Russian Roulette

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2016)

The game of Russian Roulette is an important part of the film. Although there was no records of the game being actually played during the Vietnam War, the director, Michael Cimino added that for a reason. In the game of Russian Roulette, a bullet(s) is spun into one chamber in a revolver and the player pulls the trigger at themselves. Whether or not the player gets killed in the act is a solemnly on luck and strategy. The game was shown a lot throughout the movie because it shows that no matter how many times one plays it, they will eventually get killed- and with each game a person survives, it is only dehumanizing them even more. It is a symbol of the veterans of the Vietnam War. Like the game of Russian Roulette, nobody wins at the end. If a man refuses to participate in the war/ be deported, he will have to pay a huge fine and go to jail, and would be looked down upon by the rest of society by "not standing up for your country". War veterans from Vietnam suffer just as much as they can be damaged physically, mentally, and emotionally, and for people to say that the Vietnam War was for nothing- you saw your friend or family be killed for nothing. I thought it was ironic that Michael in the film had a "one shot" philosophy pertaining to deer hunting. He quoted, "You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about. A deer's gotta be taken with one shot". It was ironic to me because Michael on multiple times was forced to play Russian Roulette and one shot does make all the difference in the world. Overall I like the Russian Roulette sequence in the film because not only did it add more intensity and drama, but because of the symbolization and its powerful statement about the Vietnam War.