The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Deer Hunter

Three Russian-American steelworkers from a Pennsylvania mill town have their lives devastated after being drafted to Vietnam, where they endure capture and lasting psychological trauma. (Wikipedia) Directed by Michael Cimino, the film stars Robert De Niro as Staff Sergeant Michael "Mike" Vronsky alongside Christopher Walken and John Cazale; Universal released it December 8, 1978.

Watches

Rolex Sea-Dweller 1665

Worn by Robert De Niro as Michael "Mike" Vronsky. BAMF Style identifies the watch Mike wears after returning from war as a steel Rolex Sea-Dweller "Double Red," reference 1665, with a black bezel on an Oyster bracelet. (BAMF Style) Sources disagree on the exact model: Montres de Luxe instead describes the watch, worn during the Russian roulette captivity scenes, as a Rolex Submariner with a plexiglass crystal. The available scene frame from that sequence shows a black dial with a single date window and no visible helium escape valve on the case's exposed side, but the crown side is turned away from camera, so the frame does not conclusively settle the reference either way. Montres de Luxe separately notes a Rolex GMT-Master also appears at another point in one of the roulette scenes; no other source corroborates a second Rolex model in the film. (Montres de Luxe) BAMF Style's article answers part of that with a three-frame comparison from the Saigon roulette sequence, in which the watch faces the camera beside the revolver: the dial shows red text under the hands, which BAMF reads as the two red lines of the "Double Red" Sea-Dweller, along with the helium escape valve, as the details that separate it from the similar Submariner. BAMF also records a different watch before the war, a plain steel one on a black expanding band with silver edges, worn on the inside of the left wrist. (BAMF Style)

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