Russian Roulette Was Never Played in the Vietnam War
It’s true: Hollywood has always played a crucial role in shaping the way Americans see and remember our country’s conflicts. Thanks to The Deer Hunter, the image of a shell-shocked soldier holding a gun to his head has become representative of the Vietnam War experience, even though that “soldier” is Robert De Niro and that “game” never occurred.
John Cazale as Stan, Chuck Aspegren as Axel, Christopher Walken as Nick, Robert De Niro Michael Vronsky, John Savage as Steven in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter. Photo by John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter Peter Arnett made a fierce critique of the film shortly after its release in The Los Angeles Times. “There was not a single recorded case of Russian roulette [during the war] … The central metaphor of the movie is simply a bloody lie.”