Most criticism for Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978) is reserved for the total running time of the film (three hours plus) or the extreme violence in the film, but it is upon acceptance of exactly those two elements, that the true ideological sub-text of the film can be sought. Because of The Deer Hunter's length as a film and its almost intentional lack of action, development of characters' values and changes over the course of the film are much more pronounced and obvious. The Deer Hunter's length allows for a much more elaborate analysis of the relationship between the characters, the differences between their lives before and after the war, and a much more complex weaving of the characters' situations to one another. Underlying problems and the boundaries of camaraderie and human relationships in small groups of people, the duality of patriotism, male to male worship and the 'myth' of manhood are ideological themes that run throughout The Deer Hunter.
             The boundaries of deception and camaraderie is a theme that is dominant throughout the film, on a grand scale, the neighborhood and community 'brotherly love' that exists in the small steel town, and on a smaller level within the group of male friends.
             Although not shown explicitly, there are roots of deception even within the closely knit group of friends in the steel town. There are many clues that hint at the fact that Nick (Christopher Walken) is the father of Angela (Rutanya Alda)'s child, and that Steven (John Savage) does not know it is Nick's. Steven says to Nick that he 'never really did it with Angela, Nicky', and he does not know who she got pregnant from. When Nick is A.W.O.L from the U.S Army, and is out playing Russian roulette for enormous amounts of money, Steven shows Michael (Robert De Niro) the enormous amounts of money Nick is sending back to him from Vietnam, and the only real e...