Blog 10 ARB

The first hour in The Deer Hunter portrays the lives of our three main characters and their friends before they were sent to Vietnam to fight. This first hour is important to the idea of the film because it showed what these soldiers were leaving behind and that they would never see again. What they didn't realize was the fact they wouldn't see life in the same light had they survived the war. The trip in the first hour showed how Micheal would be able to take control of what goes on in Vietnam and how he was really the only one to survive even though they all faced their problems after the war.

This is clearly a "coming home" film due to majority of the story is the characters lives outside of the war and how the story shows how happy the six friends are before Mike, Nick, and Steve leave, but when Mike returns he doesn't go to his welcome home party because he can't bare to face those he left behind and it just goes to show how life had changed. The friends were still worried about Nick who hadn't returned, and they didn't know where Steve was but knew he was home and everyone was just so restless and they just couldn't do the same things they used to do and that is portrayed when they go on the second hunting trip and Mike can't shoot the deer. He can't shoot the deer, they can't have fun together, everything has changed and will never go back to the way it was.

This film is undoubtedly an anti-war film for many reasons. First, for the reason we just talked about, the film shows how the war turned such a happy group of people to such a sad and depressed and changed group of people. Secondly is the attitude of the Green Beret that is at the bar during the wedding. It goes to show how much the soldiers that fought in Vietnam really thought about it and they just didn't care and no one should care to be over there. Third, is the recurring theme of anger and the revolver in the film. The war drove them so crazy that they would hold a loaded gun up to their heads and take a chance that the the chamber they were about to fire was empty. It shows the psychological problems that veterans had to deal with and that makes no one happy. And lastly, the idea of watching those friends being tortured in the film and they were helpless. I has the ability to make viewers extremely angry to know that's what happened to their soldiers. All the scenes in Vietnam showed nothing but bad things for Americans so that clearly makes the distinction that this film was an anti-war film and not a pro-war film.