The Deer Hunter

This article is about The Deer Hunter, the movie. For the video game, see Deer Hunter (video game).

Plot

De Niro, Savage and Walken portray American factory workers and avid deer hunters of Russian ancestry who serve in combat in Vietnam, returning to a significantly-changed country as significantly-changed men...all but one, Nick (Walken), whose fate causes him to remain behind in Vietnam. Once Vietnam vet Michael Vronsky (DeNiro) figures out the truth behind his disappearance, he and his now-disabled friend Steven (Savage) travel to Saigon (about to fall at any time). There, Michael learns that Nick has become champion at the fatal game of Russian Roulette. He is reunited with Nick, but his brainwashed fate causes both of them to become enemies and face themselves in the fatal contest. During the final match, Michael persuades Nick to come home, but oblivious to his former collegue's words, Nick takes the gun and fires the fatal shot into his head, mortally wounding him. Michael and Steven bring his body back to America, but Michael's fulfilled promise not to leave Nick in Vietnam is an empty one. The film ends on the morning of his funeral, as Michael's girlfriend Linda (Streep) proposes a toast to fallen friend Nick, but the damage caused by the horrors of Vietnam has already been done...the circle of friends forever broken.

Related Topics:
Russian - Russian Roulette

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Inspired by German First World War soldier and author Erich Maria Remarque's 1937 novel Drei Kameraden (Three Comrades) depicting the lives of a trio of disillusioned World War I veterans in 1920s Weimar Germany, this film attempts to explore the meaning of violence, predation and survival, the often ghastly misuses of patriotism as well as illustrating the concepts of ethnicity, family, friendship and community ties and how they complement as well as clash with one another.

Related Topics:
Erich Maria Remarque - Drei Kameraden - Weimar Germany

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