Movies You May Not Like: The Deer Hunter

So, the next movie on my boss's list was "The Deer Hunter".  I've seen the final hour or so several times, but never seen the whole thing.

I imagine many of you have seen it, but the plot is easy enough to summarize.

1.  A bunch of guys finish their work at the mill (yo yo yo Western PA!) and go to a wedding.  It goes on for a long time.  Three of the men, Steven, Michael (played by DeNiro) and Nick (Christopher Walken) all good friends, are going to be shipping out to Vietnam in a few days.

2.  Vietnam happens.  All three of them end up as prisoners of the VietCong where they are forced to play Russian Roulette for their captors amusement.  Michael, who is in special forces, manages to use the game to overcome his captors and rescues his three friends.

3.  We see the aftermath of the war and how it effects everyone. Spoiler spoiler:  no one is really changed for the better.  Make sure you have some tissues handy, because this is a sad one.

The basic lesson of the film is one that we as a nation have become sadly well acquainted with as late (again):  War is terrible.  No, I didn't need this movie to teach me that, but I haven't seen many movies that really capture how hard it is for some of our veterans to come home, how difficult it is to live with trauma of combat.  Typically, a war movie ends when the mission is achieved and glory is won.  Often the great cost in lives lost and men wounded is seen as the price of war, but I've never seen any movie that focuses on what happens when the guys who survive come home in the way this one does.

The documentary "War", by Sebastian Junger, maybe comes close, in that you hear the soldiers in it wonder what they are going to do when they get home, and some of them fear that the war has left them hopelessly fucked up.  What makes that documentary sadder is that the soldiers aren't actors and they are all so young.  God, they are young.  While the platoon Junger is following around does sustain wounded and has at least two men killed during their deployment, we get the sense that among the heaviest prices to pay are the burdens that these young men will be carrying for the rest of their lives.

We've known for years that war does this.  It shatters lives.  I'm not saying war is never an option - sadly, sometimes it is - but we must always ask ourselves if it is worth the cost in lives lost and destroyed.  I wonder if often we find that it is not.

And the movie also portrays in great detail (and a fair bit of accuracy) a true Eastern Orthodox wedding, complete with the three turns around the altar and the massive quantities of alcohol consumed.

Speaking of which, here's a tip:  If you are at your wedding and you are given a funny looking glass of wine to drink, and if you are told that if you spill any bad luck will follow you all the days of your life, try not to spill any.

You may ask yourself: why do the Russians introduce the possibility of bestowing a horrific curse upon two married people on one of the greatest days of their life?  And how do the stalwart Russian people keep from falling flat on their faces in a philosophical sense in the face of such a horrific juxtaposition?  How do they keep their balance and move on with their lives?

I will let this funny little singing milkman guy explain.