Year: 1978
Director: Michael Cimino
Country: US
Language: English
I first saw Director Michael Cimino's three hour war epic on a Remembrance Day many years ago. I expected the usual anti-war film, but instead witnessed an intellectual masterpiece with great depth. It discussed the alienation of fighting in a foreign country, along with the depravity of violence. Though it didn't give us the Vietnamese view of the Vietnam War, unlike Peter Davis' documentary Hearts and Minds, it did show the true horrors of battle.
Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. After some time and many horrors the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again.
The Vietnam war brought havok unto millions of lives, in ways none of us can fully understand. Many civilians and soldiers died, the majority of Vietnamese women became prostitutes for American soldiers. A generation was called upon to enlist in a war that they didn't understand. They faced terrible choices, and if they did return home they would never be the same again. Cimino wraps us in this uncertain time delivering brilliant photography and haunting cinematography. The picture is told in three parts; pre-war, war & post-war. It is excellently paced, driving the fact that American society had changed drastically due to war.
Michael's determination allows the group to survive and make it home. However when he arrives home, with medals on his chest, he cannot face the welcoming party that consider him a war hero. War has made everyone a victim of chance, it made every party guilty and emptied their humanity as well as taken their soul. While Michael is not physically crippled like his friend Steve, he is mentally destroyed. The very idea of innocence is lost on him. A warm and beautiful world has become a sinister wasteland of oppression.
In conclusion, the picture is also a warning against blind patriotism. Perhaps we should not be too attached to our own country, specially if they seem content on blowing foreigners to bits for no plausible reason. Each character is treated with respect, all are detrimental to the plot and all have a mind of their own.The Deer Hunter ends with the singing of God Bless America, which is quite curious. Never before has a song meant so much and yet so little. Praise it! 5/5
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