What is the even more dramatic truth hidden in the profound and dramatic Oscar-winning film "The Deer Hunter"?

Shorter but more vivid battlefield sequences than cheerful party scenes

In any case, it is clear that ``The Deer Hunter'' is a masterpiece, as it still has many fans today. Let's take a quick look back at this dramatic story. It all started in 1967 in a steel town in Pennsylvania, USA. Michael, Stephen, and Nick, who live in this town, are going to serve in Vietnam, and a farewell party is being held to coincide with Stephen's wedding. This lively scene shows the three of them as cheerful young people you would find anywhere. In the midst of drinking, singing, and dancing, Nick asks his girlfriend Linda to marry him. Although it is a happy place, there are scenes that hint at their later tragedy. At the counter of the bar where the party is being held, a soldier is drinking with a blank look on his face, and Steve and the bride drink from a pair of goblets that are said to make them happy if they drink them all without spilling a drop, and the wine stains their wedding dress. The stain...

By the way, this wedding sequence lasts over 40 minutes. According to Vilmos Zsigmond, who served as the director of photography for the previous year's Academy Award-winning film ` `Close Encounters of the Third Kind '' (1977), this scene was only about five pages long in the script. Therefore, when he saw the finished film, he said he was surprised at how endless the party scenes continued.

“The Deer Hunter” (c)1978 STUDIOCANAL FILMS LTD. All Rights Reserved.

The next day, there is an episode in which the three go deer hunting with their friends, and the story then moves to a battlefield in Vietnam. The Vietnam sequence is about 30 minutes, shorter than the wedding, and shows almost no combat. Despite this, it still has a strong impact, probably thanks to ``Russian Roulette.'' Although it is not possible to create large-scale battle scenes due to budget constraints, the ``fear of waiting for accidental death'' that soldiers feel on the battlefield must be depicted no matter what. So Cimino adopts a Russian roulette game in which captured soldiers are forced to play. A deadly The Game in which two players load a six-shot gun with only one bullet, place the gun against their own temples, and pull the trigger once. Michael, Stephen, and Nick, who were taken prisoner, are also forced to do this, and they lose their sanity due to the "fear of waiting for an accidental death."

“The Deer Hunter” (c)1978 STUDIOCANAL FILMS LTD. All Rights Reserved.

This scene clearly shows the madness of war, and when it was released in the United States, some female audience members were so nervous that they got up from their seats, vomited in the toilet, or passed out, which shows how shocking the film was. Additionally, Robert De Niro (playing Michael), John Savage (playing Stephen), and Christopher Walken (playing Nick) all wore the same combat uniform for a month to embody the horrors of the battlefield. Changing clothes, shaving, and showering are prohibited. It is said that there was a foul smell from the three people at the filming location.

A drama of sadness and joy that continues even after the battle is over.