This absorbing drama about a close-knit group of friends from a Pennsylvania steel town who go to fight in Vietnam unfolds in sections contrasting their experiences before, during, and after the war. Arguably one of Michael Cimino’s biggest successes, he triumphed in casting Robert De Niro–who then reached out to other rising actors from New York (John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken)–creating a memorable ensemble cast. Of the film’s indelible Russian roulette scene, Roger Ebert observed, “It is the organizing symbol of the film. Anything you can believe about the game, about its deliberately random violence, about how it touches the sanity of men forced to play it, will apply to war as a whole.”