Russian Roulette

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2009)

The Russian Roulette sequence in the movie is to show that men who were drafted during the Vietnam war really had no good choices. Men could draft dodge to Canada, or potentially be arrested. They could go to Vietnam, and get physically, emotionally, or psychologically scarred. The Russian Roulette was to display the fact that the Vietnam war was a no win situation for draftees. Since there are no actual records of Prisoners of War having to play Russian Roulette, it makes sense that Kubrick put it into the film only as a metaphor. He saw the war as a lose-lose situation for anyone who was forced to go to Vietnam, and this was demonstrated in the fact that if you play Russian Roulette, eventually you die.