#1

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2007)

I believe that the director wanted you to understand that playing Russian Roulette is a lose- lose situation in the end. This directly correlates to the 18 or 19+ year old that were forced to go into the war because of the draft. Many of the men who served in Vietnam had fathers who were WWII veterans, so they were looked down upon if they coward their way out of the draft. In turn though, if they were drafted and went to war, it was a death sentence. In the movie, Russian Roulette was played to see who had enough "guts" to kill themselves by chance. It was a risk with a great reward, but the risk was death. The draft worked in the same way. You could go to war and be killed or have psychological/physical damage, or stay home and be looked down upon from your family. America is built upon our patriotism for our country and if one is a coward because he finds a way to not be drafted then he is immediately disowned in a sense. America doesn't want our men and troops to die, but we rather have them fight for our freedom then sit back and watch other men die.
I didn't at first realize that this was what the director was aiming to make a point of, but once I did realize it, I agree completely. The concept of Russian Roulette and the draft fit together especially since Russian Roulette seemed to play a great part of the movie, it separated life and death as did the draft in America.