"Reality Effects" in Medium Cool and The Deer Hunter
American cinema of the 1970s used editing and ‘reality effects’ in their narrative structures to convey the new, controversial ideologies that were emerging at that time. Two films that encapsulate this period are Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1969) and Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978). These films center on the Vietnam War and the United States internal struggle. The first film, Medium Cool, deals with America’s division amongst the population, creating an opposition between the anti-war counter-culture and the patriotic Vietnam supporters. Cimino’s The Deer Hunter is about the struggle of Vietnam soldiers and their ability to cope with the horrors of war and their reintegration with home. These films were controversial during their release due to their leftist orientation and the alternative perspective that they provide.
In these films, editing plays a key role in their presentation of the present ideologies. Medium Cool uses the process of montage to create many of its strong ideas while The Deer Hunter uses a more conventional arrangement based upon linkage. Wexler creates strong, symbolic meanings in Medium Cool through the visual synthesis of such images as a young, black revolutionary pointing towards the camera followed by a shot of a white, elderly female firing a gun at a shooting range. This graphic match creates a synthetic message that white women, and their encompassing race, are arming themselves against the black population. Another example is the contrast between the democratic convention and the riots in the streets of Chicago, which actually occurred in 1968 (Gitlin, 9) . Each side of this political war is first seen gathering at their rallying point. For the democrats, it is within the stadium for their convention, and in the streets for the masses of the counter-culture. Once the convention is underway, the film cuts back and forth between each location showing the large crowds that support the given ideology, accompanied by the screams of the masses as they support their views. As the convention progresses, the spectator is shown shots of Cassellis which contain people in the background continuing to pour into the stadium where the cheers are overwhelming. As Dede, walks through the streets amongst the protestors, more and more supporters are shown arriving and joining into the parade. The two main characters symbolize the contrast between these two locations and their supporting ideologies. Cassellis portrays the working class party as he strolls through the convention in his fancy suit. Dede wears her bright yellow dress, which can easily be associated with the bright, psychedelic colours that embody the hippy motion, amongst the protestors that seem to be dressed for guerilla warfare.
While the editing and timing in Medium Cool is often sporadic and spontaneous, The Deer Hunter is constructed in an orderly fashion where the form is created based upon the content. As Robin Wood points out (275), the entire film divides into five sections. The setting of these sections jumps back and forth between Vietnam and Clairton in an orderly fashion. These sections link together by dialogue or a foreshadowing symbol. For the first transition from Clairton to Vietnam, the linking device is the Green Beret who appears at the wedding (Wood, 283). His presence denotes the upcoming switch due to the severity woven into Michael, Nick and Steven’s desire to know what to expect in Vietnam. Another example of this connection is the second transition, from Vietnam back to Clairton, where the connection materializes in Nick’s attempt to phone home to talk to Linda. Once the film cuts to Clairton, the spectator is shown Linda preparing a homecoming party for Michael. Since Nick makes the first attempt of the three friends to make contact with home, it carries the importance for all three of them as the beginning of their return to America. This trend continues for the remainder of the sections.
The five sections are also edited in a pattern of reduction where every new section is shorter than the previous (Wood, 276). This means that since Clairton was the original setting, there is more time spent on the development of the characters in America than their turmoil in Vietnam. By showing more of the effects of the “horrors of war” than the actual war itself, the viewer is given a clear signal as to the real message behind the movie. Although Christopher Walken’s character is not present in the second and third sequences of Clairton, the film audience becomes concerned with his mental state and sanity. While being in the war country, the audience never worries about any physical threat to his character, other than himself. The reduction in screen time of each section also creates a form of suspense reminiscent of Hitchcock, as each section gets shorter and shorter until the end. The editing in Medium Cool and The Deer Hunter both create a linear story, but their lack of causality creates a confusion that hinders the overall reception of these films.
By separating the audience from the picture through moments of uncertainty, the realism of these films is affected. For Medium Cool and The Deer Hunter, realism is a strong strategy for presenting a convincing view of the opposition to mainstream America’s view on the Vietnam War. Realism in these films is achieved using ‘reality effects.’ Reality effects are devices that are used to depict real events, regardless of whether those events are fact or fiction (Wood, 273). In order to convey a convincing depiction of an event, skill and style combine with five different types of effects. These effects are identification with characters through simple emotions, the binding of the spectator to the film through subjective photography, suggestions of physical sensation, spontaneity, naturalistic acting and superfluity, or the use of mundane, redundant details to express the chaos and boredom of life (Wood, 274). Both of these Vietnam movies use these tools to help connect with the audience. The audience is compelled to identify and sympathize with the reporters of Medium Cool due to the initial scene at the beginning where reporters gather and discuss how dangerous their jobs are with the persecution and aggravation they go through involving the public and their employers. The sympathy that is created for the reporters is a more subtle association than the sympathy created for the three friends in The Deer Hunter when they are trapped in the Viet Cong camp. This moment of vulnerability is the climax of the created association between the audience and the residents of Clairton, which is established earlier by the appearance of the town. The identification with the main characters of The Deer Hunter is the strongest form of realism that is portrayed towards the audience.
