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 (8)
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 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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The authors' concocted Vietcong League of Russian Roulette can be viewed as an allegory or symbol that is initially untouched in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt, amidst all those rituals, celebrations, friendships, and petty squabbles, only to brutally reenter the game upon returning to the same place. Those who come back get so little and lose so much. It’s no wonder that the war often ends for them with that one final shot. Unlike Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket, Michael Cimino struggles to justify the presence of every single shot, but his epic anti-war drama remains one of those films that, even after decades, continues to resonate with a changing audience. For me, scenes like the hunting sequence after the return, where the encounter with the antlered trophy takes on a completely different meaning, or the moments in the bar just before departure, where the boisterous revelry is interrupted by Chopin on the piano, are particularly striking. Everyone senses what’s coming, and John Cazale knows it best. And of course, Cavatina.
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"You're just too good to be true..." It’s very hard to rate The Deer Hunter. On one hand it has acting that you don’t see every day and also there is an incredible amount of strong scenes which will leave you shaken and stay imprinted in your mind. On the other hand there is no need whatsoever for the movie to be so long. You are waiting for Godot for one hour (3/5), he comes and stays for forty minutes (5/5), but then he leaves and you start waiting again (4/5). Then just you are expecting it to end when Godot comes back for a couple of minutes (5/5). In every part you could find whole passages that are unnecessary or could be cut out here and there without any significant impact on the movie as a whole. Nevertheless The Deer Hunter belongs amongst those few rare films that are a must see.
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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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Gallery (164)
Photo © Universal Pictures
![The Deer Hunter - Photos - John Cazale, Chuck Aspegren, Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro, John Savage](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/161/630/161630231_eb88d0.jpg)
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