2:00-4th of July Parade
A big celebration with fireworks and a lot of marching.  This is when Ron views veteran soldiers in wheel chairs and no arms.  This is a disturbing sight that Ronnie experiences.  Donna gave him a birthday present --NY Yankees hat

6:00 -Fireworks at night, Donna Kisses Ron 
 After the parade
Under the fireworks, Donna kisses Ron (seems as though she has a crush on him)
 Ron doesn’t think he likes the idea of a kiss and changes the topic
 Shows off his push ups

6:30-Home Run
Young Ron the baseball star
Hits a home run, girlfriend and dad cheering him on 
 Dad lifts him in his excitement and glory

7:30-Family watches Kennedy’s Inauguration on TV
The family all get together to watch him speak.  Ron’s mother expresses the dream she had of Ronnie speaking in front of such a big group, making a name for himself.

9:00 -Wrestling Practice
 The coach is drilling the kids hard, similar to army (push ups/climb ropes, running)
  “To be the best you pay a price for victory, and the price is sacrifice”

10:00-Dinner with the family
Ron comes home from practice with religious icons draping the walls
 Display of Ron’s hardworking philosophy-needs to loose 3 lbs. for wrestling
Willing to do what it takes
 “A hard worker wants to be the best, win or loose.  Its what matters to God.”

11:00 -Wrestling Match
 Massapequa vs. Babylon
 Big Crowd--Donna’s there cheering for Ron
 30 sec./score 2-3 (Babylon)
 RON LOSES the wrestling match
 Mother is disappointed, her face is shown upset, the crowd boo’s
 

13:00-Mother finds Playboy Magazine in Ron’s Room
It’s very chaotic because they are trying to get the kids into bed.  Ron’s mother is disgusted after she finds a Playboy magazine in his room.  He denies it and tries to say it is his friends.  His mother yells and tells him to go to confession.

14:00- Marine recruiters
Marine recruiters (disciplined) visit HS, very appealing to Ron (proud, determined expression)
  “Not for everyone--only the best”
  “Are you really a man?”
  “We never lost a war”

16:00-The Girls
Three girls are walking and talking.  This is where Donna is featured as now a young woman.
 

16:10 -After School: Boys in Restaurant, Talking about their futures
 Ron admits to the boys that he is “going to the war now.”
 He wants to serve his country, convinced communism moving in 
His friends think he is crazy--could be dangerous (maybe be killed)
 Change the topic--Who is everyone taking to the Prom?
 Ron says he is taking a girl from out of town, girl named Lombardi

18:30-A&P
Works at A&P for dad
 Sees Donna, asks her to the prom (nervously), she has a date--rejection?frustration and anger

21:00 Prom
It’s the usual setting of a prom, pictures are being taken.  There are couples dancing and kissing.  Donna on the other hand, is very bored with her date.
 

21:30 -Night of the Prom: Home Packing and Discussion with his Parents
 Puts his Yankee hat on, the one Donna got him for his birthday when they were younger
 Home run is hit on Radio
 Brother sits on his bed playing his guitar
 Sisters in their room
 On TV, interview of U.S. officer in Vietnam
 Father think that it’s far to go to fight a war--Pessimistic View
 Mom says that she thinks he is doing the right thing--“God’s will you go” --Optimistic View
Ron says to his father, “You know what it means to me to serve my country.”  Ron says he wants to go and says he’d die there.
 Father changes the subject--what a nice night for the prom (it’s raining)
Ron prays to G-d, confused, maybe he should stay in Massapequa, never leave. 
 He says, “Help me Jesus to make the right decision.”
 Next thing we see Ron running out of the house in the rain. . . . 

25:00-Prom
Shows up at prom soaking wet from rain—everyone laughs
 Asks Donna to dance—kisses her—very romantic

27:20-The Killing of Civilians and of the Soldier Wilson: Vietnam, October 1967 
Ron is a Sergeant and a new soldier named Wilson is appointed to his squad.  They start firing at a village where they had thought the enemy was hiding, but it turns out to be a village full of dead civilians after they invade it.  Then, bombs and shots are fired, and it becomes very confusing.  Ron shoots Wilson by accident, mistaking him for the enemy.

