After you have watched a movie, you should blog your general impressions of the movie (by 5pm on thursdays) and provide 1 example from the movie (scene, character, etc) and how it relates specifically to a theory or construct in Motivation and Emotion.
Your full analyses are due the following Tuesday turned in via eLearning (aka WebCT).
In “The Deer Hunter” many different emotions are displayed ranging from fear and anger to sadness and joy. The first scenes in the movie display joy by the group of friends. They are celebrating Steven and Angela’s wedding. Joy facilitates social bonds between people and that can be seen through the friendship of the guys and the way they interact with each other. They tease, joke around, and dance with each other which shows a closeness between everybody. The textbook states that joy “allows us to preserve psychological well-being, even in the face of distressing events.” For Michael, Nick, and Steven that seems to be true. All three were leaving soon after the wedding for Vietnam, which would certainly be a distressing event. However, all three were joyful at the wedding, laughing and smiling, allowing them to preserve that well-being.
On the opposite end of the spectrum the last scene in the movie, the funeral of Nick, displays sadness. Sadness also helps to bring people together and strengthen social bonds which is seen when the group goes to eat at the bar. Because everyone at the bar had lost Nick they all, seemingly, experienced sadness which leads people to stay closer to the ones they love according to the textbook. They are trying to comfort each other through small actions like cooking or getting the coffee, and through singing. These behaviors allow them to somewhat restore the environment to the way it was before the funeral, which is also common when a person experiences sadness.
In chapter 13 of the textbook we studied two personality characteristics related to happiness and well-being, two related to arousal, and two related to control. In The Deer Hunter, we view a group of friends who experience a vast range of emotion before and after being placed into the stressful and arousing situation of the war in Vietnam. Prior to the war, these men had a great deal of control over their lives. They were able to do as they pleased and spent a majority of their time partying and having a good time. Once placed into the military their worlds seemed to lack the autonomy and good spirit they had previously held—the amount of control was limited to what the environment could dish out at them. It could be said that they moved from insufficient stimulation and underarousal to a state of excessive stimulation and overarousal. Extraversion and neuroticism are related to happiness in that they explain who is happy—extraverts are generally happier than introverts because they have a stronger behavioral activating system (BAS) that makes them highly responsive to signals of reward in the environment (Reeve, 2009, p. 389). People have the tendency to react strongly to life events—especially those that are life-threatening and dangerous. In The Deer Hunter, each of the three men who went off to war expressed a sensation seeking tendency. Each believed that going to Vietnam would be a new experience or an adventure similar to their hunting trips to the mountains. When they are reunited and held captive at a riverside prison, they meet their first encounter with the game of Russian roulette put on by the guards with the prisoners. Utilizing a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement, the gambling of one’s life and for money by those looking on becomes an escape for Nick later on in the movie as his comrades depart home to Pennsylvania. The individual differences portrayed in the movie are commendable—each represents how a person could react to the extreme situations they were faced with overseas. For Michael, it was emotional disturbances after returning home. He had given his word to Nick prior to their departure that he would not come back without him. He was unable to let the woman whom they both had an affection for near to him, and ultimately decides that the best way to reconcile the overwhelming affect intensity within him. For Stephen, the overstimulation and stress of the war left him impaired emotionally and unable to return to home life with the woman he had married the day before his departure. The loss of both his legs left him in a VA hospital where he sought rehabilitation, but his cognitive and physical impairments made him feel that this was the safest place for him. For Nick, his escape to the dangerous betting circles of Russian roulette. He participates in high sensation seeking through gambling his life away with a pistol and drug use. These risk taking behaviors seem to carry over from home as one scene involves him passing a large truck on the right and barely making it between the truck and a building before whipping in front of the truck to park on the other side of the road. Nick’s perceived control and his desire for control seem to initiate a self-confirming cycle throughout the movie. He had never experienced a negative outcome from the risks he took—driving aggressively, asking the woman he liked to marry him on a whim and having her say yes, and desiring to have control again when joining the kingpin in the Russian roulette circles. “When people desire control but the environment refuses to afford it, the person becomes vulnerable to learned helplessness and depression” (Reeve, 2009, p. 388). For Nick, handing his life over to this despicable game was done in an effort to clear the distress and depression of the war and for the desire to gain control in an uncontrollable environment— a motivational liability.
My overall impression of the movie was it didn't transition very well in some parts. One minute they are in there everyday life the next they are fighting in the Vietnam War. The first hour was crucial, I did not see the point in have an hour long scene of a wedding.
The movie did portray an array of emotions. It showed joy, disgust, anger, interest, happiness and fear. These emotions are shown vividly especially when the guys are held captive underneath the riverside pontoon hut by the Viet Cong. Steven starts to lose it when he hears shots fired during a cruel game called Russian roulette that they use for their own amusement. We see joy and happiness at the wedding between the groups of friends. Once the three men are about to go off the fight in the war they take an interest thinking it will be just like their hunting days and how it takes "one shot" but they were in for a rude awakening and Michael does not think Steven will make it after he grazed his head with a bullet while playing Russian roulette. In the long run Steven does make it, only at a VA hospital where he explains it as a vacation. On the other hand Nick has fallen under control of a French man who takes him under his wing into the game of Russian roulette all over again. Michael promised to not leave Nick behind so he seeks to find his whereabouts by bribing. He ends up face to face with Nick in the game and Nick seems to not recall who Michael is, as if he has been traumatized so much by the whole thing or brainwashed for that matter. There is one instance when he has a flashback of "one shot" but then takes his life. Michael is faced with the sadness over his friend and brings his body back to their hometown to be buried.
I think Nick after the war lost his identity once he left with the French man. According to Reeve (2009), once people assume their identity roles their behavior transforms to that identity. Also in chapter 10 Reeve mentions how the identity directs the person to pursue some behaviors and to avoid other behaviors (p. 279). Its crazy because the first time we see Nick play Russian roulette against Michael he is scared to death but in the end he emotions toward the game are so mutual, that it does not affect him anymore and does not care if he lives or dies.
