5. The Deer Hunter (1978)
Directed by Michael Cimino, this tale of three small town American steel workers' experiences in the Vietnam War was highly decorated at the Oscars - winning both Best Director and Best Picture. It is a very good war film but it ran into controversy for its infamous Russian Roulette scenes. The men have been taken captive by the Viet Cong and are forced to play Russian Roulette with a gun. It is a scene full of tension. They survive the game and one of the men uses the gun to blow the Vietnamese men away. There is absolutely no evidence at all that in the real Vietnam War, the Viet Cong made American POWs play Russian Roulette. Rather, we can read the scene as a powerful catharsis for American audiences - the Americans survived the Russian Roulette enforced upon them in the film and then blow away their tormentors. It is a potent emotional release following defeat in the war even if it is historically inaccurate. They get to pay back the Viet Cong.