The Deer Hunter

There are flaws in this three-hour long film, but that doesn't take away from the power of this film. It is a true masterpiece. The cinematography is beautiful, the acting is phenomenal (especially DeNiro), and the story is sad and horrifying, while being uplifting at the same time. It is also very deep and complex with heavy symbolism. Its a "thinking man's" film. I especially like the element of male-bonding among these blue-collar, patriotic guys from pennsylvania. I could imagine hanging-out with these guys drinking at the bar and going on hunting trips.

P.S. Roger Ebert considers this one of the all-time "great Movies".

The movie history is ok. The players were greats. But the edition was terrible. The first hour could be reduced to about 25 minutes easily.

To summarize the whole thing, I've got to say this film is amazing.

There are some of the most beautiful scenes ever put on film in this title. These are contrasted with some disturbingly hellish imagery brought about by the tragedies of war. The story is truly compelling.

The HD DVD presentation offers the best picture you could expect from a 1978 film. The picture comes across as clear as the film can possibly be, finely detailed and very clean. The audio is excellent too for a film from this era.

"The Deer Hunter" is a three hour film, and for me the best way to view it was to hold onto it until having waken up at four in the morning one day and watch it with morning coffee...but that's just me. If you can stay focused on a film this long toward the latter part of the day then go for it. It's a great movie, either way.

I very highly recommend "The Deer Hunter" on HD DVD!

So, here is the - ahem - classic film that won five - five!!! - Academy awards in 1978. It must have been a bad year for films because this is a real howler. This is a review of the first 70 minutes because after that I switched off. It may have improved in leaps and bounds after that. I have my doubts, but you never know. The first 50 minutes or so deal with a group of Pennsylvanian steelworkers: their lives, their fights, their bonding, their background, culture, etc, all of which is quite entertaining - but not very - and then goes on to the war in Vietnam. It is from here where the film goes from being mildly engrossing to being an insult to the intelligence, a disgraceful rewriting of history and a hysterical jingoistic piece of flag waving.

The first scene in Vietnam shows our Pennsylvanian ex-steelworkers trying to protect Vietnamese villagers from the Vietcong, who are portrayed as a bunch of blood thirsty crazed geeks who shoot dead mothers and their children with gay abandon. Thank God for the Americans, eh? Anyone remember My Lai? Imagine a film set in France during World War II which showed German soldiers protecting French villagers from the French Resistance and with the French resistance portrayed as blood thirsty demons and the German soldiers as decent, brave Caucasian heroes. There would be a howl of outrage and everyone involved in the making of the film treated like a pariah. Deservedly so, too. In the same way that the French were fighting against a German invasion, the Vietcong were fighting against an American invasion, and no amount of Hollywood re-writing of history will change this fact.

The Russian roulette scenes are ridiculous -and a complete invention, they never happened in real life- and show the director's racist attitude towards the Vietnamese.

The best that can be said for this film is that some of the set scenes in Pennsylvania are quite good, especially the wedding scene, and shows Michael Cimino has a talent as a 2nd Unit film director. The acting and the cinematography are fine. One star for each. Avoid this film. It is awful. It makes the Rambo movies look like The Battle of Algiers.

If Jane Fonda had appeared in this picture it couldn't have polarized viewers more down to this very day. The bizarre McGuffin of the movie is the idea that Russian roulette tournament play has captivated all levels of Vietnamese society; all Vietnam in held tight in its addictive grip, and the Vietnamese seem to be very wealthy people with huge basso voices screaming with money to gamble away. In one scene you'll see a well dressed guy with so much money both of his hands are fill and he's holding some in his teeth, jumping up and down flapping his arms like a madman. It has the strange feeling of the surreal, as though it were one step away purposely divorced from reality. How does a contestant like Christopher Walken survive even a few days of such play, much less years? Could there by some tricks to staying alive while playing Russian roulette opposite opponent after opponent? Must be. But the details of the game are the very last thing Cimino has on his mind. It's all about the turn in Walken's head from sane to crazy, and then everything else in the film seems right on.

SPOILER AHEAD.

Oh one more detail. How does Walken get enough money sent over to the USA that it fills a bureau drawer? He's making regular deposits, so it's not just one stray letter that reaches Savage. How does Walken know where Savage is, when no one else at home but his wife has any idea he's not still in Vietnam? I bought the DVD with the expanded and deleted scenes but none of them give much help.

Some people love the score but I found it a little overbearing. However, i was in the audience in the movie theater in Port Jefferson, Long Island, when the film came out, surrounded by Vets wheeled in on their holiday from a nearby veteran's hospital, and the afternoon showing was as quiet as a pin. At the end, everyone who could stand, did. The effect of the film in the 1970s was wellnigh hypnotic. The actors seemed like real people--maybe that's the difference between today and yesterday. Now they seem like "actors" James Lipton would interview on TV, and they each of them seem to be trying to outplay the others, everyone from Streep to De Niro to Walken. John Cazale gives what is possibly the worst performance I've ever seen on the screen. But back then it was a killer. "Riding in a Stutz Bearcat, Jim," sang the Velvets in Sweet Jane, "You know, those were *different times.*"