Robert De Niro: The Deer Hunter And Awakenings

I have chosen Robert De Niro as the focus of this paper. De Niro is a multi Academy Award winning actor whose career spans more than three decades. Born in New York City in 1943 to two artist parents, he caught the “acting bug” as a young man. He won critical success for his first film, Bang the Drum Slowly (1973). However, it was 1976’s Taxi Driver that imprinted his range as an actor into many audience members’ minds. De Niro’s character, Travis Bickle, is A Vietnam vet, apparently suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This theme of mental illness would be played out in two of De Niro’s subsequent films: The Deer Hunter and Awakenings. “Travis Bickle is a prototypical De Niro character. He is an angry, violent, obsessive, urban,
Once again a stellar performance. Michael at first appears to be a very two dimensional character. A Pennsylvania steel worker, he is an avid deer hunter and the leader in his circle of friends. Early in the film we discover that Michael and his two close friends are shipping out to Vietnam. The films main focus is on the aftermath of Vietnam and its impact on the lives of Mike, Nick and Steven. “A powerful theme running through this movie is chance. There are constant references to bets and gambling, the blind luck of the draw that selects three friends to go to war, the blind luck that decides who lives and who dies” (everything2.com). In an interview given to Vanity Fair in 1982, De Niro explains the reason for Christopher Walken’s intensity and emotion in the Russian roulette scene. Robert De Niro and the director Michael Cimino jointly decided that they would not tell Walken about some of the things that were about to happen: notably, his being slapped repeatedly in the face. This is true De Niro. Improvisation is second nature in his performances. Michael Vronsky is Robert De Niro and vice versa. It is difficult to tell where De Niro’s character begins and De Niro the man ends. I have found this to be true in most of his roles whether they be dramatic or comedic. Interestingly, I believe that this is the only film in which I have heard De Niro repressing his New York accent.
Lowe is a man who as a child suffered from an encephalitis outbreak at the turn of the century. The film opens showing Leonard as a child completely normal. We then see a rapid progression through film clips into immobility. We are then transported to the 1960’s and we see Dr. Malcolm Sayer applying for a job at Bainbridge hospital where Leonard is a patient. Sayer is a character based on the author of the book Awakenings, Dr. Oliver sacks. Sack’s experiences working with these encephalitis victims stuck in a catatonic state are chronicled throughout the story. He is horrified to find that most of his patients have been like this for decades. Dr. Sayer stumbles upon a chemical cure and miraculously “awakens” his first patient: Leonard. Dr. Sayer quickly realizes that Leonard’s reawakening will be difficult in more ways than one because Leonard is essentially the same mental age as he was when he was stricken in his teen years. Having known Parkinson’s patients, I believe that De Niro brilliantly captured the rigidity, instability and kinesis of Parkinsonism. His transformation from a stiff halting patient to one who is free and balanced is quite dramatic. Even his facial expressions and contortions are so real you almost want to look