War is hell, but so is watching this movie.

Rating: 4/10 (15 October 2004)

Wow. What an overrated movie. Alternately dull and incoherent. The pacing (both too slow and too fast, depending on the scene) lends support to the idea that everyone in Hollywood was doing drugs in the 70s. Frequently unbelievable in silly ways. (When the steel workers sit around in the bar and quietly listen to their buddy play the piano? When DeNiro's character manages to get back into Vietnam via a copter ride to US Embassy roof DURING the American evacuation?)
The worst part however is watching every cog turn while a group of young method actors, mostly from rather artsy East Coast backgrounds and educations, try like crazy to BE the down-trodden denizens of a Pennsylvania mining town. FEEL the grit. SENSE the hopelessness. TOUCH the importance of faith and loyalty. MAKE YOURSELF ONE with the poverty.
Feh!
(By the way, I have nothing against artsy East Coast credentials -- I carry them myself -- or method acting per se. I just found them cloyingly obvious in this movie.)
Try Platoon or Apocalypse Now instead.