Blog 10 DRS

The first hour of The Deer Hunter introduces us to three soon-to-be soldiers: Mike, Nick, and Stephen. They're living it up, celebrating their last days with their three other friends; naive about the horrors of war they will soon face. They're shenanigans drinking and hunting show some amount of recklessness, which helps us understand how they could be drawn into volunteering for the war. At Stephen's wedding, the group of friends meet a green beret, who ignores all their questions and placidly replies "Fuck it." This emphasizes their naivete, and it foreshadows the terrible experiences to come. Also, during the wedding, Stephen and his bride Angela drink from a chalice in which they will attain good luck if they don't spill a drop. Of course, an unnoticed drop spills onto Angela's wedding dress, foreshadowing the turmoil to come. Taken as a whole, the first hour depicts the men as carefree and foolhardy.

The Deer Hunter is a "coming home" film, which is made clear when the first part of the film is compared to the latter two. The three men face horrors in war, most notably being forced into playing Russian Roulette for their lives. The event makes Stephen snap, eventually driving him to ill-mental health. Nick comes close to losing his mind, but is able to retain himself, whereas Mike seems to be the only one able to hold it together and manages to free all of them from their sadistic captives. The third part of the film shows where the men ended up after the war: Stephen is paralyzed from the waist down and is institutionalized. Mike makes it home but is noticeably distanced from his friends and loved ones. Nick is soon realized to be in Saigon, gambling high-stakes Russian roulette and drug addicted (as is evidenced by the track marks on his forearms). "Coming home" from the war, each man is inexorably changed from their once carefree mentalities.

With this idea in mind, it is clear that The Deer Hunter is an anti-war film. The film depicts war as a malignant force that inevitably breaks down the men that participated in it. Things the men once cared about--home, loved ones, friendship/bonding--are not as important as they once were. This is the power war has on our lives, and this is the lingering effect wars like Vietnam have on it's soldiers. It also shows the inhumanity of war itself in the second part, such as the North Vietnamese troop tossing a grenade into a civilian cellar. Nothing suggests this movie aimed to shed the Vietnam war in a positive light, with all evidence suggesting the negativity and horror of war.