10 Best Performances In War Movies

An actor who brings his A-game even on questionable projects, Christopher Walken has never been better than in Michael Cimino’s impossibly bleak Vietnam epic. As Nick Chevotarevich, Walken gives a dual performance - the happy-go-lucky young man prior to the war, and the haunted shell that emerges from it.

A performance drenched in survivor’s guilt and psychological scars, Nick survives heavy combat, but the horrors of war leave him a wreck. Unable to countenance civilian life, he remains in Vietnam, where he embarks on a (bizarrely) lucrative career as a Russian roulette player.

Walken is a remarkable physical presence in just about every film but here he’s mesmerising, transforming himself into a gaunt, hollow figure, the light behind his eyes sucked out by the terrible things he has witnessed. His iconic bandana helps matters, too.

It’s a performance so great that it almost damages the film - when he’s not onscreen, it can’t help but sag a little, he steals the show to such a degree. Walken picked up the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film - few Academy Awards can have been so richly deserved.