Furthermore, in a way I think the guys have problems with their self-schemas; Nick's self-schema is not consistent. According to Reeve, self-schemas generate motivation to move the present self toward a desired future self (p. 269). In the beginning we see Nick have the desire to marry Linda in the future, but after the war he never comes back to her, never leaves her a message...nothing. On the other hand Michael has the desire to keep his promise to Nick about not leaving him behind so he adapts well to his self-schema. When it comes to Steven he is trying to keep hidden away from reality and his wife and his wife's son from another man. He is so wrapped up that he cannot handle the real world, but then Michael comes and takes him out of the VA hospital and back to reality and he is faced with his impairments and married life.
The emotions in Deer Hunter were insane, you were up and then down, up again, back and forth the entire time. At one point or another they all felt the emotion of fear. Fear, as we discussed in class, is a negative emotion it acts as an alarm to us and makes us feel nervous or anxious, etc. Negative emotions need to be treated and changed in order for us to feel relief. Steven, I think, is the one who has the most fear in the movie. When they get taken to the Russian Roulette Club he starts to panic and has extremely bad anxiety. His breathing increases in speed, his words don't come out right, he mumbles and almost can't control himself. Mike experiences fear when he realizes that Nick is the one sending money to Steven. He figures out that he is in the Roulette Club back overseas. He ends up going back over there to try and save him, but in order to get to him he has to pay a lot of money and ends up in the game himself. Nick has completely lost his identity and forgotten who he is and who Mike is. This could be PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from the war and being captured by the club in the beginning. Mike tries to remind him who he is by talking to him saying "three bullets" but he ends up shooting himself in the game. Linda has a great deal of fear before the guys go overseas. Before they left Nick asked her to marry him and she said yes. While overseas he never contacted her or wrote her, Linda loses hope and becomes sad until Mike comes home. The old flame that was once there reoccurs. Sadness is also a negative emotion, it is our way of teaching ourselves to avoid pitfalls in the future. This emotion also encourages affiliation, which helps us get better by having attachment to others. Mike and Linda have a close interest in one another, which acts as a motivator and is a reinforcement in itself. At the end after the funeral they all get together and cook and drink to celebrate Nick's life.
This movie is based on the concept of social interaction. Reeve (2009) states that other people are typically our most frequent source of day-to-day emotion and we experience a greater number of emotions when interacting with others than when we are alone. We first see the closeness of the group of guys (Mike, Nick, Steve, Stan, etc., etc) as they are getting off work at the steel mill. They are all joking around with one another and this continues over drinks at the bar right after work. Their drinking and joking continues after the bar at the wedding of Steve who is leaving for a tour in Viet Nam along with Nick and Mike a short time later. It is during the reception at the VFW that a Green Beret wonders in and sits at the bar by himself. Mike and Nick tell him they are going oversees too and ask him what it’s like. The Green Beret says nothing, but knows the guys won’t be so jovial when they return. After the wedding, the guys then bond by taking one last hunting trip before they leave for their tours of duty. Reeve (2009) writes that other people not only cause emotions to stir in us, but they also affect us indirectly. When the guys are on the hunting trip they joke and clown around like they always have. Unbeknownst to them this will be the last time they joke like this because of the effects of the war on Steve, Mike and Nick. Nick in fact doesn’t even come back to the US after his tour. He’s so mentally messed up he stays oversees and continually plays Russian roulette, a game they were forced to play when prisoners in Viet Nam. Overall this movie wasn’t too bad. It doesn’t go into full detail, but one can pinpoint a few examples of the effects that war has on a person’s mind and how it affects them when they are out of the war environment.
Deer Hunter offers a great depiction of how war impacts those who experience it. We see Michael (De Niro) and Nicky (Walken) before going to Vietnam, while in Vietnam, and the after math of their experiences in Vietnam. The interesting thing is that this also changes their relationship with their friends back home. As often happens when soldiers return from war, people who did not share the experience of war often expect things to return to normal whereas the soldier is still trying to cope with both the return to civilian life and the experiences of war. The experience of being forced to engage in “Russian Roulette” obviously had a profound impact on Michael, Nick, and Steven, and we can see their different reactions to this event and to cues that illicit memory (re-experiencing) of the event. Nick, unfortunately, appears to have been introduced to some “fine china” aka heroin and suffers from some serious mental trauma. He is the only one who fails to return home, and the movie ends with a haunting rendition of “God bless America.”
In this final scene, the sadness being felt by each of these characters over the death of their friend is palpable. The emotion jumps off the screen due to the expressions we see in each character. All of the feeble smiles are clearly seen as facades to the true emotion each character is experiencing. We see evidence for this when John goes into the kitchen to make eggs and has himself a nice cry (no tears in my eggs please). Sadness is also clear from the expressions that we aren’t seeing like smiling, furrowed brows, shouting, or other inappropriate expressions in that situation. Also, motor movement is noticeably slowed as they attempt to set the table in a rather unenergetic manner. This is also an example of how sadness is an affiliating emotion that encourages people to come together to help ease the loss.
"The Deer Hunter" was a very intense film that exhibited all forms of human emotion to the extremes. The first hour or so of the video showed a group of young best freinds celebrating Steve's marraige and it was blatently clear that all the men were extremely close. This relatedness is defined by Reeve (2009) as "the psychological need to establish close emotional bonds and attachments with other people, and it refelcts the EMOTIONALLY connected to and interpersonally involved in warm relationships." It is this emotional bond that makes the events of "the deer hunter" be so very extreme.
This explains why the Nick's funeral was such a sad event. The men were so emotionally attached (especially nick and Mike) that when someone leaves you in such a dramatic way as Nick did, it truly gets the best of everyone. Reeve (2009) states that "sadness is the most negative, aversive emotion" which is why it is the emotion felt when the most negative thing happens to someone.
I thought it was interesting that after the funeral they were not drinking alcohol at first. Throughout the rest of the movie alchohol was one thing that bonded all of the friends, and I kind of felt they would have been drinking, maybe becuase that was how Nick would have wanted it. Eventually, somone says "who wants a beer?" and you see Mike with a round of shots in front of him. This makes perfect sense as Reeve (2009) states "sadness motivates the person to restore the environment to its state before the distressing situation."
Deer Hunter. What can I say… Quite the long dark 80’s emotional rollercoaster. This extremely and might I add unnecessarily long movie did display the full spectrum of emotion, near the highest and lowest of each spectrum as well. The entire movie was cast with a dark feeling, even the wedding though this may have been the lack of high-definition shotty 80’s filmography.
