Answer to question #4

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2011)

In the film 'The Deer Hunter,' Mike, (played by Robert De Niro), is a very interesting character to analyze. He is trust-worthy, more serious than the rest of the guys in his group of friends, sensible, smart, loyal and very linear in his thinking of the way things ought to get done and how the world works around him. After his friend Steve's wedding, Mike, drunk as a skunk, streaks down the streets of Clairton, Pennsylvania, only to be chased by his best friend Nick, (played by Christopher Walken). After exhaustion finally sets in, Mike collapses and Nick catches up to him, putting his jacket over Mike's naked body and sitting down with him to discuss his fears of going to Vietnam to fight in the war. At one point, Nick makes Mike promise not to leave him in Vietnam, to which Mike half-heartedly promises, not knowing anything about what might happen or where the pair of friends will end up. Once in Vietnam, a series of horrendous events ensue, and their friendship is put to the test. Mike and Nick escape their captors, who forced them to play Russian Roulette for the first time against each other, and then were separated when Nick made it onto a rescue helicopter and Mike did not. That was the last time they saw each other before Mike travels back to Vietnam to look for Nick, who never actually made it home and hasn't been seen since. Mike goes back for Nick because of his linear thinking and the promise he made to him before they left to fight in the war. Mike believes that a person should perform tasks in order, and finish a task before going on to the next one. When he comes home and the gang goes hunting a second time without Nick, he lets a buck, who he could've easily shot and killed, get away because of his guilt for leaving Nick over in Vietnam and the realization that the buck isn't really meant to be shot just yet, since he made the promise to Nick first. Nick is also his best friend and he knows that the right thing to do would be to go and find out what happened to him and bring him home if he's even still alive. It's part of Mike's personality and he would never let Nick stay in Vietnam when he promised he'd never leave him there in the first place.