strong resonance later when Ron, now grown, discovers the difference between playing at war and fighting a war.
The parade down Main Street is the essential element in this opening, and here Stone uses the sort of camerawork seen on televised parades to make the scene seem vary familiar indeed. The bands, the important local people riding in cars, the majorettes, the soldiers, all moving past the camera and the crowd, with the crowd waving and cheering--this image recalls many other parades but also recalls Main Street, U.S.A., the American image of the small town where the people could all be brought out of their homes at once to salute the soldiers who fought for them.
Stone has already set the period by means of television footage--the family sits before the black
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