A simple, much-forgotten fact slaps you in the face after watching The Deer Hunter.

“Deer Hunter is Good Drama, But Bad History.” Vietnam Veterans Against the War, accessed November 1. But for me, those macabre Russian roulette sequences stunningly proclaim war to be dehumanising and arbitrary. “Restaging the War: The Deer Hunter and the Primal Scene of Violence.” Cinema Journal 44 (2): 89–106.ĥ. Arnett, Peter. By Ryan Gilbey (Photo By Robert De Niro in-country in The Deer Hunter. Retrieved from ġ. Shin Huey Chong, Sylvia. Though the notorious Russian roulette scene looms large, The Deer Hunter is a tender and even optimistic depiction of the human capacity to endure. Russian Roulette – The Deer Hunter (4/8) Movie CLIP (1978) HD, 2011. I have chosen one of the Russian roulette scenes for my annotated clip. Cimino’s use of what Shin Huey Chong calls a “primal scene of violence” 4 is supposed to sum up many different emotions and experiences, both in the war and outside of it, in a single moment or scene. Shin Huey Chong quotes Vincent Canby who said, “ Showing us precisely how a man looks at the instant his brains are being blown out by a bullet is, indeed, a spectacle to elicit strong emotional responses.” 3 As an audience these scenes are supposed to rattle us and leave an impression. Just as the people who watched the news footage when the Saigon Execution happened would have been taken by surprise by the violent event, we as the audience are shocked each time the trigger is pulled in the game. Shop affordable wall art to hang in dorms, bedrooms, offices, or anywhere blank walls arent welcome. They are devastating for both the participants and the audience. Unique The Deer Hunter Russian Roulette Posters designed and sold by artists. These scenes involving Russian roulette speak to the chaos encountered by men in the war. and their captors pull them up to force them to play Russian roulette. 2 We connect to these men and feel threatened by the Oriental other. The Deer Hunter, American film (1978) that focuses on the effects of the Vietnam.

Shin Huey Chong said that by turning the victim of the photo into white males reimagines the power conflict in the War. This is an interesting assertion and I think it speaks to one of the larger goals of the film, emotionally manipulating the audience to feel a certain way. She, as well as other writers before her, claims that the director reimagined the scene in the photograph with the victim as American through the Russian roulette scenes. If you are not familiar with this photo it is posted below. One author, Sylvia Shin Huey Chong, makes the assertion that many scenes in this film were inspired by the famous photograph Saigon Execution.

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