Blog 9

The Deer Hunter is a movie about the Vietnam War. The movie is separated into three parts. The parts are prewar, during the war, and postwar. This is considered a "coming home" film, because it shows the postwar issues in the third part of the war. This shows different affects of the war among the three friends that went into the Vietnam War.
The first part of the movie is focused on Steve's wedding and the group of friends going deer hunting. Steve has a Polish wedding and it shows how all the friends are really close to each other. They all work at a steel melting industry. I felt that they lived on the edge, because they were doing dangerous things such as working at their job and racing a truck. During the wedding there were a couple of foreshadowing. The first was the green beret that said "fuck it" when ever Mike asked a question this showed how the war had affected him. The second foreshadowing was when Angie dripped some of the wine that would have given them good luck. This later will come in play because she becomes mute. During the deer hunting I felt the killing of the deer was symbolic because this is similar to what Mike would have to do in the Vietnam War.
The first part ties in with the "coming home" topic because they had a place they really wanted to come back home to. Nick tells Mike that he really liked the place and wanted Mike to promise he would take him back no matter what. Pennsylvania was their home and all they knew about. This gave a more importance on when they did come home and everyone had to adjust to the changes.
The first part also gives a lot of foreshadowing that would affect later parts of the movie. The green beret foreshadowed how the friends would be like when they came back home. Steve left his home and stayed at a military hospital while Nick went AWOL and gambled at a Russian roulette gambling ring. The second part was when Angie spilled the wine and foreshadowed bad things to happen. This came true when she became mute after the shock of Steve leaving her and the changes he made. The pistol one of the friends had kind of foreshadowed the Russian roulette.
This movie is a anti war movie because it shows the brutality of war and what happens after the war. The first part shows a happy gang hanging out and enjoying themselves. Yet after the war everything falls apart. Linda misses Nick so she goes into the comfort of Mike. While Angie goes mute and is separated from Steve. Nick goes AWOL and decided to constantly gamble his life in Russian Roulette. Yet there is patriotism when they sing "America the Beautiful."