Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2019)

I had not seen this movie until recently and based on the synopsis was not sure whether it would be for me. I was wrong. This perhaps is all I can add to what has not already been said countless times about this piece of art.
It starts off rather confusing, with events surrounding friends and acquaintances in a close-nit Russian Orthodox community in a steel mill town in Pennsylvania.
The movie avoids or precedes the common stereotypes of the Vietnam war and avoids melodrama on the causes or pointlessness of the war itself. Given how close production was to the war's closing, this was not what the producers aimed for.
Rather, the story is a human one, telling the fates of 3 friends from the same town who went off to Vietnam. And in a sense, it pulls off the mix of pre-tour escapades, the war and the aftermath masterfully.
The all-star cast includes young Robert DeNiro, Meryll Streep and Christopher Walken.
From the 70s small town streets, to the forests of Pennsylvania, to jungles of Vietnam, to the streets of wartime Saigon, to scenes of joy and to scenes of great sorrow, the film through its 3 hours takes the viewer on a journey. The final scene, so simple, so poignant, brought me to tears.
10/10 without a doubt.