Deer Hunter Movie Review

Craig Kidd Downing Psychology of the Movies Summer II 2009 The Deer Hunter Movie Review The character’s I enjoyed watching the most were the members of the group who were left behind from Vietnam, John and Axel. I liked the simplistic innocence that they possessed. Axel’s reply to everything was simple and straight to the point, “Fuckin’ A!” Even if he didn’t understand all of the emotions welling up between his comrades, he would still give the same answer. John, the bar owner was the necessary jolly spirit of the group. His entire purpose was to observe the emotions and drama between his friends and to do everything in his power to cheer them up. In my opinion, he was trying harder to hold the group together, than any other character. After the wedding, and before Mike, Nick, and Stevie left for Vietnam, where did everyone gather? After Nick’s funeral, where did everyone meet? Who was trying so hard to comfort everyone with food, beer, and coffee? Who broke down the hardest, when he realized that everyone he cared about had been destroyed by the events in Vietnam, and that no one would ever be the same? I didn’t like the wedding scene, because it dragged on unnecessarily, and all of the dramatic points that it was created to make, could have been done in a shorter segment. The part of the movie that I like the best was when Mike was on the hunting trip after he came back from Vietnam, and he had the perfect shot on a beautiful fifteen point buck, but he didn’t take it. Or, rather, he couldn’t take it. He didn’t posses that need to kill, and assert his authority over nature as he did before. I believe that Michael Cimono’s message with The Deer Hunter is to portray the traumas of war during Vietnam. It is a complex story showing the lives of the average American, before the war, and then to show how the horrors and brutality seen in the war have such powerful effects, not only to those who participated in the war, but also those left behind. He