This movie was based primarily on three guys Michael the no BS head of the group, Steven the very loving groom, and Nick the quiet introspective silent type. They were all Russian American’s. The movie opened with a strange Russian wedding. The mood is high and drunken as he nearly hour long pointless scene drags on and absolutely nothing happens. The first thing that caught my attention was the foreshadowing by the random Green Beret veteran seen taking shots at the bar. The beret was silent, drinking a shot of whiskey quietly at the bar when the three approached him, respectfully at first but soon after some began to heckle him. After inquiring to what Vietnam was like, alls the beret could muster up was “fuck it”. Upon further mockery and finally restraint, Michael disrespects the beret by toasting and also saying “fuck it” The beret grinned though it was not one of Joy, he definitely knew what was in store for the men who would be going to Vietnam.
Fear and sadness dominated the rest of the movie, from when they got captured to the very end of the coming home phase of the movie. The most intense fear and sadness is felt by Mike who upon finally discovering Nick’s whereabouts is forced to play a game of roulette with him to try and get him to recognize him through his emotionally scarred drug filled mind. I believe Mike was first filled with anger, which assisted him in destroying the barrier that was the situation of being separated from Nick, yet this also pushed him into a very dangerous situation, where he began to feel fear, having all the tell tale signs including the trembling, perspiration, and nervous tension. The fear was motivating for Michael to remove himself from the aversive situation, but unfortunately this was to no avail. Sadness was felt by all when the “one shot” theme present throughout the movie reserved a spot for Nick after he took one last shot in roulette and was killed. The sadness of Mike and the others promoted relatedness which brought together everyone at the bar to sing God Bless America as the movie ended.
There was a lot of emotion within this movie, and it really evoked a lot of emotion in me while I was watching it. The movie started out where these six guys were getting drunk and looked like they were all really happy in the lives they were living, and that it couldn’t get any better than those moments. Steven was getting married, Nick and Mike were the best of friends, and those three were getting ready to go to war and excited to fight for their country. After the wedding, all of the men go on a hunting trip, where we really see how stubborn headed Mike is.
All of the characters in this movie deal with every basic emotion (Reeve, 312) fear, anger, disgust, sadness, joy, and interest; I think that I went through each of these emotions as well when watching this movie. In the beginning of the movie, each of the men were in joy with where they were at and had the interest in the army, where Steven had interest in Angela and both, Nick and Mike were personally interested in Linda, I also thought she was interested in both of them but had trouble deciding. Interest creates the desire to explore, investigate, seek out, manipulate, and extract information from the objects that surround us (Reeve, 317). This was the reason the boys wanted to join the army and go to war in the first place.
They also all experienced joy at two points in the movie, right before they left for war, and for Mike when he came back from Vietnam. Although, the idea of joy at the end of the movie and after coming back from war was very short lived for everyone involved, with Nick not coming back, Steven being in a hospital and lost both of his legs, Angela not being in a right state of mind, all the other guys missing Nick, and Linda and Mike hiding their feelings.
A lot of the rest of the movie was filled with the negative emotions of fear, anger, disgust and sadness. I think I went through each of these as well when watching. Fear motivates defense, warns us of our vulnerability, and it also facilitates learning and activates coping (Reeves, 313). This happened when the boys were in war and were captured and forced to play Russian roulette against one another. They were all in fear for their lives throughout war, and this was the point when I figured they understood what that man at the wedding was saying about war when he got back and didn’t show any emotion, a lot of the men turned into that when they came back. Anger is a ubiquitous emotion (Averill, 1982). These men had no trouble showing their anger for one another, for the country, and about the war and the situations they were put into to deal with. Anger is the most passionate emotion (Reeve, 314). The angry person become stronger and more energized (as in the fight part of the fight-or-flight response) (Reeve, 314). Each of these guys had more of a fight response, most of this happened after war, although Mike also had a stronger sense of fight over flight response throughout the movie, he was not a man to back down. The function of disgust is rejection (Reeve, 315), I rejected this movie when they started playing Russian roulette for a half an hour and watching these men partake in it voluntarily at the end of the movie really was over the edge for me.
Sadness was an overwhelming emotion throughout the movie, when it came to the men leaving for war and then not being able to control it amongst all the characters when not all the men had come back. One beneficial aspect of sadness is that it indirectly facilitates the cohesiveness of social groups (Averill, 1968). This was shown in the movie when Nick never came back, and at the funeral, all the men with Linda and Angela were able to come back from whatever slum they were in after the men came back from war and connect together again as a group when they ended in singing.
One of the first impressions I had of this movie is that it seemed inauthentic to me. The main reason for this is that it is very hard to believe anyone would willingly play Russian roulette if they still had even a remote chance to live. I would rather die being shot than being forced to take my life in a room full of enemy soldiers. I find it hard to believe many people would feel differently about this. Putting that criticism aside, I thought that it was a very important film in that it helped explore some of the real and serious mental illnesses, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, that affect many of our soldiers.
Some of the most obvious motivation and emotion concepts present in this film come from Chapters 11 and 12, dealing with emotion. The first segment of the film (the beginning through marriage ceremony/reception) could be characterized primarily by joy and interest, but also by fear and anger, as well as disgust and sadness to some degree.
The first emotion that I noticed was joy. In Chapter 11, Reeve (2009) explains that "joy facilitates our willingness to engage in social activities. Smiles of joy facilitate social interaction." This is generally seen to be true throughout the reception. Almost every person there is smiling and happy. The atmosphere is one of relatively high acceptance, which (along with alcohol) has the effect of extending greater freedom to these individuals by reducing inhibitions. While Michael, Steven, Nick, and Stanley are all together they joke and have fun together. Despite the hard work these men had to do in their first job and the difficult work they will have to do in Vietnam, these men seem to utilize their strong social bond and camaraderie to serves as a secondary function of joy - to soothe or alleviate unpleasantness. In thinking about the wedding, the men and women were visibly joyful, with their own social expressiveness (facial feedback) helping to enhance that emotion.
As they thought about their futures, the men may be said to be experiencing interest. Reeve (2009) wrote that "life events that direct our attention include those that involve are needs or well-being." They do not know what lies ahead - in their personal lives and relationships, or if they will even survive Vietnam. They do, however, appear to have a strong need for personal achievement - they want to prove that they have what it takes to serve in the war. I am not sure if any of them fully anticipated the real mental trauma they would experience in Vietnam, and I think this may partly be due to the glorification/romanticization of war and violence that has been seen in our media for quite some time. Despite having some shared experience in the war, Michael, Nick, and Steve were all affected in different ways by their experiences. Nick seems to respond to the experience by becoming emotionally deadened; he no longer has interest in anything but taking extreme risks to kill himself.
