In The Deer Hunter, which war does Michael return from to Pennsylvania?

In The Deer Hunter, Michael returns to Pennsylvania from the Vietnam War.

Michael Vronsky, played by Robert De Niro, is one of a group of steelworkers and friends from a Pennsylvania town. The film follows their lives before, during, and after military service in Vietnam, showing how combat trauma affects relationships, identity, and their ability to return to ordinary life.

Michael, Nick, and Steven are sent to Vietnam together. After enduring captivity and violence, they come back changed. The film’s structure contrasts the community’s deer-hunting rituals and weddings with the dislocation caused by the war.

Released in 1978, The Deer Hunter won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Michael Cimino. Some of its Vietnam combat and prisoner scenes are highly controversial, particularly the depiction of Russian roulette, which is not documented as a standard Viet Cong practice.