I watched The Deer Hunter for the first time last night (finally), and really enjoyed it (Walken & Streep were fantastic). I'm not going to waste my time worrying about the details of the plan involving roulette, ecause well, it's a metaphor and I doubt it makes perfect sense from afar. But I'm stumped by a much more straightforward plot point. I don't see any discussion of it online, so I must be missing something obvious? SPOILERS BELOW.
Mike finds out that a mystery benefactor has been sending Steve money at the VA hospital. He is convinced that this is Nick. He goes to Saigon, and sure enough finds Nick earning lots of money playing roulette. However, we immediately learn that Nick has no memory of Mike or his life back home. We only see a flash of Nick regaining his memory in his final moments.
How could Nick remember Steve, have the rational thought needed to plan and find his hospital and send him his winnings, when he seemed to have no memory of his life back home? Are we supposed to believe that he at one point remembered Steve, and then lost his memory after that? Or was someone else sending the money?
I don't care to quibble about plot points, but I couldn't find an explanation online, so I feel like I must be missing something obvious? Mike goes to Saigon because Nick is sending Steve money, but the whole point of the climax is that Nick is brain addled and doesn't remember a thing about his life back home. What gives?
Submitted January 06, 2019 at 11:27AM by Ziddletwix http://bit.ly/2AygsRg