ORIGINS: THE DEER HUNTER

Life was great. Small town, friends, beer, having a great time. Girls too. Time was, life was about living to the fullest. War changes everything.

A study of 3 characters. Mike, Nick and Steven. De Niro, Walken and Savage. As good as it comes. Method acting at its finest. Time was, acting was the art of translating life. To make reel real. Sartre mention the only reality is the cinema. I guess he was watching Deer Hunter too...

Everbody wants to be Mike. The MAN. The one who CAN. The one who DOES. The one who SURVIVES. Mike was strength. He stood ten foot tall among the crumbling edifice that was around him. Not that he give a crap. He was scared and scarred. (So are all of us.) Everybody wants to be Mike. The MAN. He survived Vietnam. He came back.

Everybody wants to be Mike. The MAN. He needed nobody.

Everybody wants to be Mike. The MAN. He stands on his own feet.

Everybody wants to be Mike. The MAN who does not forget his friends.

Everybody wants to be Mike. The MAN who shed no tears.

Everybody wants to be Mike. The MAN who fights back the demons inside.

Everybody wants to be Mike. Mike is STRONG.

But Nobody wants to know Mike is in pain.

Steven.

Please don't talk about Steven. A war casualty. He should not have returned. What's left of him is not worth writing about. A vegetable. Said he gave up. Said he lost it. Said he's gone even before he started. Nobody wants to talk about Steven. But nobody can forget Steven. There's a Steven in everyone of us.

Nick.

Innocence.

Romance.

In love with life.

Blessed with wings of angels, he was tormented with the fire of hell. They say WAR changed a man. What they didn't say is WAR consumes a man. Nick was consumed and alone. But he remained alive. He continued living out of spite. He spit at the hands that murdered his soul. He thrashed like a blind boxer at his shadow demons. He barely remembers his name. He has fucked with his existence but life has fucked him in.

Innocence lost.

Romance fades.

Love dies.

Life?

Nick.

(It has happened to the best of us...)

There are many reasons to watch the Deer Hunter. The Orthodox Church Wedding. The Deerhunt. There are many other characters like Stan. There many scenes that will brand your psyche forever. This is the movie that attempt to heal the pain by showing the pain. This is the movie that has never been equalled. (Any takers for Grace is Gone by John Cusack?)

I remember the small town innocence that us yahoos came from. It was the best of times and the worse in time. I remember the lives lived in quiet desperation that many of us yahoos survived. I remember the rememberance of lives lived and loves lost in those times. I remembered and live today with a little bit of the Deer Hunter inside. The Mike, the Steven and the Nick.

* Dedicated to the war survivors.

I remembered the haunting tune most of all.