The deer-hunting scenes looked like nowhere I've ever seen in Pennsylvania, or anywhere else East of the Rockies. You're either capable of appreciating art or you're not. There's no arguing with short and shallow attention spans. When anyone tells me they were bored I just shake my head.
And that very much includes the Eastern Orthodox wedding and its sequel. I think all the steel town scenes are nearly perfect, untoppable. But it's the 'home front' scenes that stick with me through the years. The Russian-roulette betting game, in both its up-river and Saigon venues, may be the most riveting, shattering plot device ever invented, as measured by the pounding of the heart.
People always comment on the Viet Nam scenes, and it's true that they are as powerful and intense as any war scenes ever filmed. I've now seen this film three times with a decade or more between viewings, and every time I see it I come away feeling that movies can't get any better than this.
