The futility of war

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2017)

Drama/war movie about three friends that have enlisted in the army and go to fight in the Vietnam war.
With a running time of 3 hours, the first one is filled with scenes from a marriage that serves to introduce the characters, but it becomes extremely tedious due to its duration - it should have been shortened quite a bit! After that we have a brief deer hunt in the mountains and then it cuts abruptly to the action in Vietnam. Some of those scenes are ones of the most memorable in war movies, but it does not serve to save the film that although it has great names in the cast (Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep) with excellent performances, is too long and with notable American patriotic denotation and western stereotypes. It would be assumed that these soldiers' experiences in the futility of war would lead them to have an anti-war attitude, yet we are presented with an end where they are all around a table in mourning but singing a hymn to the American motherland, as if extolling the future dead of the coming wars and the horrors associated with it. On a positive note it is a tribute to the long-standing friendship and fraternal bonds that are created by living together in community.
Winner of 5 Oscars including Best Picture and 4 other nominations. A film above average, but nothing highly recommendable to the casual moviegoer, at least on my part; but for lovers of war movies or true cinema enthusiasts it might well be worth it.