Directed by:
Michael CiminoScreenplay:
Deric WashburnCinematography:
Vilmos ZsigmondComposer:
Stanley MyersCast:
Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, Meryl Streep, John Cazale, George Dzundza, Shirley Stoler, Chuck Aspegren, Rutanya Alda, Joe Grifasi (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
On the eve of going to war, Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steven (John Savage) gather for Steven's wedding. Leaving Steven to his wedding night, Mike, Nick, and pals Axel (Chuck Aspergren), Stan (John Cazale), and John (George Dzundza) depart for the mountains and one last hunting trip. The hunting trip is a funny, poignant scene that firmly establishes the characters as they set off for Vietnam immediately after the trip. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (7)
Very strong finale and amazing performances from Walken and De Niro. Not so much of Vietnam, but when there is, it’s worth it. Cimino focuses on human relationships and tells a story about three friends, each of whom returns home changed by the war. The exposition is a bit too long, but not without reason. Personally, I like different slants on the Vietnam War, but The Deer Hunter is definitely worth seeing.
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How many American films can you recall that start with a scene in a factory and their protagonists are workers, ordinary employees earning a living with their hands? American cinema is swarming with stories of white-collar workers, lawyers, doctors, and businessmen, but it has been rather stingy in mapping the destinies of blue-collar workers. The Deer Hunter is considered one of the three most significant movies about the Vietnam War, but I always perceived it much more as one of the few films about poor white men, the current supporters of President Trump. I will probably be one of the handful of film viewers who are more interested in the first part of the film devoted to a group of friends from a foundry, how they enjoy themselves after work and celebrate the wedding of one of them. The war part actually represents only a small portion of the film, and on top of that, it is the least successful one. Including drafted soldiers from the same locality in one unit may have been a practice of the American army, but the capture of the group of friends and their joint escape already reeks of typical cinematic opportunism. I don't harbor any illusions that the Vietnamese treated their captives with kid gloves, they had no reason to, but it seems unlikely to me that they would eliminate Americans so wastefully - they represented too valuable a commodity and a propagandistic trump card. The motif of Russian roulette apparently belongs to Southeast Asia soaked with gambling, but it seems nonsensical from a psychological perspective that it would be embraced by a soldier who has just survived frontline deployment and hit rock bottom. I would understand addiction, a propensity for violence, or the inability to reintegrate into the community, but this? The motif of Russian roulette always seemed artificial and significantly disruptive to me, Nick's alienation could have been described in a more realistic way. Ultimately, what stuck with me the most from the movie were a few impressive scenes from Saigon just before the fall of the regime and the stellar cast. However, I can't say that I associate it with any exceptional viewing experience. It will also be a problem for the average viewer to deal with its length and pace, as 183 minutes is truly a big chunk. I don't perceive The Deer Hunter as a war film but rather as a drama about a generation of American men whose youth was shaped or deformed by the war in Vietnam. Overall impression: 60%.
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The hell of Vietnam, which always was the main strength of films like this, is only given thirty minutes of the total runtime, but despite that, or maybe because of it, The Deer Hunter is one of the most impressive war dramas of all time. Michael Cimino was able to portray exactly what he originally wanted to portray: the futility of that conflict and the terrible impact it had on thousands of young volunteer soldiers, and that's why the Russian roulette scenes have become so famous; they are, of course, wonderfully filmed and acted, but more importantly, they are a perfect metaphor for how American society viewed the conflict. The best Vietnam War film for me remains Coppola's Apocalypse Now, but The Deer Hunter hangs firmly in second place.
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This is not about a film about the war in Vietnam (where at most 40 minutes of the film take place); it is a film about the war after Vietnam. The Deer Hunter is a tremendous, admirable film. Extremely bold and requiring viewers who are willing to listen. Despite that, one question repeatedly came to mind: “Isn’t this needlessly excessive?” Does the first part of the film, which comprises a wedding and one hunting trip, have to take a whole hour? Does Michael’s final search for Nick have to take fifteen minutes? Is this a case of artificially dragging things out? People who have watched the full three hours of The Deer Hunter with fascination will surely disagree, but if there is a passable route to the characters, I couldn’t find it. The film features three charismatic actors in the lead roles and the casting of the supporting characters is no less magnificent (Meryl Streep towers over all of the devotedly loving women from who the war has taken their reason to love). Unfortunately, they are still only actors, whose performance I admired and whose actions interested me, but I did not become immersed in their stories. Among the films with a connection to Vietnam, this one is hard to overlook due to its length, but in comparison with the similarly epic Apocalypse Now and the much less epic Coming Home, I can’t shake off the feeling that the years have diminished The Deer Hunter’s impressiveness. 80%
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The paragon of filmmaking ambition and actually the biggest contributor to the success of the American New Wave. Cimino pushes almost every important aspect of film narrative to the limit – he spends an enormous amount of time getting to know the characters, their backgrounds, and their relationships with each other. Virtually all of the actors are doing method acting, torturing, beating, and harassing each other. Plus, one of them is consciously counting down the hours before kicking the bucket. A cast of local non-actors, hundreds of extras in motion, all naturally lit as much as possible. It's a breathtaking cinephile experience. Except that in places the attempt at epic Coppola filmmaking just feels terribly forced. Plus, some sequences are oddly choppy, as if material is missing (the passage in the Vietnamese village) and the film doesn't quite know how to work with time-lapse yet. So it's a huge cinematic spectacle, but unlike the best works, it maintains a strange distance from the viewer because of this. It's as if it wants to be completely independent of the viewer without wanting to cooperate in any way. In the end, this story of friendship felt strangely alien and abstract.
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Gallery (164)
Photo © Universal Pictures
![The Deer Hunter - Photos - John Cazale, Chuck Aspegren, Robert De Niro, John Savage, Rutanya Alda, Christopher Walken](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/161/630/161630111_41485c.jpg)
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