How A Foreign Game Killed Us All

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2017)

#2 The three main characters in "The Deer Hunter" have very different personalities which leads to different effects of their time in the war. Mike is a very linear, organized character which serves him well while he is in Vietnam. He manages to stay alive, unharmed physically, and protect the other characters to the best of his ability. When he returns from the war he is changed mentally. Mike had failed to bring Nick back with him as he had promised not to do. Between this broken promise, and the horrors he had to endure himself, Mike goes through minor mental changes when he returns. He holds a gun loaded with one bullet to his friend's head after he had been messing around with the loaded gun. Mike seems to have a minor case of PTSD involving guns. This is also seen when he purposefully misses shooting a deer. Nick was an emotional character from the beginning of the film. This trait served him well at home, but not in the war. Nick lost it when he was forced to play Russian Roulette for his life while he was a prisoner of war. This event had a severe impact on his life because it was his best friend, Mike, who forced him to do it so they could survive. Because he was such an emotional character, Nick was affected by the cruel game more than the others. Nick, unfortunately, did not make it home from the war. He spent his last few months at a Russian Roulette den in Saigon. He experimented with drugs and played the game because he was so far gone. in the end, it was the game that killed him. Steve was the third friend who went to Vietnam. Steve was a childish character before the war. He wasn't extremely mature or even aware of the world around him. This effected him terribly in the war. While playing Russian Roulette, Steve was crying and freaking out because it was so horrific to him. He was corrupted by the war and was forced to see and experience things he wasn't ready to experience. Steve was physically effected as well as mentally. He lost his legs and part of his arm during the war. All of these things that happened to the men because of the war could have been predicted to an extent. Mike is strong emotionally and physically, so he wouldn't be as effected by the war as most. Nick was emotional and therefore would be effected mentally. And Steve was the childish friend, so he would come out of the war different in some way. I don't think it could have happened another way. I wish Nick didn't have to die, but that was critical to the plot and outcome of the war on the men.