Britain's Karel Reisz was one of the many film-makers who in the late Seventies turned their attention to the trauma of the Vietnam War. Reisz's second American film (following 1974's The Gambler), follows the desperate actions of a war correspondent (Michael Moriarty) who is so sickened by the carnage around him that he gets out - and into the drugs trade, also involving his Marine friend (Nick Nolte) and his wife (Tuesday Weld). But the trio become the innocent pawns in a very dirty game and things go - inevitably - tragically wrong. Moriarty (although we do not see enough of him) and Nolte give charismatic performances in this elegantly made, sombre and violent story which is a serious, if not always clearly focused, attempt to symbolise a society that has lost its way.


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