Response # 2

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2013)

Michael, Steven, and Nick are three friends who work in a factory during the Vietnam war. Surrounded by other friends and a familiar group and town, they live life relatively carefree, until they enlist and are sent to Vietnam, shortly after Steven's wedding. Nick is easygoing and relaxed, all about having fun and taking life as it comes. He is the only character that really understands and respects Mike's quiet, surly manner, and Mike went as far as to say that NIck is the only one he would trust to take deer hunting. Mike is by far the most serious. He may laugh or joke at times, but he knows what needs to be done and who needs to do it. Steven is more of a nervous fellow who cannot stand up under pressure. The wife he married was already pregnant, and he did it more for her sake than his. Entering Vietnam, these differences definitively shaped their experiences and reactions to those experiences. After being assigned to separate units for a while, the three meet up after a town has been raided in the jungle. Unfortunately, they are captured and brought to a Vietcong camp nearby on the river. Here the prisoners are forced to play Russian roulette (while not historically accurate, this serves to show the chance-like quality of the war). Under the pressure, Steven snaps and is left to die. Mike argues with Nick and convinces him to risk his life in extreme circumstance to try to escape. After a painful round of Russian roulette, they escape and are rescued by an American helicopter, but split up during the recovery. Mike goes home without Nick, and although he has certainly lost his innocence he is able to still move on. Steven refuses to leave his hospital bed, and can no longer face the world, just as he has never been able to stand up to things outside of his control. Nick stayed in Vietnam and continued to play Russian Roulette until it eventually killed him. He always was the most optimistic, innocent, and willing to take risks, and Vietnam killed him, if not physically, in the end. Innocence was lost with the war and Nick symbolizes the loss of innocence and optimism, only the methodical and strong such as Mike were able to survive.