North Vietnamese guards surround three American men and the game is Russian Roulette. This is the most infamous and shocking scene in “The Deer Hunter.” Directed by Michael Cimino, the film has been widely praised as a great American epic, described as one of the most “emotionally shattering movies ever made” by Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. It centers around three best friends preparing to serve in Vietnam who now find themselves prisoners of war, kept in a bamboo room guarded by soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army. The NVA guards force the men to play Russian Roulette and mockingly gamble on their lives.

“The Deer Hunter” is a gritty, unflinching look at the Vietnam War, focusing on themes of brotherhood and loyalty in the face of American disillusionment. Released in 1978, it is joined by “Apocalypse Now,” “Full Metal Jacket” and “Platoon” as anti-war movies made after the American retreat from Vietnam. Their resonance with a country left frustrated and distrusting of the government after the mishandling of the Vietnam War all but erased previous films during the war glorifying American involvement — themes presented in “The Deer Hunter” directly contrasted the patriotic and jingoistic ideas shown in early Vietnam War movies such as “The Green Berets” and the short film “Mickey Mouse in Vietnam,” both released in 1968.

The slew of anti-war movies made after Vietnam immortalized the disenchantment of the American public with its government: politics in war films have long since been a way to shape public sentiment — there is something addicting in the stories war films tell. On one hand, there is the heroism, brotherhood and loyalty that come from overcoming adversity. And then there’s the anger, the violence, that moment of catharsis followed by overwhelming shame. The emotional extremes war movies present are effective in getting a visceral, immediate response from the viewer, which makes the interweaving of politics all the more impactful. War movies simplify the issue in such a way that it becomes capable of articulating the emotions people feel or want to feel about their everyday reality.

“The Green Berets” shows how politics in war movies can be used to control public opinion. It is a film released the year prior to American involvement in the Vietnam War and is one of the few first ideas Americans are given about Vietnam. But in looking at the movies made after the Vietnam War, films like “The Deer Hunter” and “Platoon” show how the public has divested the power from artificially made government sentiments and taken politics into its own hands. While there is still a degree of control with both movies, in which large Hollywood corporations tell and shape what the public is meant to feel about the war, people don’t use movies like “The Deer Hunter” to understand and form their political understanding of the war. Instead, they have grown attached to it because it managed to express how angry and betrayed they felt by their own government. It expressed the hate against the enemy, it expressed the broken hope, and most of all it was a release of anger, of the shame the American public was put through.

In looking past the Vietnam War, we’ve continued to use war movies to express the narrative of political conflict, finding restored patriotism and love for our country, especially in heroic movies during the early 2000s after the 9/11 attacks. And now, looking at the war films made in 2017, with “Dunkirk” being described as Christopher Nolan’s best work yet, we have used the politics of World War II as a form of escapism. While in Vietnam the U.S. failed, the country is painted as the hero of the WWII narrative — the liberators. The politics of “Dunkirk,” which in its WWII history does not involve America, instead serves a different message — a warning to our country. In this new globalized age, in which fast social connections make it easier to spread tension, there are dire consequences. If international communications are not handled properly, WWII represents an eerie foreshadowing rather than a tale of heroism.

A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Oct. 5 print edition.

Email Jessica Xing at [email protected].