It took about three tries to finally sit down and watch this movie. The first time, I was flying high on pain meds so everything seemed very Hunter S. Thompson-esque. The second time I started it and about ten minutes in just didn't feel it anymore. Finally, I just buckled down, opened a bag of Ghiradhelli chocolate chips (fat!) and commenced to watch.
Holy shit, was this movie a downer. I have seen some depressing movies before, but this one is so tragic because people actually lived through it. The story begins in a typical factory town in Pennsylvania. Everyone either works at the steel mill or at the local pub, and that's just the way of life out there. People get married because they don't want a child out of wedlock, abuse towards women is commonplace, and the pub is where the action is at. Nearly the first hour of the movie takes place in the town of Clairton. It's a bit like the beginning of The Godfather, where you are like "When the hell am I going to see some action?!" But, just like The Godfather, it is all a build-up so you get to really know the characters. Without this build-up, the audience wouldn't be able to comprehend how much a character changes in the course of the film.
The first hour concerns some buddies that are going to be shipping out to Vietnam. One of them, Steven (John Savage) is getting married to his pregnant girlfriend against the wishes of his mother. After the shift at the steel mill ends, all of the guys go and get sloshed at the pub while the women prepare for the wedding. Steven is joined by Michael (Robert De Niro) and Nick ( Christopher Walken), as well as some friends who for whatever reason are not shipping out to the 'Nam, played by John Cazale, George Dzundza, and John Aspergen. They have all grown up with each other throughout the years, and they do nearly everything together. John Cazale plays a weasel very well ("Fredo, you betrayed me!") and I wonder how the other guys put up with his shit half of the time. When they make it to the wedding, all the guys keep drinking and Cazale ends up sucker-punching his date before continuing to slow-dance with her.
Throughout this sequence we learn that Mike has the hots for Nick's girl, played by the astoundingly sexy Meryl Streep (seriously, I never realized how hot she was years ago.) The town gives the fellas a big "good luck, Chuck" at the wedding reception and then Mike goes streaking naked through the streets. A lot goes unsaid between Walken and De Niro. You can tell that Nick knows Mike wants a piece of his girl, and they both wonder if they will make it out of the jungle alive. While Steven is on his honeymoon, the rest of the guys go deer hunting. Mike loves huntin' 'dem deer and he takes it damn seriously. He tells Nick that of all the guys, he's the only one he enjoys hunting with because everyone else is an asshole. This is true. Cazale apparently always forgets key items of gear and shows up in his dress shoes. The other guys just wildly chase after deer while getting drunk. Mike has adopted one of my favorite principles, "one shot, one kill" to hunting deer. He enjoys the hunt, being out in the open air, and he has no qualms with taking down a magnificent buck and tying him to his hood.
Abruptly, we are taken from the gang celebrating the successful deer hunt to being knee-deep in Vietnamese rice paddies. Somehow Mike has been knocked out and awakens as Steven and Nick arrive in a helicopter. They are then surrounded by the VC and taken to a POW camp. This whole sequence is very effective. The VC get their kicks from torturing the POWs and forcing them to play Russian Roulette (for those not in the know, it's where you place one round in the chamber of a revolver and pass it around to see who takes a bullet to the brain.) I'm not going to spoil everything that occurs in this sequence, but all three end up escaping from the camp. Nick took a round to the leg during the escape, and all three climb onto a downed tree and float down river. A helicopter approaches and takes Nick aboard, but Steven isn't strong enough to climb up and falls sixty feet into the river. Mike goes after him, and they float onto the shore. Steven has suffered a compound fracture to his leg from the fall and Mike has to carry him until they find a South Vietnamese military transport.
The rest of the movie is spent looking at how these events have changed the three men. Nick pretty much loses his mind and goes AWOL, Steven is crippled from his injuries, and Mike makes it home without serious injury to his person. But things are different when he makes it home. He avoids the big Welcome Home party and is cautious with trying to integrate back into his normal life. He begins to court Nick's girlfriend Linda, who is trying to come to terms with Nick's disappearance. He tries to hang out with the guys and even tries to go hunting deer again. He finds that he no longer enjoys the hunt, and can no longer take an innocent life. After finding Steven in a Veteran's hospital, Mike figures out that Nick is still alive somewhere in Saigon. He goes back to Vietnam to find Nick, and when he does you truly understand how damaged our soldiers became due to the horrors they faced in war.
Walken gives a haunting performance as he goes from charming Everyman to broken shell. De Niro gives a fine performance as usual, and the whole cast plays their respective parts well. This won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and for good reason. This movie will stay with you, especially as our Iraq War Veterans come home and face the same issues of finding a place in a word that left you behind.
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