Directed by Michael Cimino
This is one of those films that I saw once and it stuck in my memory as a moving story. The film is very long but worth watching.
The story is complex but to offer a summary. The film is about three friends who work together and hunt once in a while. They are about to go to the Vietnam war. There they are captured and are forced to play Russian roulette, this has a lasting effect on all of them, especially Nick, who gets separated from the other two. Once Mike returns home he struggles until he finds that Nick is alive and he goes to try to bring him home.
This is one of the best films I have seen. The story of friendship and loss is told brilliantly by the director and acted beautifully by the cast. The sorrow in the last scene left me with the same feeling the characters felt, because it is relatable in many ways, not because it happened the same. The Russian Roulette scenes are so intense that is hard watching it but at the same so riveting you don’t stop looking at it. Now the movie is long, but that made no difference to me.
Robert De Niro is amazing in this movie, just another great performance by an amazing actor. Meryl Streep earned the first of many Oscar nominations. Christopher Walken won for his performance as the troubled Nick.
For me, this is one of cinema’s masterpieces.
