Streamers (1983)

Synopsis: Robert Altman follows up his critically acclaimed film of the theatre piece COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN with this adaptation of David Rabe's savage play. STREAMERS takes place in a desolate Vietnam-era Army barracks where a group of disparate young recruits wait nervously... Robert Altman follows up his critically acclaimed film of the theatre piece COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN with this adaptation of David Rabe's savage play. STREAMERS takes place in a desolate Vietnam-era Army barracks where a group of disparate young recruits wait nervously for their orders. Billy (Matthew Modine) and Roger (David Alan Grier) have learned to ignore their racial differences and become good friends. Richie (Mitchell Lichtenstein) is an effeminate soldier whose personality disarms the others, and when Carlyle (Michael Wright), an angry black man, arrives, the simmering tensions come to a boil. He berates Roger for living in a white barracks, and crudely exposes Richie's homosexuality. When drunken officer Cokes (George Dzundza) tries to calm the quarreling soldiers, Carlyle is driven to destructive behavior. Placing the characters in a purgatory-like locale where death and violence is imminent, Rabe's screenplay crackles with the anger, fear, and confusion of a group of young men at a pivotal moment in their lives. Altman, notorious for allowing his actors to improvise, proves with STREAMERS that he also can adhere to a tightly woven script, resulting in a tense, uncompromising drama. [More]