Deer Hunter Outline

Research Paper Outline

In the 1978 film, The Deer Hunter, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken’s characters are captured by Viet Cong officials and are plotted against each other in a game of Russian Roulette. The iconic scene shows the two putting everything on the line and risking it all. Vietnam war movie directors play their own game of Russian Roulette when producing movies because of the delicacy of public opinions concerning the war. The purpose of Vietnam war film was to reveal to the public the actions oversea. After the war, films like Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter depict the wasteland of warfare and begins to ask the question, who are we fighting? Then, a significant shift comes about after Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Election in 1980. After Reagan

describes the United States involvement in the war as “a noble cause” (Reagan, Aug 1980), a change in Vietnam war film during his presidency is clear. However, Platoon, released in 1986, looks back at the bloodshed horror that young men were forced into taking part in during the war.

It answers the questions asked by predecessors, making it clear that while in Vietnam, America was fighting itself. Prior to Ronald Reagan’s Election in 1980, American film portraying the Vietnam war hinted at the true bloodshed and despair but then when Reagan was elected and began to promote patriotic progress, Hollywood’s biggest movies began to contrast Reagan’s praise for heroic effort.

The 1978 film, The Deer Hunter, directed by Michael Cimino, tells the story of a group of men bonded together by lifelong friendship, who are then torn apart after being sent overseas to Vietnam. Vincent Canby wrote a box office review for the New York Times in 1978 stating, “Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter is a big, awkward, crazily ambitious, sometimes breathtaking motion picture that comes as close to being a popular epic as any movie about this country since The Godfather (Canby, NYT, 1978). Two of the friends, Michael and Nicki are captured by Viet Cong officials and are forced to “play” Russian Roulette against each other until one of the dies. The psychiatric battle that both of them go through during the game leaves a lifetime of mental scars. Fortunately, they manage to

escape the prison together but are separated just before being brought home. Sometime after, Michael learns that Nicki never returned home to the United States, which destroys Michael because he promised Nicki that he would protect him. Michael then learns that Nicki, who has ironically earned the nickname, “The American”, is involved in an underground gambling system in which people but bets on his life during games of Russian Roulette. Michael’s only way of bringing Nicki home is to play a round with Nicki. The two Americans face against one another, Michael pleading for “The American” to come home while Nicki remains silent and mentally broken. After two rounds, Nicki’s hot streak shatters as the revolver fires its only shot. The film is a slight punch at the United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Michael representing the voice of the people in America, while Nicki is the military, who basically chooses to go rogue. Cimino’s masterpiece artfully traces the metaphor for what he believed happened in Vietnam, the United States were fighting themselves. The people back home protested the war and begged for the United States Military to end the bloodshed. Similarly, to how Michael attempts to reason with Nicki, but the final round is still fired. Furthermore, the movie open with the friends celebrating at a wedding, then concludes with Nicki’s funeral, as the men grieve over the death of a friend, and a nation of soldiers alike.