Review of Scavenger Hunt (1979) by Mrknowitall — 17 Feb 2012

Because the Russian roulette image is even on the poster, verisimilitude has to be a major consideration -- even more important than the film's basic entertainment value. Near as I can tell from shallow research, there is no credible record of the Vietnamese cruelly forcing American POWs to play Russian roulette for fun and profit. That kind of made-up accusation in a movie made for popular release is just propaganda plain and tall. And it was used as propaganda by others to beat the war drum for Vietnam, though Cimino swears he never had a clue as this outcome. You might enjoy a movie that has big scenes showing French resistant fighters killing Nazis with a guillotine, or one featuring Napoleon's soldiers squeezing Austrians through a laundry wringer, but when the big scene is just made up, perhaps out of ignorance, the film can't be considered good.

It's pointless to claim that the Russian roulette bits were not intended as criticism of the Vietnamese soldiers or that the portrayal of NVAs as grinning fiends was unintentional: That's what is on the film that millions of people saw. And, sadly, millions of American believed it -- still do.

Look, Leni Riefenstahl was at first praised in Hollywood for her Nazi propaganda films. And there may be some cinematic merit in them. But you'd have to at least share some of her sympathies to arrive at the opinion that her 'Victory of Faith' was worth four stars.