Excellent War Time Movie

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 2005)

This movie is defiantly one of the best war time depictions that I have ever seen. I found the acting excellent. Christopher Walken's performance was superb and really brought the viewer to feel his melancholy emotions brought on by Russian roulette torture. Robert Di Niro so too played his part brilliantly showing the rapid pace of change in his characters life brought about by the Vietnam War. I found that the movie itself had an excellent build up and really provided an insight to the emotional strain that the Vietnam War had on such towns as the one featured in the film. Though the movie sometimes felt as "slow" at times it was not so, the movie provided an in-depth background into the comradeship of the friends. This camaraderie was shown greatest when escaping from the Vietcong and returning to Saigon at the end of the film. The cinematography was outstanding, the movie portrayed years of friendship and misfortune in just 180minutes. I particularly enjoyed the fact that original Vietnam War film footage was inserted into the movie. This brought you back to fact that this actually did happen so too that peoples lives were ruined and others left to clean up the pieces of it. The ending would also have to be one of, if not the best endings of any movie that I have viewed. All central characters are brought together and sing an American Ballad, this I believe symbolized the fact that unity was achieved through the end of a life and/or the war. Although an Australian citizen myself this movie appeals to all who had ties to the war and gives and accurate and descriptive depiction of what was the Vietnam war. I would strongly recommend this film and give it 9 and 1/2 stars.