The Deer Hunter by Michael Cimino was by far one of my favorite movies of this course so far. This movie portrays the life of three good friends on their time before the war, during, and after the war. The beginning of the movie is all about the lives of these three good friends, and all of their friends, before the war. Prior to the war, they all attend their friend Steven’s wedding. All are drinking and dancing, no one shows that they are thinking about the war. A little into the movie we see the guys in Mike’s car, and Nick challenges Mike to pass a big truck. This shows that these are young men that like to take risks, and go on adventures. Mike takes Nick on without thinking about the risks involved. It shows that he’s fearless and doesn’t think about what could happen to him at all. Throughout the first few scenes we see Nick’s need to gamble and bet on football games, billiard games, etc. We see later in the movie what this urge to gamble leads him to.
Later in the movie, the men decide to go on a hunting trip for one last time before they’re shipped to Vietnam. In Mike’s trailer, the idea of “one shot” comes up. Mike believes that you have to kill the animal you’re hunting in one shot because that’s the only humane way of doing it. This idea of one shot is brought up again later into the movie, when Mike returns from the war and goes hunting again with his friends. However, this time, he wasn’t able to take his “one shot” even though he had an open shot. This showed that the war had affected Mike, even though he was very good at hiding it. I think he saw the deer as an innocent helpless person, like those in the war, and wasn’t able to kill it. “One shot” is also the last thing that Nick says when he pulls the trigger and kills himself. This shows how just one shot can be very devastating.
During the movie, we see how all these guys were affected by the war. Even though Mike seemed to not have been affecting that much, I believe he has but is good at hiding it. We see that Nick is probably the only one affected the most, emotionally. His urge to gamble, from the beginning of the movie, got him mixed up with Vietnamese playing Russian roulette, and risking his own life. I think that Nick needed something risky and exciting to do, and the “one shot” game fulfilled his urge of gambling as well as his need for excitement.
In my opinion this film is neither pro nor anti-war. It shows both the negative effects that the war had on people but at the same time it shows that Americans wanted to go and fight willingly. The three men all signed up to go war they weren’t drafted. This movie game viewers a deeper look into what soldiers went through emotionally, and not so much fighting and killing in the war.
The Deer Hunter by Michael Cimino was by far one of my favorite movies of this course so far. This movie portrays the life of three good friends on their time before the war, during, and after the war. The beginning of the movie is all about the lives of these three good friends, and all of their friends, before the war. Prior to the war, they all attend their friend Steven’s wedding. All are drinking and dancing, no one shows that they are thinking about the war. A little into the movie we see the guys in Mike’s car, and Nick challenges Mike to pass a big truck. This shows that these are young men like to take risks, and go on adventures. Mike takes Nick on without thinking about the risks involved. It shows that he’s fearless and doesn’t think about what could happen to him at all. Throughout the first few scenes we see Nick’s need to gamble and bet on football games, billiard games, etc. We see later in the movie what this urge to gamble leads him to.
ReplyDeleteLater in the movie, the men decide to go on a hunting trip for one last time before they’re shipped to Vietnam. In Mike’s trailer, the idea of “one shot” comes up. Mike believes that you have to kill the animal you’re hunting in one shot because that’s the only humane way of doing it. This idea of one shot is brought up again later into the movie, when Mike returns from the war and goes hunting again with his friends. However, this time, he isn’t able to take his “one shot” even though he has an open shot. This shows that the war had affected Mike, even though he was very good at hiding it. I think he saw the deer as an innocent helpless person, like those in the war, and wasn’t able to kill it. “One shot” is also the last thing that Nick says when he pulls the trigger and kills himself. This shows how just one shot can be devastating. For example, it took only one shot to kill Nick, at the end. In Russian roulette, it just took one shot to kill the guys gambling with their life.
During the movie, we see how all these guys were affected by the war. Even though Mike seemed to not have been affected that much, I believe he has but is good at hiding it. We see that Nick is probably the only one affected the most, emotionally. His urge to gamble, from the beginning of the movie, got him mixed up with Vietnamese playing Russian roulette, and risking his own life. I think that Nick needed something risky and exciting to do, and the Russian roulette fulfilled his urge of gambling as well as his need for excitement.
In my opinion this film is neither pro nor anti-war. It shows both the negative effects that the war had on people but at the same time it shows that Americans wanted to go and fight willingly. The three men all signed up to go war, none were drafted. This movie gave viewers a deeper look into how the war changed the lives of soldiers. None of the soldiers were the same when they returned.