In 1978, a Vietnam ar Film came out starring the well known, young Robert De Niro, a young woman named Meryl Streep, and an unknown man named Christopher Walken. This movie told the story of three Pennsylvania steel workers (De Niro, Walken, and Savage) who go off to the Vietnam War. It doesn't so much as tell the story of the war, but the affects it can have on three regular people. After they are captured in war, they are tortured by Vietnamese prison camp leaders and are forced to play Russian Roulette. This game is the symbol of the loss of sanity for the three. During one game, Nicky (Walken) and Michael (De Niro) decide to fight back. They kill the soldiers and escape. When they are sent home, Steven (Savage) is handicapped, Michael is almost the same, but is holding his emotions in on the inside, and Nicky has gone insane and never returned home. He stayed in Vietnam and became a little champion in Russian Roulette. He became insane and when Michael goes to get him, Nicky doesn;t want to be get. Michael and Nicky decide to have a game of roulette and, tragically, Nicky is shot dead. Michael returns home and has the funeral and nothing is ever really the same.
Walken delivered the best performance in the film and that is not easily accomplished in a film with Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro. He played insanity very well and looked as if he were in a trance the entire film. There is a scene when Michael comes to get Nicky and tries to talk him out of playing in a game and Nicky spats in Michael's face. I then read on the internet that De Niro had no idea it was coming. Walken had improvised it and not told anyone about it. And anybody who has the courage to spit in Robert De Niro's face has a lot of guts and deserves to win an Oscar, which he did in 1978 for Best Supporting Actor.
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