The Deer Hunter Movie Essay

Introduction

In essence, the United States played a critical role in the Vietnam War and its aftermath. The role played in the war began after the world war and further escalated during Vietnam. The United States involvement in the war had the objective of ending the Vietnam that had dominated the region for a long time. There have been different perceptions on why the United States of America was involved in the war. Many people do not have a real picture of the role of America in the aftermath of Vietnam. Several attempts have also been made to portray the issue through different platforms such as movies and books. One of the movies that have been instrumental in giving its audience an understanding of the Vietnam War is the Deer Hunter. The Deer Hunter is considered one of the all-time movies related to Vietnam and the World Wars. The purpose of this paper will be to explore how soldiers and families of Charlton, Pennsylvania as depicted in the movie provides a new understanding of America's role in the aftermath of the Vietnam war. It is, however, important to have an overview of the movie before making a connection of its plot or even synopsis to the American involvement in the wars.

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Overview of the Movie

The movie, The Deer hunter, is an American war drama film produced in the year 1978. Directed by Michael Cimino, this movie stars prominent actors such as Robert De Niro and has a good storyline that gives a viewer an image of the ancient cold war (Cimino& Stoler, 2012). It centers on the lives of three men whose lives are changed significantly after the Vietnam War. The three friends find themselves in a war battle, but only one of them returns home. Two of them are captured and made to play Russian roulette by guards as an entertainment. The two prisoners, however, escaped the prison successfully. What followed were devastating events of one of them losing his legs and becoming paralyzed while the other (Nick) lost his memory. The soldier who had returned home (Mike) sets on a mission to bring back Nick but fails to do so after Nick kills himself. He, however, went back home with Nick's body just as he had promised and the two friends make a final toast to the life of Nick as the movie concludes. It shows devastating killings of soldiers and civilians during the war as depicted by the shooting of a woman carrying a baby. The movie had a good reception as seen with the many awards that came through after its production and release.

The Role of America in the World Analysis

The United States before both the first and Second World War was considered a world superpower. Many of the sitting presidents avoided confrontations with some of the nations during the war but only allied with other countries. The Vietnam War was considered a perfect opportunity for the United States and other nations of interest to finally eliminate the dominance of Vietnam. The picture created by the United States in the whole situation is a country that had the welfare of different nations in the war at heart. Many historians, on the other hand, think that there is a deeper understanding of the role of this superpower nation in the aftermath of the war and other wars altogether. The movie comes in perfectly to provide a good illustration of to what extent is there another understanding of the role of the United States in the war.

Mike together with his friends encounters a Vietnam soldier and informs him of their plans to go to Vietnam. They, therefore, ask him to tell them the about the situation in Vietnam. The soldier in response does not answer them but rather ignores their question. The same case is with the United States. The country resolved to bring and maintain peace in nations that had taken part in the wars, but to some extent wanted other nations to get deeply involved in the wars as a way of uplifting their image. In this case, the one key question that is elicited in anyone minds is how the United States was to benefit by getting other nations in conflict even after the Vietnam Wars. The United States for a long time strives to maintain its image globally. Various presidents have had this kind of policy from the time of immigration laws. The enactment of the immigration policy of 1965 after a lot of pressure had piled up on the government made the president sign the law but resulted into a lot of conflicts between nations such as Mexico and Russia. Having been a key catalyst in the wars the mediation efforts could have been a perfect opportunity for the country to redeem its image. This could also be done by getting other nations involved in similar after the aftermath of both the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

The rescuing of the soldiers from the Vietnamese soldiers in the movie comes at a time that the damage has already been done. Some of the soldiers are wounded badly whereas other have even lost their limbs. This was symbolic of the nature of the United States governments to chip in when the wars had occurred, and the damage had already been done. These sentiments are shared by Dr. Justice Reenes, a political analyst who tends to think that although the United States played a major role in the aftermath of the wars the extent of the damage was so huge that not even their involvement was enough to resuscitate the situation.

The movie also depicts the possibility of the United States has created a post-war tension with their efforts to bring harmony to the nation. This can be illustrated by the kind of tension that was caused when Mike, thinking that all his friends had died, decided to break the news to Linda and the family members of Nick. His friendship with Linda and Angela as a form of consoling each other only ended up creating more tension. In the case of the United States, several similar post-war tensions broke out during the efforts of the United States to provide solutions to the nations. One of the main causes of the tension as attributed by the historian is the political and secretive alignment of the United States with other nations. This was depicted in aspects such as the Soviet Union. In this sense, the role of the United States was perfectly played as a way of helping the United States in the battle against the Soviet Union. Anyone watching the movie could have questioned the close relationship that Mike was starting to develop with Angela whose soul mate was thought to have died in the war. The same pattern of relationship is also seen with other families of his friends. To some extent, the United States got heavily involved in the aftermath of the war through economic and political support to victims as a way of gaining alignment support in order to defeat the Soviet Union. Ambitions of the ruling presidents from President Franklin Roosevelt to President Harry Truman were to simply make the United States regain its lost glory no matter the cost.

The movie is staged and directed in a manner that people can have different views and perception of its meaning. Some people can, however, argue that the movie with regards to the issue on question tries to depict the positive role the United States played in the aftermath of the nations. The movie ends with a healing process for the soldiers in the United States, although they have lost a number of their own they all toast to the lives of the soldiers such as Nick. One can, therefore, argue that what this depicts is the instrumental role of the United States in the reconstruction of the nations that had been involved in the war. The Vietnam War led to destructions to an immeasurable extent to the nations that had been involved. The role of the United States was simply to come in and help such nation back on their economic feet. This argument has however been refuted by many with regards to the leadership style of the United States authoritative figures. Most of these leaders created the perception of always going for the option of where their bread was best buttered; deciding to help nations affected by the Vietnam War were simply not an option for them, but rather a mean in which they could benefit in the long run.

Deer Hunter movie has three Russian-American soldiers as its main cast, among the three casts there is one that seems to be leading the other two in virtually everything that they do. This is seen at their home back in Pennsylvania and still at the war front in Vietnam. The soldier is Mike. He is perceived to be largely knowledgeable with regards to many things such as hunting and general life knowledge. He therefore not only lead his two other friends in hunting and on the battlefield but also decides to go back and rescue Nick from the club he was playing Russian roulette. The United States, in this case, can be analyzed to be Mike.

The United States leadership had foreseen the kind of adverse effect the eruption of another Vietnam War would have on the nation. It is in the best interest of the nation that they had to act and come up with a long-lasting solution. They therefore further went beyond their role as an allied nation to the countries to be a peacemaker. Bringing peace was going to advantage the nation in the future. For example, Mike Carney a professor at the Harvard University states that the refusal to sign to a French government request for alignment of the United States with France to re-colonize Vietnam. The move was decided with utmost good faith and with the limited ill objective, but at the back of the mind of United States leadership, it was going to be helpful in the future. The United States, in this case, played its cards so perfectly that they came out of it all as winners. But in the real sense, it was the opposite of what one could imagine a depiction of a country that took the advantage of the ongoing war in Vietnam.

Conclusion

The Deer Hunter movie remains to be one of the best movies produced and is currently ranked 53rd all-time best movie. It is enriched with good information that can evaluate the history of the United States in matters such as their role in the aftermath of the war. As discussed in this paper, the movie reveals a different kind of understanding of why the United States was quick to chip in after the Vietnam War. It demonstrated a hidden way in which the United States could be viewed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Reference

Cimino, M., De Niro, R., Cazale, J., Savage, J., Walken, C., Streep, M. ...& Stoler, S. (2012). The deer hunter. Universal Pictures Company.