great war movie without the big war action

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2016)

It's 1967. Best friends Mike Vronsky (Robert De Niro), Steven Pushkov (John Savage), Nick Chebotarevich (Christopher Walken) work at the local mill in an industrial Pennsylvanian town in a Russian-American community. Steven marries his girlfriend Angela pregnant with another man's baby. Mike is in love with Nick's girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep). Nick asks Linda to marry him. The friends are heading off to the patriotic Vietname war. Mike promises Nick not to leave him there. In Vietnam, the men are captured by the Viet Cong and forced to participate in a Russian Roulette game.
This is a great war home-front movie. One cannot beat De Niro and Walken and Streep. The detailed extended Michael Cimino style is effective in giving a lived-in feel to the movie. The Russian Roulette is the most controversial aspect. I think it is the shock that sends this to another level. It encapsulates the desperation and the randomness of war. It is the perfect metaphor for war.