'The Deer Hunter' was and is the motion picture that elucidates the understanding....

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2004)

President Lyndon Johnson's decision to bomb North Vietnam and expand the war in Vietnam will go down in history as the 'high point' in the history of the United States. After we lost the Vietnam War, the United States began to decline as a major power and continues to slip slide away even today, during the Iraq War. The Vietnam War was that time when the U.S. forgot and then awoke to the terrible mistake of not only war, but 'wrong war.'
'The Deer Hunter' was and is the motion picture that elucidates the understanding of how the average American saw and initially misunderstood the Vietnam War. But it is also the motion picture that most explains the understanding by those who fought in that war, understood it for what it was, and returned home to disclaim it.
The three principle characters in the movie spent only a fraction of the movie in the war, but that may well be the key to the story of the movie, that this motion picture carefully examines both the naivetÃ© and the awakening of the principal character, played by Robert Deniro, who comes to understand the mistake of that war, but retains his hope for America.
As history passes and the motion pictures are reviewed by history, this movie will probably move up in both the 'ratings' and in how many see it and remember, or see it and newly understand the significance of the Vietnam War in the history of the United States. I highly recommend this movie, both for its excellence in production and as a work of art, it's entertainment value, and it's place in American history.