The Deer Hunter is not about the Vietnam War.

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2002)

When I first saw this film, I was overwhelmed by the scenes of brutality in the war scenes. These scenes shaped my perception of the movie. I thought of it only as an antiwar film, about the Vietnam War in particular. Now, after watching it for the first time after 24 years, I see the movie in an entirely different light. First, I was more impressed by the scenes in Pennsylvania: the steel factory, the bar scenes, the wedding, the reception, the scene where Nick gets Mike to promise not to leave him behind in Vietnam, and the hunting scene. The one flaw in the first hour and ten minutes of the film is that this hunting scene is shot in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, and look nothing like Pennsylvania.
The transition from the scene where John (George Dzundza) plays the piano in his bar after the deer hunt to the battle scene in Vietnam is jarring, as it is meant to be. Almost as jarring is how swiftly this one battle scene ends, and Cimino takes us right into the crude VC prison encampment where the South Vietnamese and American soldiers are tortured with the cruel game of Russian Roulette. The violence and depravity lasts all of 25 minutes in the film before Michael, Nick, and Steve escape. Then after another 10 minutes of scenes in Saigon, we see Michael return home to Clairton, which incidently is a real town in Pennsylvania.
The point is that only 30 minutes of the three hour movie are spent in war scenes, therefore it was not meant to be a film about the Vietnam War or even an antiwar movie, although there are antiwar elements in it. The film is about Michael, the deer hunter, the smalltown steelworker, and for a brief but horrible period of time, the soldier. The film is also about his relationships to the people that he loves, Nick, Steve, and Linda, whom he would die for.
I suggest that one should judge the movie on how well it tells the story of Michael and the supporting characters and not how the film tells the story of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War is a brief setting for Michael's story, and nothing more.