Comparing The Deer Hunter And Apocalypse Now

The Vietnam War lasted from November of 1955 to April of 1975. Remembered as one of the most deadly and most costly wars in American history. Costing the United States about $173 billion, and resulting in more than 58 thousand American casualties alone. With this damage stated, countless others suffered from disabling injuries and mental instabilities even after returning home. Both The Deer Hunter (1978 Michael Cimino) and Apocalypse Now (1979 Francis Ford Coppola) can be used to provide and insight into the effects of the war on the soldiers that fought in the war, but also to those who knew the soldiers and remained in the United States during the war. In short The Deer Hunter is a film about men from a working-class steel town that are about to be shipped off to Vietnam with dreams of military honor, after a marriage ceremony/farewell party and one final hunting trip for the group. Through this film viewers are able to see a fictionalized representation of the effects of war, not only, on soldiers but also on the loved ones
Willard (Martin Sheen) who is recruited to hunt down and kill Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who is presumed to have gone insane. Willard himself struggles psychological problems as the opening shot begins with the image of a jungle and helicopters circling as the jungle catches fire and is superimposed with Willard’s face as he lay in his room. The following shots show him in several states of drunken, disarray and defensive trances as he runs around his room naked in combat positions, and even punches out his mirror. The movie revealing that the team is on a secret hunt for a rogue Colonel emphasizes the damage that the war could do because the reason he went rogue was because of the mental insanity that the war caused. Willard can only seem to function when he is “in the jungle” and in the war, but not in regular society because of the damage that the war caused