In my full analyses I will likely focus on how the other basic emotions are present as well, but for now I would also like to say that I find the ending of the film extremely unbelievable, which makes it much harder for a student of motivation and emotion to use this film as a way to realistically interpret emotions. Statistically speaking, it would have been near impossible for Nick to have actually won so many Russian roulette games (each person has a 50/50 chance of dying each time). Also, to be willing to shoot yourself to help one of your friends remember his old life is not a sane behavior. There are obviously much better approaches in solving the problem. One of the things that most bothered me here is that for the most part Michael seemed to have maintained his own sanity, but the behavior that he exhibited towards the end was not that of a sane person. There was a bullet in the gun, someone was going to die. As I'm sure most other people think about this the same way about this, it would have made much more sense to bring him back to real professionals than having them point guns at their heads. To conclude this comment, I would just like to reiterate that the topic of PTSD and emotions is very important to study, but the unrealistic nature of the storyline makes it much more difficult for the content to be meaningfully interpreted and applied to real life.
I found "The Deer Hunter" to be an interesting movies. The movie starts out in small town in Pennsylvania. We see a group of friends who seem to be having the time of their lives. They work together, hang out together, go hunting with each, and all appear to not have a care in the world. We then find out that one of the friends Steven is getting married that night, and the following Monday Steven, Michael, and Nick would be heading over to Vietnam to fight in the war. At the wedding we see everyone having a good time. Ever one in the wedding party was experiencing joy, laughing, and dancing the night away. Reeve (2009) states that “Joy is a social glue that bonds relationships.” We can see that everyone is especially close. This is very important especially for Steven, Michael, and Nick as they are heading off to war together. At one point we see Michael streak across town with Nick running after him. Once Michael stops they get to talking and Nick makes Michael promise that he will bring him home no matter what.
The movie then switches over to Vietnam. Steven, Michael, and Nick eventually become captured. While imprisoned they are forced to play Russian roulette. Obviously when anyone thinks about Russian roulette fear comes to mind. Fear helps to motivate a person’s fight or flight response. Since Michael, Nick, and Steven are imprisoned they cannot simply flee from the situation. Michael comes up with a crazy plan to help them escape. Michael goes up against Nick and has their captors put 3 bullets in the chamber of the gun. Michael and Nick are able to fight their way out and free Steven. All three get rescued but none of them would be the same again.
The movie continues on to Michael returning home, Nick joining a Russian roulette club in Saigon, and Steven returning to Pennsylvania VA hospital in a wheelchair. Michael returns to Saigon trying to convince Nick to come home. Nick has changed so much from the beginning of the movie and does not listen to Michael, and takes his own life during a game of Russian roulette. At the end of the movie we are left with all of Nick’s friends mourning his loss.
"The Deer Hunter" was certainly full of emotions. Anger by the fighting friends. Fear by the newly wed couple. And anger, fear, sadness, and depression by almost everyone because of the war. The amygdala is responsible for the negative emotions, mainly anger and fear, so it makes sense that they would appear together, such as the horrific first setting of the "game" of Russian Roulette. Michael and Nick had to play the game, but they were both obviously terrified and showed it in different ways. Michael got angry and he was motivated to get out of the situation by tricking their captors, but Nick was terrified. He could barely act.
According to the differential emotions theory, the purpose of basic emotions is to provide motivation. Although this theory makes, it obviously doesn't always motivate behavior. Michael's fear / anger motivated him to act. However, Nick's paralyzed him.
I'm starting to think that I might be a hater on movies. Yet, I work at a video store, and I watch more movies than I probably should. OR maybe it just has to do with I don't usually like movies with war themes, however I'm probably just being very stereotypical. So I will try and open up my mind a bit.
It has been said many of times before, The Deer Hunter does display the entire spectrum of emotions/moods we talked about in class, and also those mentioned in our textbook. The part I would like to focus on however is the scene where Nick, Mike and Steven have been captured, and are forced to play Russian Roulette. It is evident that fear is a big emotion being displayed here. It is easy to see that all three are desperately trying to figure out how to flee from the situation. Just by looking at their expressions on their faces, their quick glances towards each other. This isn't easy though, considering this game is just pure luck, or fate. Mike, Steven, and Nick are all exposed to a situation in which they lack control over, and are threatened by the huge chance of death in this Russian roulette game. Reeve (2009) talks about fear motivating defense, and that fear physically affects a person through trembles, perspires, looks around, nervousness, and tension. This can be seen in Nick especially out of all of them. Nick seems to have less control over showing his fear, this is probably because he has never been in a situation similar to this before in his life. Reeve (2009) mentions that people learn to manage their emotions through society, and well Nick hasn't had any sort of need to manage his emotions because his close friend have always been there to support him and get him out of trouble.
Going back to fear motivating defense, you can see this in Mike during this scene. Mike is taking his fear and using it to develop a plan in order to get him and his 2 friends out of the situation alive. His also uses his fear as a motivator to basically slap Nick out of his fear, and make sure that Nick and him are on the same page for the plan. Although the plan is very risky, and Mike lacks control over the outcome, Mike insists because it is their only chance for survival.
Although fear is not the only emotion displayed throughout The Deer Hunter, I feel as though it is a major motivator as to whether or not these guys survive this significant life event. And according to Reeve (2009), fear facilitates learning of adaptive responses, or coping mechanisms, something very important during war time, and also coming back from the war.
Deer Hunter was an interesting but a little slow in the beginning. I knew going in that the movie was about three friends that are deployed in Vietnam, but it took over an hour for them to get to Vietnam. I thought that it was somewhat ironic that the captures of Mike, Steve, & Nick made them play Russian Roulette, because they were all Russian-American. It was also weird to see Christopher Walken in a more serious role, because I am more used to his voice saying ridiculous things (like 'more cow bell'). I thought that the actors in the movie did an amazing job portraying the emotions of the characters. The emotions that all of the men felt, controlled, hid, let out were widely varied throughout the entire movie. The beginning of the movie there was more positive emotions and in the middle and end of the movie there were more negative emotions.
