Sorry if this doesn't read fluidly, done my best! On another note, thanks for the thread! Looking forward to reading the contributions :) fellow newbie myself. I imagine it's just Cimino's view of American life following the war interwoven with a story of great individual loss, and the appeal to American nationalism reflects both the loss of nationalistic pride and the unsavoury conditions the characters find themselves in as the film comes to a close.
What is said to be the land of the brave and the free is but a nightmarish place of loss for our leads. Thus, them gathering together and singing the patriotic song shows them reflecting on the events of the film - three steelworkers from Pennsylvania have had their lives destroyed by the war, all in the name of blind nationalism. Stan continually loses the respect of the others, especially Michael, for never going to Vietnam though eligible. Linda is left without Nicky, the man she loved. Though only one of them died, everyone involved, explicitly or implicitly, has had their world shaken by the fallout. When Nicky fails to return alive, however, it stresses the multitude of effects that the war had. Michael becomes a saviour, attempting to bring Nicky back home. In this moment he becomes the solider from the wedding/send off at the start of the film, who said "fuck it." This is shown when he furiously berates Stan for carelessly waving his loaded revolver around - Stan, never having gone to Vietnam, doesn't understand the violence and turmoil his actions stir in Michael's mind. Michael, as the protagonist, is clearly affected by the war - he moves from the 'hunter' to a man who can no longer shoot a deer. On the other hand, we've seen the devolution of the three main characters lives, which is the main driving point of the film - we see the movement from excitement to anticipation to extreme loss.
On one hand, we've seen the fall of Saigon and the loss of the war. Even that scenario itself, of estrangement from a closed culture filled with manicured lawns, women with wigs, families with hidden secrets, men who don't know themselves, is a scenario depicted in The Deer Hunter.įunnily enough I recently saw this too, and was also blown away - I never really hear it mentioned as a great war film such as Saving Private Ryan or Platoon, but it definitely delves deeper into the characters than those two films.Īs for the final scene with "God Bless America" as the song, I feel like it's an ironic ode to the US following the heartbreak of the film. Looking back, I can see a clear link between those two films in particular and my estrangement from my family. I chose the truth that films like The Deer Hunter & Apocalypse Now represented to me. I haven't spoken to my family in over 25 years. This did not sit well with my family, who were not intellectual, analytical or serious. I saw many of these types of films before I entered high school, and my high school path consequently took me down a road of becoming more intellectual, analytical & serious.
By their existence, they showed that somebody cared about deeper issues, which may not have been present within family cultures. Sheen's voiceover narration modeled a type of introspection that wasn't common.
Right-wing politicized fundamentalist religion was not yet a dominant force.įilms like The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now were my first exposure to a type of "emotional gravitas" that wasn't present commonly in the culture. With no Internet, life was slower and social groups were how people spent their time outside of churches. There were still "civic groups" like the Lions Club, Oddfellows, Toastmasters, Kiwanis Club, the Grange.
Corporations did not dominate every inch of cultural space yet. Television had 5 to 10 local channels, and they all went off the air overnight. A bubble of Jesus & Disney & a narrow spectrum of "what life was" despite any "counterculture" challenge. Middle-class America (there was a real middle-class) was an artificial landscape of superficiality. There was no right-wing radio, no Fox News, no calls to "privatize government". Even after the near-catastrophic social upheaval surrounding Vietnam & race in the late 1960s-early 1970s, the social contract had remained intact. Nixon was to the Left of Obama on all issues except gay rights. America in the 1970s was a different place.