35:00-Ron Reporting to Captain
 Ron wants to confess to the captain that he was the one who shot Lieutenant Wilson
 But Ron has trouble b/c the captain won’t let him finish his thought before cutting him off
 Ron says, “I think I might have killed him,” and the captain immediately responds to Ron, “I don’t think so.” 
 Captain dismisses Ron and tells him to carry on

37:00-In the Battle field, man shot in the head, chaotic state
 

37:20-War--Injured
Immediate chaos breaks the silence
Shot in foot, gets up while injured and shoots like a madman 
Shot again--mass spillage of blood
Repeating “climb it, climb it” from days of wrestling—be tough attitude

42:00 War Base Medical Center
There’s a lot of yelling from the wounded and dying.  Lights are going on and off due to bombs going off surrounding the site. The priest walks over to Ronnie to give him his last rites, as he waits for a surgeon.

44:30-Bronx Va. hospital-1968
 The hospital isn’t exactly the cleanest place (rats on the floor)
 Some of the workers don’t care and are too preoccupied playing cards and smoking cigarettes and say that the patients can wait
 Ron’s up and all ready to go before everyone else is up!

Victims are cleaned--shower; they are hosed down while lying on a stretcher
 Ron says, “I’m ready,” and Eddie says you better not be fucking with me

 Ron watches on TV what is going on in America--RIOTS
 A man in the hospital is screaming in the background indicating chaos, maybe hallucinating
 Ron, “love it or leave it fuckin bastards,” really disturbed that Americans are burning the flag

 Ron doing push-ups
 Asked how many he did yesterday, he did 3--he says okay he is going to do 7
 Eddie stands there cheering him on, and in a way mocking him

 Doctor tells Ron that the possibility that he walks again is minimal
 He will be in a wheel chair probably for the rest of his life
 Ron doesn’t want to except it, and says, “I will walk again.” 
 Ron seems determined

49:50-Trying to walk
Walking on crutches
 Dragging feet behind him as he is completely ambitious to walk again
 Falls down and bone pops out from his leg

53:00-Dreaming of Walking
Ron dreams of walking, then running.  He wakes up, upside down staring at his own vomit.  He yells for the nurses and starts yelling to be treated as a real human being.

57:00-Ron and Doctor dispute over bad pump
 Ron gets annoyed because his pump seems not to be working
 Ron is upset because the Doctor told him if the pump doesn’t work he would lose his leg
 Ron insists that he have his leg so this is important to him, and asks the so-called doctor to go find him a new working pump.  Doctor says he will look for one in the basement 
 Pump seems to begin to work again.  Ron screams!

58:30-Welcome Home
Gets out of car into wheelchair
 “Everything looks so different”
 Everyone’s older
 Neighbors look at him nervously, “you look good Ronny”
 Mother is overwhelmed with sadness—has to excuse herself

1:01:30-At Home
He wheels himself around bumping into walls.  His father has redesigned his bathroom so he could be more comfortable.  Ronnie stares at a picture of himself when he was wrestling in high school.  His father embraces him and begins to shed tears.

1:03-Boyer Burgers--At his old friend’s (Stevie) burger business
 Stevie offers Ron a job; Ron thinks somewhere along the line of a partnership
 Stevie is thinking more like a cashier and can make his way up to manager
 Ron says no thanks he will just take the money he is going to receive from the government for a while and live off of that 
 Stevie tells Ron, “To people here they don't care about the war,” and reminds Ronnie how he bought all that “communism bullshit.” 

1:05:40- Ronnie/Brother Fight
“No one here cares” his brother protests--doesn’t believe in the war
“You wanna burn the flag? Love it or leave it.” --Ron
“What’d you get out of it, look at”--brother 

1:08-4th of July Parade: Massapequa 1969
Ron is in the parade.  He rides in a Continental convertible.  When he hears the firing of guns, he starts to reminisce of Vietnam.  A riot breaks out between the protesters and veterans also marching in the parade.  Ronnie makes a speech about the war.  He expresses his feeling but has to stop when he reminisces of the fighting during his speech.  He apologizes for not being able to finish speaking to the audiences. 

1:14-Ron and old friend Timmy meet up (also a fellow marine in Vietnam)
 Timmy meets up with Ron as he is being escorted off the stage and they embrace
 Timmy and Ron share stories in Ron’s backyard about the war
 They tell each other how they were wounded
 Both agree that it was chaotic out there and the hospitals were terrible
 First time Ron talks about his personal feeling to anyone about the war
 “I would give anything to take back what I used to have,” Ron says. 
 Timmy tells Ron to “Smile you are alive!”

