A movie about the nature of man

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 1999)

"The Deer Hunter" is undoubtedly one of the finest movies of our time (in my opinion the best), and upon each repeat viewing, new thematic undertones emerge forcing the viewer to watch the movie time and time again for fear of missing further thematic facets of the movie.
At first glance, the movie is a Vietnam war movie with the perfunctory effects that war has on the players and their dependents.

However, at the core of the film is an opinion on man as a survivor versus man as a social being. Michael (De Niro) is the loner, perfectionist and survivalist. Nick (Walken) is the social leader, mediator, and provider of all that is a social human being - man as a member of a larger society. The initial wedding scene (long touted as unnecessary) is critical to setting up the initial contrast between the two characters (Nick orchestrating the wedding reception, Mike at the bar watching from afar). As the movie unfolds, the contrast becomes stronger. Michael believes in "one shot" while hunting; Nick hunts because of the beauty of nature ("I like the trees"). Michael would rather punish someone for forgetting their boots to a hunt; Nick's nature is to help them. Mike's first instinct is to abandon a dying friend (Steven) in the prison camp; Nick stops this act of inhumanity.
Without giving away the end (for the few that haven't seen the movie), we ultimately see that, pushed to an extreme in the war, the laissez faire instincts of Mike become extinguished (pivotally on Mike's last hunt with his famous "OK" words to a 10-point buck, relinquishing to the notion that man is indeed a social being), only to spend the last one-third of the movie mending his past. Nick, in essence boycotts life, refusing to abandon his "humanness" as the war requires, ultimately rebuffing Michael and his notion of humanity in the famous "one shot" Russian roulette scene.
As far as immensely thought-provoking films go (and not including the obscure art house independent films), The Deer Hunter stands on top of just about all of them. Watch it again and again and the movie only gets better and better, the themes become richer and richer.