A Superb, Sprawling Epic About the Psychological Toll of Vietnam

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2007)

Michael Cimino's Vietnam classic, a blistering, deeply disturbing epic about a small community of friends in a Pennsylvania factory town before, during and after serving in Vietnam.
The film is structured as a sort of three-act tragedy: act one shows the group of friends (Robert De Niro, John Savage, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, George Dzundza) celebrating the wedding of one of their number (Savage) and then the hunting expedition they go on as a last hurrah before a few of them head off to Vietnam; act two shows De Niro, Walken and Savage struggling for survival in a Vietnamese prison camp, and includes the notorious scenes of forced Russian roulette that many remember the film for; act three follows up on the stories of these men as they return from war -- De Niro is haunted but able to get his life back together; Savage is a paraplegic; and Walken stays behind, a hollowed out zombie who disappears into the crime-ridden maze of post-war Saigon.
Cimino films all of this with a meticulous eye for detail and arresting images -- indeed, much of the story is told through images alone, with long passages containing virtually no significant dialogue. It's a gut-wrenching and supremely affecting film, with one of the most quiet yet shattering endings I've ever seen.
Also with Meryl Streep in an early role as the girlfriend Walken leaves behind.
Grade: A+