In 1978, America was still reeling from the wounds of the Vietnam War and the devastation of their defeat three years previous. The economic malaise of the '70s was also weighing heavily on those who had grown up in the post-World War II boom.
Director Michael Cimino turned his lens on both of these challenges to America’s status and identity with ‘The Deer Hunter’. One of the first serious cinematic retrospectives on the Vietnam War, it received both praise and criticism for its portrayal of the conflict and those who took part.
Following three friends from a small Pennsylvanian steel town who leave for the jungles and front-lines of Vietnam, the film tells the story of many of the almost three million men who served between 1964-75. We see them transform as they leave the snow-capped mountains of home, survive violence and war in the foreign tropics, and try to make their way back home.
Most of the movie is set in the men’s hometown, though it is overly simplistic to label ‘The Deer Hunter’ as a war movie. It is more a biopic of the American identity that had become so shaken by this conflict. The men’s journey, probably familiar to many, reflected how society as a whole had become irrevocably changed by going to war and the wounds it suffered there.
Though the movie picked up five Academy Awards - including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor – it was not universally acclaimed. Critics took aim at the film’s portrayal of the Vietnamese as cruel and villainous with no depth or character and the fabricated use of Russian roulette. These criticisms did little to detract from ‘The Deer Hunter’s reputation and it now stands as one of the most-celebrated portrayals of the Vietnam War and American life during the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Patrick looks at the history and legacy of ‘The Deer Hunter’ with a panel of experts. How should we look at this movie? Is it a war movie or an attempt to capture a part of American social history? What impact did it have on the wider cinematic world? And should we still watch it today?