While the men went through extreme situations in Vietnam, and the emotional states that were affected by their time in war, those who were left at home were also affected by the war. Linda, the love interest of both Nick and Mike, began the movie feeling a variety of emotions including fear (of her father), interest (in the wedding) and joy (at receiving affection from Nick and Mike). She does a good job at hiding her negative emotions until they are overridden by the positive emotions of the wedding. At times during the wedding, she also seemed conflicted about the joy she was feeling from being the center of two men's attention. While she may have loved Nick, as shown in her accepting his marriage proposal, she was also clearly interested in Mike as well. While we do not see Linda during the time that the men are at war, it would be easy to assume that she attempted to continue living her life, while also worrying about the men. Emotions are said to be caused by significant life events, or remembering significant life events. Any time that she remembered that the men that she potentially loved were in life threatening situations would have caused a negative emotion. After Mike came back, Linda again encountered conflicting emotions. Whenever she thought about Nick she would feel sad, or angry, or worried, however she also felt joy and interest in Mike's return. Having Mike return home, triggered both positive and negative emotions simultaneously because his return was a significant life event in itself, but it also reminded her of Nick's absence.
Overall, I thought that it was a powerful movie, if a bit longer than necessary. There are scenes in the movie that I may never be able to forget - whether that is good or bad I am not sure.
After being warned of the darkness of this movie from several people I was a little fearful of watching it. I went into it rather unaware of what it was about. However, it didn't take long for me to realize that it would be a rather uncomfortable movie for me, since I have many friends in the military and my dad was in Vietnam. The movie definitely showed a wide range of emotions. From joy to fear.
The scene that stuck out to me was the wedding. It seemed so falsely happy. Everyone seems to be celebrating marriage, and joyful in that celebration. But the overall mood still seems to down. As the book mentions, fear kicks in our fight or flight reactions. I felt as though the fear lead everyone to temporarily run to something that would make them feel happy. But even with their encounter with the beret at the bar was dark and superficial. The beret knew exactly what the men were getting into, and even though the men asked what it was like...they knew they would rather not know. So the joked with him, and took a shot in honor of saying "fuck it" to Vietnam. The beret just smiled half heartedly at them. Because he knew they knew better than to take a shot on behalf of Vietnam. To me this was a clear instance of so many emotions in the movie. Their is joy for a child, but fear that the child may never meet his father. Likewise, there is joy that that two people are now bound in marriage, yet there is a dark cloud lurking over the wedding, because everyone knows that the two may not be able to live "happily ever after." So, instead of crying in fear of losing someone, since tears will not help to feel better, they celebrate the potential of something joyful, to avoid the fear.
Deer Hunter was a pretty intense movie centered upon the Vietnam War. In the beginning of the movie, it was light-hearted as Mike, Steve, and Nick all got hammered--having a good time and experiencing seemingly pure joy within their lives. Little did they know what the war had in store for them, as I am sure many soldiers experience even today within the Iraq war. This arguably has to do with appraisal--which is the central construct in a cognitive understanding of emotion. According to Reeve, appraisal is an estimate of the personal significance of an event such as is this life event significant? Does this event have any significant implications for my well-being? The wedding ceremony and the war were two significant life-events that would turn out to be two polar opposite events which would affect their lives.
These guys probably went through primary appraisal and secondary appraisal. Primary appraisal involves an estimate of whether one has anything at stake in the encounter. Secondary appraisal, which occurs after some reflection, involves the person's assessment for coping with the possible benefit, harm, or threat. They were all undergoing constant appraisal as the antecedents changed. While enduring the psychologically detrimental game of Russian Roulette, the men were facing a type of threat, a threat involving facing an uncertain, unspecific, and overwhelming danger (of losing their life). After analyzing the situation, emotions such as anxiety and fright were naturally occurring.
My friend's son lost his life while playing Russian Roulette and its truly unimaginable the psychological trauma that he has endured. It makes me wonder if there has actually been any studies referencing the psychological aspects behind games like Russian Roulette. Overall, this was a pretty good movie...one that definitely grabs your attention and makes ya think.
The movie The Deer Hunter displayed and invoked several different dimensions of emotions. Although I did not generally like the movie, there were many good examples of motivation and emotion throughout the movie.
The Deer Hunter is like Schindler’s List, you watch it once and you should be set for life. It is officially the longest movie I have ever sat through and unnecessarily so. Pretty much all that happened in the first hour was a long intro to the lives of the main characters at a wedding. The movie goes from one minute the men partying like animals to the next where they are already in Vietnam. I think this was meant to show that the men did not really feel much fear before deploying, or at least they choose not to show it. However the first shot of the three men in Vietnam show a very different story. Steve is obviously the person most affected by their circumstances in a Viet Cong holding. Nick and Mike seem to be stronger, because they don’t show their fear outwardly like Steve. It is the fear of death that motivate Nick and Mike to pull a very dangerous move that eventually they pull off and kill the Viet Cong before they are killed themselves. Nick was obviously very affected by this experience because when he was taken to the hospital, he couldn’t say anything about what happened to him, he could only sit there and cry. I think the problem with Nicky in the end was that he lost all motivation to live. He had cuts all up and down his arms suggesting that he tried to kill himself and he lived only to die by playing Russian roulette. He didn’t care about the money because he sent all of it to Steve, and he didn’t want to listen to Mike when he tried to save him twice. If Nicky had any will power left to live, he would have listened to his old friend, but he was so shell-shocked and emotionally dead that nothing mattered to him. Mike was the only one that was able to return home and maintain any kind of normal life, although he too was emotionally scarred from Vietnam. He at least had some internal motivation left to want to get past the war and live a normal life. He felt much distress over the death of Nicky, but he was able to effectively cope with the death. Steve on the other hand was leading a somewhat normal life, but lacked the social aspect of his life. He only wanted to stay in the hospital and not be close to anyone, including his wife and their young son. I think that the fact that Steve went to Nick’s funeral was a step in him wanting to regain some social functioning, even if it meant connecting through old friends through distress and grief.
Overall while I thought the movie was way too long and left many parts awkwardly left open, like why was Linda shown being beat by her dad, and why did Nick and Mike decide to save Steve, even after they wanted to leave him there because he was too weak, etc? It had some interesting parts and it is a classic movie so I’m glad I saw it, but I don’t think this is a movie I would even sit down and watch again. It’s a little too hardcore for me.
