It's the military funeral of Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney) as he recounts his journey. It returns to Jackie's first day at Fort Myer which provides soldiers for Arlington National Cemetery and he's gungho to fight in Vietnam. He's the son of a friend of Sgt. Clell Hazard (James Caan) who tries to talk him out of Vietnam. He helps screw-up Wildman (Casey Siemaszko) from platoon Sgt. Flanagan (Laurence Fishburne). Sergeant Major Goody Nelson (James Earl Jones) and wife Betty Rae set up Hazard with anti-war Washington Post reporter Samantha Davis (Anjelica Huston). Pete Deveber (Elias Koteas) is a clerk and Homer Thomas (Dean Stockwell) is the commander. Jackie marries Rachel Feld (Mary Stuart Masterson), the daughter of a colonel.

Francis Ford Coppola revisits Vietnam with something less epic and more traditional. There are great actors. The thing I remember most is the story of the Vietcons fighting helicopters with arrows. This is certainly not as iconic as Apocalypse Now. It doesn't mean that it's not a worthwhile watch. For a war movie, this surprisingly has little war action. That's probably what throws most people off.