The film took the best picture Oscar and put Cimino on the map as an A-list director. Still, вЂњThe Deer HunterвЂќВ was one of HollywoodвЂ™s earliest attempts to grapple with the absurdities of the war while it was still an open wound for 1970s America. The still-shocking Russian roulette scene, in which Robert De NiroвЂ™s and Christopher WalkenвЂ™s characters leave their fate to a game of chanceВ at the hands of their Viet Cong captors,В servedВ as a metaphor for the war itself but was met with a great amount of controversy for its depiction of Vietnamese forces. The epic, three-act drama takes an intimateВ look at working-class friends torn apart byВ war. вЂThe Deer Hunter,вЂ™ 1978 Michael Cimino, left, on the set of 'The Deer Hunter,' with Robert De Niro in the center, wearing a beret. Other movies dealt with the issues only indirectly or focused on the stateside antiwar counterculture that was growingВ parallel to the conflict.В It wasnвЂ™t until well after the last chopperВ left Saigon in 1975 that Hollywood attempted a moreВ in-depth look atВ the conflict, with MichaelВ CiminoвЂ™s вЂњThe Deer HunterвЂќ leading the way.Д¬iminoвЂ™s recent death brought back memories of вЂњThe Deer HunterвЂќ and other great Vietnam War films. The 1968 John Wayne filmВ вЂњThe Green Berets,вЂќ released at the height of the conflict,В was an old-fashionedВ war drama andВ ignoredВ the moral gray areas of theВ increasingly confused war effort. Right from the start,В Hollywood struggled with theВ Vietnam War, a conflict that deeply divided public opinion and defied easy representationВ on-screen.

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