This movie sent your emotions on a roller coaster. I agree that the movie was WAY too long, and I really didn't like it - I'm generally not into war movies (except Pearl Harbor - who could resist Josh Hartnett or Ben Affleck?!)... and really don't enjoy seeing animals or people dying. However, because of the vast variety of emotions felt, the movie was definitely applicable for our class.
In Chapter 12, Reeve (2005) discusses the cultural aspects of emotion. He states that emotions change based on the situations and cultures you are in (p. 351). This was evident in the movie, as Mike, Nick, and Steven's emotions changed just from being in the heart of a war, and also because of the difference in culture between Vietnam and the US. The movie demonstrated this in the boys from their change of emotions during the war. In a non-war situation, killing and torturing others would be totally unacceptable. Mike burned down a village, set a soldier on fire, and shot the soldier and an innocent woman and her baby. Due to the situation, Mike's emotions changed from empathetic to apathetic. In the war, the boys were also expected to be strong - to not show any emotions. An example of this is when they were in captivity and were forced by the Vietnamese guards to play Russian Roulette. Nick couldn't hold back his fear of committing suicide, but Mike coached him to "show the bastards." Mike understood how to be a soldier without emotions. Therefore, he also displayed a high skill of managing his emotions (Reeve, 2005, p. 354). Mike was probably the best soldier, as he was able to control his disgust for gruesome situations, like when we see Steven's bone protruding from his leg after falling from the helicopter. He also was able to control his fear in situations where it was almost certain that he would die, such as playing Russian Roulette or being held captive.
I feel that Nick and Steven displayed more learned helplessness than Mike because they felt like they could never escape the war. For example, when the Vietnam guards were holding them, Steven thought he was going to die, especially after he shot himself in the head. Nick had given up as well. Mike had a plan to escape, and Nick still thought his fate had been sealed. Furthermore, I think that Steven and Nick knew that they couldn't ever escape the influence the war had on them, even after they were discharged. Steven seemed to sink into a depression. He thought he'd never fit in again, so preferred staying in the Hospital with others just like him. Even after Nick is let go, he doesn't call Linda. He forgets who he is and forgets the ones who love him. It appears that he just gives up on the life he had, so continues to risk his life by playing Russian Roulette.
This movie was super depressing. I thought that it definitely was intense, but was also too slow moving. I haven't seen Sliding Doors, and I'm hoping it's an upper, as I think the majority of the movies we've watched for class have been downers. For me, this was probably the worst because it was so long and gruesome.
Watching Deer Hunter was a little hard for me. My father was in Vietnam, although not captured and forced to play Russian Roulette, he was a medic who saw a lot of things I can't even dream of. It was hard not to think of him while watching this movie though.
One of the concepts I was able to connect from Reeve, was the different aspects of appraisal. On page 346, Reeve (2009) describes appraisal as 'the central construct in a cognitive understanding of emotion...an estimate of the personal significance of an event'. Of course the Vietnam war would have a significance on these character's lives--- they were forced to do things not the every day person would be able to do (which makes it hard to relate to other people afterward), but also because they are living in fear of losing their own lives during this time. As mentioned earlier, I related this very much to my Dad. He doesn't like to talk about it much, but when he does you can tell hes been severely affected by this time in his life- his tone of voice, his non verbals when talking about it. I can only imagine what is really going through his head when he thinks of his time during Vietnam.
Reeve (2009) also mentions there are two different kinds of appraisal, Primary Appraisal (an estimate of whether one has anything at stake in the encounter), and secondary appraisal (occurs after some reflection-- involving the coping with the event as if it were a benefit, harm, or threat). Primary appraisal is definitely seen in this movie-- the men have their lives at risk--- especially when they are forced to play the Russian Roulette. The secondary appraisal comes after they've had time to reflect on the situation, most likely occurring after they are home.
Deer Hunter was an extremely intense movie. It was one that illustrated a wide range of emotion in very complex levels. Many movies have emotion in them, but the characters in this movie had such an intensely wide range that it had to have been cast with incredibly talented actors.
The most interesting parts of the movie to me were ones that at least two characters were in the same situation and had completely different emotional reactions. For example, when Steve and Michael were at the table with their captors demanding that they continue the Roulette game, Michael reacted with anger while Steve seemed to display fear. Michael was restrained against his will, which is a common cause of anger. He was constantly threatening to kill his captors, and he showed signs of being stronger, energized, and motivated to action because of his anger. He was eventually motivated to take a greater chance in Roulette with three bullets so he would have more ammunition to use against his captors.
Steven, however, reacted to the same Roulette situation with fear. He displayed classic signs of fear by trembling, perspiring, and looking around (Reeve). His fear response is perfectly consistent with the situation he was in. He felt a threat to his well-being, especially physically, and was certainly in a dangerous situation. His body language indicated that he wanted to flee, but he was unable to because he was forced to sit at the table. Reeve's description of fear states that when it's not possible to flee, people are motivated to cope by being quiet and still. Steven showed some signs of coping by remaining in his seat even though he was trembling, and making only whimpering noises instead of screaming.
I agree, the movie was way too long, the entire first hour of the movie it almost seemed pointless. You could have shown all that was shown in that first hour in about twenty minutes instead. However I agree with everyone else that this movie was jam packed with emotions. One that stuck out in my mind was when Michael shot the deer on their last hunting trip before going off to war. He was full of Joy, which is fitting because Reeve states in chapter 11 that joy can be caused from certain events such as "success at a task, personal achievement, progress toward a goal, getting what we want, gaining respect..." When he was able to kill the deer with just one shot he fulfilled all of those. He achieved a goal as well as gained respect from his friends.
Another scene that stood out to me was when Michael, Steven and Nick were all prisoners of war and were forced to play the game, which was Russian Roulette. The emotions portrayed in this scene were fear, anger and even disgust. Disgust because they were witnessing people being forced to kill themselves. Fear because they knew they had a high chance of dying, and anger because of the situation they were in, they had no power over the situation and according to Reeve anger can come from the feeling of restraint, which is exactly how they were feeling, restrained. That is until they came up with a plan to escape the situation. I believe they would not have been able to come up with and fulfill they plan if it were not for their emotions of anger and fear. Both of these emotions have been shown to increase survival and that is what it happened to do for them in this scene of the movie.
