It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker of Colonel Walter E.Kurtz""s memory, any more than being back in Saigon was an accident.There is no way to tell his story without elling my own.And if his story is really a confession, then so is mine.He is given a questioning and then a briefing by two grim military superiors: southern-accented General R.Real-life double amputee (from a ship explosion) and one of the cast""s inexperienced actors - Harold Russell received an additional Special Honorary Oscar "for bringing hope and courage to fellow veterans" for his first performance.Boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), with his face hidden in the monk-like hood of his leopard-skin robe, warms up alone in the ring by shadow-boxing into the smoky air.After Proody drove away, and was greedily counting his stack of bills at a railroad crossing, a car behind him pushed his vehicle onto the tracks and he was killed by an oncoming train.