Jason Hall

"After its simplistic approach, you are caught off guard by the violent sacrifice these young men make. Hetherington and Junger paint a portrait of brotherhood and loss unmatched by any narrative feature."

"It buries you in the aesthetic of the blue collar steel-town life. Cimino took a script about Russian roulette in Las Vegas and relocated it to Vietnam, and, though historically inaccurate, he created an allegory that perfectly explained the nature of war."

"William Wyler directed an American social realism masterpiece after his return from WWII. The camera breathes with these characters, and, through the filmmaker’s patience, we come to know these veterans’ alienation as our own."

"This film dramatizes insurgency with choreographed chaos that feels like newsreel footage, though opening credits remind you it’s not. This film comments on the power of a righteous belief and speaks to the complexity of our current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite having been made in 1966."

"Klimov’s film is an unflinching examination of evil and embraces the surreal in places, while serving up dirty doses of realism in others. The barn burning sequence is the most haunting scene I’ve seen on film."