1:20-Visits Donna @ Syracuse University
Donna is flabbergasted as Ronny meets her at the train station in Syracuse
 She remembers the beautiful long letters he wrote to her during the war
 She is sorry for what happened to him
 She is against the war--bodies and minds are sacrificed
 He lives in the past--wants things to be the way he remembered them to be—before the war

1:25:40-Kent State Rally at Syracuse University
 “1-2-3-4 we don’t want your fuckin’ war!”
 Ron meets up with Donna and her friend at the rally
 Protesting “PEACE” and “END WAR”
 Ron seeing how he is not appreciated by his country--many against the war
 Police intrude/arresting and beating people--Ron and Donna get separated
 Ron’s hit by a policeman and screams “DONNA!”---He’s alone!

1:33-Bar Scene
Preaches about his sacrifice during the war, feels sorry for himself
Other marine doesn’t want to hear it--“served and lost, live with it”
Hits on young girl-Falls as he tries to dance--people laugh-just wants to dance
 

1:33-A Fight with Mother
After coming home from a bar, he’s very drunk and loud.  He expresses how he doesn’t believe in God.  How, he’s better off dead in life.  His mother starts yelling back telling him he will disrupt the neighbors.  He gets even angrier and expresses how his mother is ashamed of him.  He pulls out catheter, which is in his penis.  His mother is appalled and tells him to leave the house. 

1:37-Father puts Ronnie to bed
Fight over/father carries and puts Ron into his bed (says he should leave)
Ronnie cries to his father, “who will ever love me?”

1:39-Mexico-1970
 Provocative women (hookers)
 Vietnam veterans playing cards and complaining about the “fuckin States”
  How they get no respect from the people there
  And no women want them there
 Man tells Ron to go to town and get himself a woman
 Another man tells him to get out now. . . leave and go back to the states

1:40-Ron in the bar in Mexico
 Woman blows her whistle and woman come down the steps
 Has his eye on a specific woman

1:42:40-She asks Ron if he wants to go upstairs (her name is Maria Allena)
 Ron "makes love" to her, he breaks down crying in tears about his life

1:45-Ron seen outside the bar
  Talks with Charlie (man who recommended going to get a woman)
 He reminds Ron this place is like Paradise

1:46-Next day in town
 Ron goes and buys a present

1:47:30-In the bar again
 Ron with a different hooker this time

1:49-Dreaming: Flashbacks in his mind
 Picturing the time when he shot William Wilson (lieutenant in his squad)

1:49:54-Next day
 Ron awake sitting near the window
 Attempting to write a letter to William Wilson’s parents

1:50-In the bar
 Charlie and Woman get in a fight and dispute with the bartender
 Bartender kicks both Ron and Charlie out of the bar

1:52-Desert
Fight with cab driver because they think he tries to rip them off
 Left on the side of the road
 Charlie accuses him of “never putting his soul on the line.” Says he “Wasn’t really there”
 Go against each other--fight
 Things don’t make sense anymore--lost

1:55:20-Stranded in the Desert on their backs--Turning Point for Ronnie
 Lying in the desert on his back-helpless, nothing they could do for themselves

1:56:50-Visits cemetery
 William Charles Wilson’s Grave
 Recalls conversation with the Captain 

1:58-Visits Wilson Family
 Ronnie talks with Wilson’s father, mother, wife, and son
 Talk about the war as he looks through photo album of Wilson’s life
 Start talking about what happened the day Wilson was shot

2:03:30-Admits he shot William Wilson to the Wilson Family
 Wilson’s wife says “what’s done is done.  I can’t figure you, sir, but maybe God can.”
 Family feels the pain he’s going through and are very understanding

2:05:20-Miami Convention, 1972
 Parade of Vietnam veterans
 Peaceful, “Against the War”
 Ron carrying an American Flag
 Nixon shown accepting nomination

2:07:10-Ron rolls through the convention in his wheel chair
 Protesting against the war
 Told not allowed through, but continues on

2:08-Ron is on TV
 Protesting how government should pull out of the war
 “Government corrupt, thieves and robbers”
 Here to speak the truth
 As Ron is wheeled out by officials he screaming “Stop the bombing, stop the war”

2:11:10-End of Nixon’s speech
 Ironically says:  “Give those who served in Vietnam the honor and respect they deserve.” 

2:11:35- Conflict outside Convention Center
Vietnam vets protest--almost went to jail
 Throw him on the ground & drag him as he shouts, “I’m paralyzed”
 Beat over the head
 Vets turn around to “take back the hall”

2:14-Returns to chaos

2:15-1976 Democratic Convention
Ronnie prepares to speak to the country.  He start to reminisce of when he was little his mother told him of the dream she had of him speaking to a large crowd.  Ronnie finally feels a sense of peace, and finally feels that he is at “home.”

2:17