It was mentioned in class that this was an emotional movie that was very long. It held to its word, we were able to feel so many emotions even as viewers. Following are some examples from the movie of emotions as defined in the book.
Fear
This is one of the basic emotions defined by biological theorists. One experiences fear as a reaction when he or she perceives the situation or event as dangerous (Reeve, 2009). We see fear in the faces of women and children as they are getting blown up. And fear again when the guys are playing the crazy Russian roulette game. (The logic behind that game is way beyond me). Fearful not only because you’re throwing your fate into the barrel of a gun, which will take away any autonomy you have over yourself and because you are in a strange environment, being held prisoner, worried for not only your own life but the life of your buddies and on top of all of that you have some crazy men yelling laughing throwing money around all while you wait to see if you will live or die. That is one example in the movie in which you see fear in the faces of people.
Sadness
According to Reeve (2009) sadness is the most negative emotion and comes from separation from someone or something or from failure. For the purpose of this blog I’ll just focus on Steve. Coming back from war, as a POW he lost a lot and probably felt like he had failed. He liked staying in the hospital because he said he didn’t “fit” back at home. Maybe he felt like he wouldn’t be able to be a husband or that a father since he lost his legs.
Joy
To end on a bit of a happier note, the emotion, joy, comes about at various positive events (Reeve, 2009). Like a pleasant surprise, such as finally seeing a loved one return from war. Or getting what we want, like when Steve and Angela are getting married. At the beginning of the movie we see that things are going really well which is typically a good indicator that there are joyful emotions swimming about.
Michael and Nick from the looks of it are room-mates and are going into the army to fight in the Vietnam War, along with their friend Steven. During the war they are captured and are forced to play Russian roulette with each other. Steven pulls a live shot to the corner of the head and is put into a water holding tank by himself. Michael and Nick go up against each other and Michael has come up with a way to escape. Here is where you can see Michael using his need for power and control convert into leadership abilities to get his two friends out of there. He also jumps back into the water when they are being rescued to save his friend that lost hold of the helicopter.
All that we see next is Nick in a hospital setting and looks fine, he pulls out the picture of Linda, his fiancé, and then quickly puts it back in his wallet. He is released and tries to go phone back home, but gives up. Nick here can be seen to be having a very complicated range of emotions that he is fighting internally; from the looks of it, depression, guilt, fear, rejection and possibly confusion. The movie shows him later on as being blank, having no real memory of friends or Linda and being ghostly white, like he is already dead, gambling his life at Russian roulette. He does end up dying by the gun, playing his own friend Michael.
Michael, had gone back to bring Nick home, to be home and to Linda. Michael also had personal feelings for Linda and was really protective and caring towards her. Yet, Michael throughout the movie is seen as a semi-loner, type of guy. He deer hunts and enjoys the “one shot”, which after the war he is not capable of doing anymore, he seems rough at the beginning of the movie as well and more centered and at subjective to society afterwards. His struggle with emotions is really seen through his farcical expression, more with the eyes and glares, because even with a gun to his head he was composed, rational and had control over his body. Yet, with his face you can see his pain, guilt, unlike Nick, whose feelings were visible outward until the end of the movie where he has lost his mind. Michael was strong he dealt with his emotions in a way that was good for him to cope with and he understood his options, all of his options when confronting a situation.
The one thing the movie lacked was communication amongst everyone, especially after Nick was buried. They were all together yes and were doing a relatively normal thing (drinking) after the death of a loved one, but their quietness seemed off to me. I was wondering if they knew the whole story of how Nick died, and that Michael was the one to see it all.
This movie was so sad! I usually avoid movies about war, however this one was pretty good, even though it was very depressing. One aspect of this movie that I found very prominent is the idea of control. Over the course of the movie, we see the men in different positions that pertain to their ways of dealing with stress. For instance, in the scene with the first round of Russian roulettes, Michael is the only person who remains in control of himself. Both Steven and Nick seem to lose themselves in this scene and throughout the rest of the movie. Not that I blame them, but it shows different ways of coping. Reeve discusses coping on page 243. He talks about how having control over an outcome has a lot to do with one’s ability to cope with the situation at hand. Michael seems to be able to cope with the situation and does not take death as an outcome as Steven seems to. Nick, on the other hand, loses his original personality and becomes obsessed with the idea of roulette. I’m not sure if this is because of his need for power over himself, where he feels like this is a thrill. He states in the last scene that it only takes one shot to kill a deer; I think we can all see that this principle is also true of people. For Nick, he had cheated death so many times I think he knew this was the one shot that would do it, the one shot that would actually kill him. This was the saddest part of the whole movie. I think that this movie shows how even if you don’t actually die in the war your life will be changed forever, and possibly even unbearable like it was for Nick.
This is my second time watching Deer Hunter, and both times I wasn't very intrigued or intently interested. However, thinking about it in hindsight it does give me some chills, especially about the major emotional transformation from the wedding party post Vietnam. Although the beginning was really drawn out, it set up the transformation effectively, especially because the beginning setting was a huge wedding reception, with all the characters laughing and having a grand old time. The overall mood switched completely once the Michael, Steven and Nicky were deployed in Vietnam, experiencing the greatest emotional trauma of their lives. I cannot say I have any idea of what Michael, Steven or Nicky had experienced while they were in Vietnam. As Reeve states on page 299, "Emotions are multidimensional." It would be seemingly impossible to truly tap into the deep emotional states that each one of the three war-befallen characters. From the looks of it, though, Michael maintained the highest degree of self-composure, never crumbing in defeat or worthlessness. The first scenes of the Russian roulette being played in the hut above the lake/river clearly demonstrated Steve's overarching feelings of fear, confusion, and loss of will. Those emotions directed his behavior, and essentially incapability to think or act on his own. Michael had to completely support him emotionally, mentally and physically all the way up until he caught a car and helicopter ride back to the States.
