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In Karel Reisz's film, based on Robert Stone's novel DOG SOLDIERS, John Converse (Michael Moriarty), a Marine combat veteran, returns to Vietnam as a war correspondent. He is overwhelmed by the challenges that face him, and so he decides that in an insane world, it makes sense to to smuggle heroin into the United States, and joins in with a conspiracy group suspected to have CIA connections. His ex-marine buddy, Ray Hicks (Nick Nolte), now a merchant marine sailor, helps him smuggle the heroin to San Francisco. When Ray delivers the drugs to John's wife Marge (Tuesday Weld), thugs disguised as Federal agents steal the drugs. Outraged at being double crossed, Hicks takes Marge with him on the run, followed now by real CIA agents. In their flight through the drug underworld of L.A. and down into New Mexico, Hicks discovers that Marge is a junkie herself. Though she is physically weak, she nonetheless possesses an inner strength to match Hick's exterior strength. Nolte, in one of his first staring roles, is unequaled in his expression of intelligence and sensitivity, while being simultaneously tougher than nails.
Reisz keeps the action and characters in the forefront, and in doing so keeps this heavily allegorical story about the corrupting effect of the Vietnam War on America from collapsing under its own weight.
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