In Medium Cool, the strongest and most dominant ‘reality effect’ is the process of giving the audience a subjective view of the events in the film. This process is suturing. Throughout the film, footage is taken of real events that happened in Chicago in 1968. Many scenes also include characters breaking the fourth wall and talking directly into the camera to display the sense of immediacy. This sense of realism is presented through the repetitive reminders of the presence of the camera in the film. As protestors march past, many turn towards the camera and make gestures as if they were on television. Another major effect that is used is the camera’s constant mobility. By shooting most of the film without the use of a tripod, the static image conveys a more realistic sense of movement through space. The chaos that occurs during the riots in the park are reflected in the panning, tilting and tracking of the shot as the cameraman had to climb through the mess of benches. Another major ‘reality effect’ in Medium Cool is the use of direct recording. Since most of the scenes of the film were shot on location, the sound of the film is true to the story it presents. Having the complexity of the characters, as well each voice in the masses, adds to the film’s overall impression of depicting a real event. Other effects used in Medium Cool are the physicality and immediate danger of the riots captured on film and the spontaneity of the crowds and protestors. One of the only real drawbacks of Medium Cool is that the events in the film are merely represented, not presented, due to the medium of film. Much of the bite that these images would provoke is lost in the viewer’s sense of disbelief.
In The Deer Hunter, these realist tendencies are also created by playing on the audience’s inability to identify with the material presented. Since most of the people who watched this film when it first came out were not soldiers in Vietnam, it was very simple for Cimino to create a believable setting. If an audience does not have personal experience on the subject matter, their internal speech that develops over the course of the film can only be generated by the film and not manipulated by their empirical experiences. This advantage was used to heighten the other reality effects in the film. The use of subjective camera work is apparent in many of the Vietnam scenes, where the spectator is given the position of Michael, as when they are planning their escape from the Viet Cong prison. The shots from underneath the floor in the water, begin the audience’s identification that is accented later when we follow Michael home and witness his struggle to reintegrate with his friends in Clairton. The Deer Hunter also utilizes the effect of physicality as the grotesque and deformed aspects of the war are displayed, whether it is a rat on Steven’s head in the Viet Cong camp or the stumps of the black soldier in the Vietnam hospital (Wood, 274). This physical deformity is also seen in Medium Cool as the camera captures protesters with bloody faces after being beaten by Chicago police. Realism is sought after using other techniques such as the feeling of spontaneity with the use of the method school acting, and many improvisations during shooting, referring to Meryl Streep in particular. One aspect of realism that The Deer Hunter holds over Medium Cool is the notion of superfluity. By adding in redundant details that create the illusion of real life, Cimino is able to create an alternate form of realistic representation that is adverse to the inherent reality behind the riots and protests in Medium Cool. These effects create an overall severity that is inherent in the film. By making the film seem more real and more grotesque, its anti-war message strengthens through the reactionary emotions of the spectator. These emotions are then used to create an inner sense of causality and purposefulness that are vital to the film’s narrative structure. In both films, the linear drive of the narrative tends to create one long segment instead of the classical presentation of segments linked together. In these structures, the content of the film is laid bare and the viewer is required to watch the film and extract the overall story from the film’s plot. Flashbacks are rarely used in Medium Cool and hard to find in The Deer Hunter. This demands the viewer to extract knowledge from the film based upon the actors’ performances, how they present their characters, and through a close reading of the films dialogue. In Medium Cool, the viewer chooses to extract what they want from each scene as they are presented with information of the world that is either objective or manipulated to appear that way. This is due to the film’s constructed form as a docu-drama. The viewer must decide which parts of the film happened, and which were staged. This film’s arrangement borrows qualities from some European creations as art cinema and “cinema-verité.” From these genres, the film takes on an ambiguous nature, where the viewing of the film is more of a challenge than an entertainment. The ending of the movie also creates a circular plot, which is commonplace among European art cinema, seen with the smashed windshield and the photography of the wreck. The Deer Hunter also utilizes traits from art cinema in it’s dismissal of characters for extended periods of time and the construction of the film surrounding Michael, when the film clearly dictates that Nick is the focal point of the movie. The latter point is supported by the shot of Nick at the end of the movie, after the other characters speak of him (Wood, 285). While Cimino chose to display some aspects of the art cinema, he chose not to create a circular or ambiguous ending. The symbolic meaning behind the film is the course of a human’s life. This course is expressed from birth, via the wedding and Angela’s baby, through to the death of Nick (Wood, 276). This film displays the struggle to fight for life, despite the overwhelming pressure from the country’s opposing cultures.
