Great Idea but a very muddled storyline

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 2015)

I have watched this movie many times. The idea behind this story is a great one. Watching the lives of people changed in a Pennsylvania Steel Town after the Vietnam War. Makes for an interesting movie. The problem with this movie is we see no back story on any of these characters on why they are who they are. We spend all this time on watching a wedding where nothing of significance to the rest of the movie really transpires. We see just a glimmer of the Vietnam War that these men were in and other than the small screen time of their Russian Roulette torture we don't understand the horrors these men must have endured. The characters don't develop and don't have dialog that allows them too. I think Meryl Streep was the only one who conveyed anything of her character in this movie. A lonely woman who is clinging to whatever she can to survive this post war country. I am a huge Robert Deniro fan but I am in the minority in finding this film a wasted opportunity for all involved. John Cazale summed up this movie perfect when Robert Deniro says " This is This" John Cazal said "What the hell does that mean" I wondered this about the whole film.