This movie was extremely sad and disturbing for me. I found myself with my hands over my eyes at times and my eyes very watery. Some parts were hard for me to watch because it makes me think of all the pain war soldiers must feel and how some suffer physically and emotionally even when war is over (PSTD). The hardest part for me to watch was when they were captured and forced to play Russian Roulette with their own lives. I noticed that Michael had the strongest self-efficacy and strongest will for life than Steve or Nick.He also displayed a high skill of managing his emotions (Reeve, 2009). Michael is the one that stayed the strongest physically and emotionally and was the reason for any of their survival of the war. He physically saved Steve by carrying him when Steve could not move his legs, which he ended up losing. He physically and emotionally saved both his friend's lives. He emotionally saved Nick by his compassion and encouragement when forced to play Russian Roulette.Nick experienced great fear when it was his turn to play. He showed all the signs of fear.He displayed classic signs of fear by trembling, perspiring, and looking around (Reeve, 2009). Although it was hard for him to he encouraged Nick to keep going and encouraged him to stay strong which is the only reason Nick was able to stay strong during this terrible time. So, it made me so sad at the end of the movie to see Nick suffer from PSTD and begin acting insane by choosing to play the game that had taken him so much courage to survive, which in the end of the movie took his life. Michael had the greatest internal motivation for life, which is why he was the only one who was able to survive and return home and live a normal life out of all three of them. However, his feelings for life had changed. At the end of the movie, it showed him not wanting to shoot the deer which showed a softer side to him. I think he felt like this now because of how Nicky was always stopping to admire the nature and Michael had a new meaning to life and a new value of seeing things.
I think this was a very powerful movie and it got some strong emotions out of me. It also makes me feel a sense of emotion and grief for soldiers and all those men who fight in wars because obviously nobody knows what they experience or go through and this movie showed us how bad some men suffer in wars both physically and emotionally. Even if they survive the war, they are not gauranteed to live a happy and normal life as we saw in both Steve and Nicky, Michael was the only one capable of living a happy and normal life somewhat similar to the life he had before he left for war.
The movie did not hold my attention. I felt the wedding reception and the first Russian Roulette game lasted way to long. I realize these scenes were meant to illustrate emotion and moods of the actors; however, these scenes did not keep my attention. I also realize the wedding reception scene was meant to convey the characters mood and affect before the boys headed off to the Vietnam War. Before going to war the characters seemed very easygoing. They loved having a good time, drinking beer, and going hunting in the mountains. They did not seem to have a care in the world. As we discuessed in class, the whole group received the benefits of feeling good. Each person depicted prosocial behavior, creativity, decision-making efficiency, socialbility, and were persistent when they would fail. An example of persistence would be the boys' hunting adventures. Before going to the Vietnam War, they would follow and track deer until someone shot a deer. Also, at the wedding reception all people in attendance were dancing, drinking, having a good time. The wedding pary, took a picture together and were smiling and genuinely appeared to care for eachother and love eachothers' company. Little did they know how drastic each of their lives would change. I was impacted by the scene that moved from the wedding to the war. At the reception, a random guy wearing a green uniform walked straight to the bar. Mike, Nick, and Steve attempted to talk to him; however, the only thing he would say was, "fuck it". I think he had just came back from the war and was suffering from PTSD. He was consumed by the confusion of living in horrible war conditions to returning home to a happy and normal life. He did not know how to act around civilians. His body had adjusted to the chronic stress of war by anesthetizing himself to the suffering around him. Unknowingly, this will also affect Steve, Nick, and Mike. Each will have to adjust to the pain, agony, and poor living condition in Vietnam. However, when Steve and Mike arrive home, they have trouble dealing with "ordinary life".
Along with some other people I did not particularly enjoy this movie. Mainly because it did not grab my attention in the beginning. To me this movie got off on a very slow start. I feel as though a lot of the lengthy scene could have been shorted immensely; However, I do understand the lengths the writers had to take in order to get the point across. This movie did do a good job from a motivation and emotion perspective in illustrating the ideas and concepts of mood and emotions and how they are influenced by life events. The events described in this movie were relative to the Vietnam War and targeted those soldiers who were impacted by the added stress and emotional weight of the war. Michael, Steve, and Nick were the target characters in the movie. While Michael seems to have less influence on his emotions than Steve, Nick had the most impact due to his stressful life even of losing his legs. Overall-These emotions and changed in behavior can be explained by Reeves ideas of change and how life events impact our behavior. Although I did not like the movie particularly I can understand why it was chosen to depict these characteristics.
I actually did not mind the movie. The one thing that bothered me the most was how long the movie was. In my opinion, some of the first hour could have been cut out, but then again it showed the viewer how tedious and uneventful their lives were before the men left for war. There were many different emotions that were depicted throughout the movie. I think fear was one that was very evident, though. When the men were held captive at the camp, I thinnk that they all showed fear. Stephen showed this when he started freaking out in the cage when he would hear gunshots go off. By the terrifying looks on his face you could tell that he was expressing fear. The fight-or-flight mode kicked in and he wanted to get out of there. I also think the other men showed fear when they were being forced to play Russian Roulette with their lives. They felt fear and once again the fight-or-flight mode kicked in. They decided to fight, killed of the Vietnamese that were holding them captive, grabbed Stephen from the pit and fled from the camp to try and find saftey. These situations all show the evolutionary standpoint for emotions. Their fear that they expressed was present for survival reasons. Their lives were on the line and the fear made them realize that what they were going through was not normal,they were in danger, and they needed to do something to try and get them back to the comfort state that used to be normal for them. The fear affected their behavior all in different ways. Stephen ended up losing his legs and I think the fear that he felt in the camp also played a role in the fear he felt in returning home. He didn't think that he'd fit in and be able to return to his previous life. Nick's fear led him to have PTSD. He wasn't normal after his war experience. He ended up not really caring about his life, not wanting to interact with people from his past, and ultimately killing himself. Overall, I think that the movie was very intense, hard at times to watch, but very relevant to the material we are learning in class.
While I didn't enjoy Deer Hunter as a movie, as a teaching aid, I thought it worked well. The intense emotions we see in this film relate directly to the chapter. From joy at the wedding scene, to fear and anger in Vietnam, to sadness at the loss of their friend, the whole spectrum of emotion seems to be represented. We also see very clearly how different emotions affect people differently. In the film, this is most clear with fear. Steven seems to lose all control, which could possibly have served to mentally separate him from what was happening around him. Nick seemed to give in, a behavior that likely kept him alive. If he had fought, he probably would have been killed. Michael used his fear as a motivator. He knew he had to fight, but fight smart, to save himself and his friends. We also see Linda's anxious fear that the men she cared for wouldn't come home. This manifested in worry. Overall, while I disliked the movie, I understand why it was chosen for this chapter.