In these films, editing plays a key role in their presentation of the present ideologies. Medium Cool uses the process of montage to create many of its strong ideas while The Deer Hunter uses a more conventional arrangement based upon linkage. Wexler creates strong, symbolic meanings in Medium Cool through the visual synthesis of such images as a young, black revolutionary pointing towards the camera followed by a shot of a white, elderly female firing a gun at a shooting range. This graphic match creates a synthetic message that white women, and their encompassing race, are arming themselves against the black population. Another example is the contrast between the democratic convention and the riots in the streets of Chicago, which actually occurred in 1968 (Gitlin, 9) . Each side of this political war is first seen gathering at their rallying point. For the democrats, it is within the stadium for their convention, and in the streets for the masses of the counter-culture. Once the convention is underway, the film cuts back and forth between each location showing the large crowds that support the given ideology, accompanied by the screams of the masses as they support their views. As the convention progresses, the spectator is shown shots of Cassellis which contain people in the background continuing to pour into the stadium where the cheers are overwhelming. As Dede, walks through the streets amongst the protestors, more and more supporters are shown arriving and joining into the parade. The two main characters symbolize the contrast between these two locations and their supporting ideologies. Cassellis portrays the working class party as he strolls through the convention in his fancy suit. Dede wears her bright yellow dress, which can easily be associated with the bright, psychedelic colours that embody the hippy motion, amongst the protestors that seem to be dressed for guerilla warfare.
While the editing and timing in Medium Cool is often sporadic and spontaneous, The Deer Hunter is constructed in an orderly fashion where the form is created based upon the content. As Robin Wood points out (275), the entire film divides into five sections. The setting of these sections jumps back and forth between Vietnam and Clairton in an orderly fashion. These sections link together by dialogue or a foreshadowing symbol. For the first transition from Clairton to Vietnam, the linking device is the Green Beret who appears at the wedding (Wood, 283). His presence denotes the upcoming switch due to the severity woven into Michael, Nick and Steven’s desire to know what to expect in Vietnam. Another example of this connection is the second transition, from Vietnam back to Clairton, where the connection materializes in Nick’s attempt to phone home to talk to Linda. Once the film cuts to Clairton, the spectator is shown Linda preparing a homecoming party for Michael. Since Nick makes the first attempt of the three friends to make contact with home, it carries the importance for all three of them as the beginning of their return to America. This trend continues for the remainder of the sections.
The five sections are also edited in a pattern of reduction where every new section is shorter than the previous (Wood, 276). This means that since Clairton was the original setting, there is more time spent on the development of the characters in America than their turmoil in Vietnam. By showing more of the effects of the “horrors of war” than the actual war itself, the viewer is given a clear signal as to the real message behind the movie. Although Christopher Walken’s character is not present in the second and third sequences of Clairton, the film audience becomes concerned with his mental state and sanity. While being in the war country, the audience never worries about any physical threat to his character, other than himself. The reduction in screen time of each section also creates a form of suspense reminiscent of Hitchcock, as each section gets shorter and shorter until the end. The editing in Medium Cool and The Deer Hunter both create a linear story, but their lack of causality creates a confusion that hinders the overall reception of these films.
By separating the audience from the picture through moments of uncertainty, the realism of these films is affected. For Medium Cool and The Deer Hunter, realism is a strong strategy for presenting a convincing view of the opposition to mainstream America’s view on the Vietnam War. Realism in these films is achieved using ‘reality effects.’ Reality effects are devices that are used to depict real events, regardless of whether those events are fact or fiction (Wood, 273). In order to convey a convincing depiction of an event, skill and style combine with five different types of effects. These effects are identification with characters through simple emotions, the binding of the spectator to the film through subjective photography, suggestions of physical sensation, spontaneity, naturalistic acting and superfluity, or the use of mundane, redundant details to express the chaos and boredom of life (Wood, 274). Both of these Vietnam movies use these tools to help connect with the audience. The audience is compelled to identify and sympathize with the reporters of Medium Cool due to the initial scene at the beginning where reporters gather and discuss how dangerous their jobs are with the persecution and aggravation they go through involving the public and their employers. The sympathy that is created for the reporters is a more subtle association than the sympathy created for the three friends in The Deer Hunter when they are trapped in the Viet Cong camp. This moment of vulnerability is the climax of the created association between the audience and the residents of Clairton, which is established earlier by the appearance of the town. The identification with the main characters of The Deer Hunter is the strongest form of realism that is portrayed towards the audience.
