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Movie Depicts Exploitation Of MenH\ Butler IE ShafferWAt first. I thought mytelevision set had entered one of those science-fiction time warps and taken me back some eight to ten years There on m screen, was a news story about groups protesting against a movie The Deer Hunter The most vocal protests seemed to come from a group calling itself the Vietnam Veterans Against the War To my recollection, that dreary war ended in 1975. and so the appearance of a seemingly well organized anti-Vietnam War group took me a little by surprise Perhaps, I thought, their chartered bus had broken down outside Winnemucca. Nevada and thev were four— ■ ------. W Wyears late in arriving and hadn t heard the good news On the other hand. I reasoned perhaps this group is one of those ad hoc organizationswhich has a way of becoming a permanent fixture in society like those Italian government commissions set up to help the victims of an 1810 volcanic eruption and which continue to function even todayBut in reading their picket signs and listening to their members express outrage at The Deer Hunter. and as one who was opposed to the Viet nam War when it was being promoted and conducted by the liberal administration of John K Kennedy I do not understand the basis for suchcriticismKacist? Well, the heroes were white. Catholic and of Eastern European ancestry After being viciously tortured by Viet Cong troops * of orientalheritage), the heroes did end upshooting their way out and killing their tormentors, all tothe raucous cheers of thetheater audience Perhaps the film's detractors see racism here as so man p**ople see invirtually everything Caucasians door do not do' But I grew up as a kid on Saturday afternoon westerns, and ap piause and shouts of joy accompanied our film heroes overpowering gangs of cutthroat outlaws or shooting it out with the murderous gun slingers It may be that criticism of The Deer Hunter is but a reflection of the decline of heroes and fantasy in ourliterature and films Perhapsthis is what Michael Cimino the director of The Deer Hunter. meant w hen he said the movie was made in the spirit that once was ours and can fie again A lie’ Some critics have taken de minimis pot shots at the movie for not providing an accurate account * of eventsin Vietnam Particularcriticism is leveled at games of Russian roulette which get played throughout the movie as a continuing theme But since w hen have motion pictures a form of entertainment at the worst and artistic expression at best had to lie documen*taries. accompanied by wellresearched data to validate each scene ’ If this is to b»* the standard, perhaps we should protest against Shakespear's Hamlet, there being no evidence that such a person ever existed, nor documented evidence that any person had ever seen the ghost of his dead father And shall we also deny Melville's Mobs Dick for lack of proof that whales of this size had never fieen proven to exist’’ Shall we alow poets to photograph, but not characterize sunsets’’ This criticism.too. seems to fie but a reflectionof the demise of literarv ex-pression in our culture, in favor of the more literal, concrete-bound minds who would insist upon chemical analyses andmicroscopic photographs to accompany (iertrude Steins observations on the nature of rosesAs to the charge that The Deer Hunter was a glorification of the VietnamWar. I fail to see how anyone could emerge from the theater without a *ense *f revulsion at the gross indecency, the inhumanity, the vile nature ofwar What the movie doesglorify is the decent and heroic nature of individual men who can get caught up in evil situations without losing their integrity It is a glorification of the decency of men in theWface of institutional indecency.The movie is. in the final analysis, an account of how simple and decent ami loving people are exploited, and even destroyed by institutions which they have grown up revering, lastitutions they have never had cause to question, or even doubt In the final seem*, their lives in shambles, these people hurst into a patriotic song, unable to identify their ownt/punquestioning commitment to political institutions as the ultimate cause of their ownsuffering and victimizationPerhaps the message of TheDeer Hunter has gotten through, albeit on a sub conscious level to such groups as the Vietnam Veterans Against the War who see in the movie's characters a painful reflection of themselvesAr\,r ~S V«« *Butler I) Shaffer teaches lawat Southwestern University inWFLos Angeles
Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Sun, Apr 29, 1979
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon C.
NJ, USA 13 Jan 2020
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