Some Kind Of Hero

Although much was lost from James Kirkwood's novel in its transition from the printed page to the screen (despite the author's collaboration on the screenplay), Richard Pryor's assured tragicomic performance is so engaging that this otherwise forgettable film is not only worth watching, but often compelling. Pryor plays Eddie Keller, an Army conscript who spends five years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, cleverly getting the best of his captors, but ultimately signing a statement denouncing US involvement in Indochina so that his fellow prisoner and friend, Vinnie (Ray Sharkey), will be given proper medical treatment. That denunciation catches up with Eddie when he...