In Medium Cool, the strongest and most dominant ‘reality effect’ is the process of giving the audience a subjective view of the events in the film. This process is suturing. Throughout the film, footage is taken of real events that happened in Chicago in 1968. Many scenes also include characters breaking the fourth wall and talking directly into the camera to display the sense of immediacy. This sense of realism is presented through the repetitive reminders of the presence of the camera in the film. As protestors march past, many turn towards the camera and make gestures as if they were on television. Another major effect that is used is the camera’s constant mobility. By shooting most of the film without the use of a tripod, the static image conveys a more realistic sense of movement through space. The chaos that occurs during the riots in the park are reflected in the panning, tilting and tracking of the shot as the cameraman had to climb through the mess of benches. Another major ‘reality effect’ in Medium Cool is the use of direct recording. Since most of the scenes of the film were shot on location, the sound of the film is true to the story it presents. Having the complexity of the characters, as well each voice in the masses, adds to the film’s overall impression of depicting a real event. Other effects used in Medium Cool are the physicality and immediate danger of the riots captured on film and the spontaneity of the crowds and protestors. One of the only real drawbacks of Medium Cool is that the events in the film are merely represented, not presented, due to the medium of film. Much of the bite that these images would provoke is lost in the viewer’s sense of disbelief.
In The Deer Hunter, these realist tendencies are also created by playing on the audience’s inability to identify with the material presented. Since most of the people who watched this film when it first came out were not soldiers in Vietnam, it was very simple for Cimino to create a believable setting. If an audience does not have personal experience on the subject matter, their internal speech that develops over the course of the film can only be generated by the film and not manipulated by their empirical experiences. This advantage was used to heighten the other reality effects in the film. The use of subjective camera work is apparent in many of the Vietnam scenes, where the spectator is given the position of Michael, as when they are planning their escape from the Viet Cong prison. The shots from underneath the floor in the water, begin the audience’s identification that is accented later when we follow Michael home and witness his struggle to reintegrate with his friends in Clairton. The Deer Hunter also utilizes the effect of physicality as the grotesque and deformed aspects of the war are displayed, whether it is a rat on Steven’s head in the Viet Cong camp or the stumps of the black soldier in the Vietnam hospital (Wood, 274). This physical deformity is also seen in Medium Cool as the camera captures protesters with bloody faces after being beaten by Chicago police. Realism is sought after using other techniques such as the feeling of spontaneity with the use of the method school acting, and many improvisations during shooting, referring to Meryl Streep in particular. One aspect of realism that The Deer Hunter holds over Medium Cool is the notion of superfluity. By adding in redundant details that create the illusion of real life, Cimino is able to create an alternate form of realistic representation that is adverse to the inherent reality behind the riots and protests in Medium Cool. These effects create an overall severity that is inherent in the film. By making the film seem more real and more grotesque, its anti-war message strengthens through the reactionary emotions of the spectator. These emotions are then used to create an inner sense of causality and purposefulness that are vital to the film’s narrative structure. In both films, the linear drive of the narrative tends to create one long segment instead of the classical presentation of segments linked together. In these structures, the content of the film is laid bare and the viewer is required to watch the film and extract the overall story from the film’s plot. Flashbacks are rarely used in Medium Cool and hard to find in The Deer Hunter. This demands the viewer to extract knowledge from the film based upon the actors’ performances, how they present their characters, and through a close reading of the films dialogue. In Medium Cool, the viewer chooses to extract what they want from each scene as they are presented with information of the world that is either objective or manipulated to appear that way. This is due to the film’s constructed form as a docu-drama. The viewer must decide which parts of the film happened, and which were staged. This film’s arrangement borrows qualities from some European creations as art cinema and “cinema-verité.” From these genres, the film takes on an ambiguous nature, where the viewing of the film is more of a challenge than an entertainment. The ending of the movie also creates a circular plot, which is commonplace among European art cinema, seen with the smashed windshield and the photography of the wreck. The Deer Hunter also utilizes traits from art cinema in it’s dismissal of characters for extended periods of time and the construction of the film surrounding Michael, when the film clearly dictates that Nick is the focal point of the movie. The latter point is supported by the shot of Nick at the end of the movie, after the other characters speak of him (Wood, 285). While Cimino chose to display some aspects of the art cinema, he chose not to create a circular or ambiguous ending. The symbolic meaning behind the film is the course of a human’s life. This course is expressed from birth, via the wedding and Angela’s baby, through to the death of Nick (Wood, 276). This film displays the struggle to fight for life, despite the overwhelming pressure from the country’s opposing cultures.
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