The Deer Hunter [1978]

Average customer rating:

Bad Film, Good Timing

Fairly average 'classic' movie

More right wing than Rambo

Five reasons to watch this film

Some part of the film might seem like fillers but it gives great intensity

The Deer Hunter [1978]
Starring: Christopher Walken , John Savage , Robert De Niro , John Cazale , and Meryl Streep
Director: Michael Cimino
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Apocalypse Now [1979]

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Taxi Driver [1976]

ASIN: B000J20CVG
Release Date: 2006-10-30

Customer Reviews:

Bad Film, Good Timing.......2008-03-08

The Deer Hunter aims to convey the impact on ordinary Americans of active service in the Vietnam war. There are three main segments: a wedding scene which establishes the characters, their relationships and lifestyle before going to war; the action the men saw in Vietnam; the return of our hero, De Niro.

This was a real opportunity to make a touching and successful film, and at times it is, but the far-fetched Russian roulette sequences (a cornerstone of the plot with no factual foundation) and De Niro's unrealistic return to Saigon to search for a friend in the last days of the war are completely unnecessary and detract from the overall impact of the film.

While the narrative necessarily focusses on the American perspective, I found the depiction of the Vietnamese in the film to be borderline racism. We only encounter Vietnamese as uncaring, bloodthirsty torturers, prostitutes, or greedy, violent gamblers. We never meet any virtuous natives, nor is it ever suggested that this behaviour might, in part, be due to the presence of U.S. troops. Other gripes which yell out are the faux-poignant God Bless America scene, some corny symbolism with a deer, and, as a sound designer, the atrocious sound (Best Sound Oscar!).

As the first major film to address the recent war in Vietnam, The Deer Hunter was praised for its bravery in portraying the effect of army service on regular small-town Americans. It was awarded 5 Oscars - Hollywood, it seems, wanted to make an example of the film to encourage more gutsy film making on the topic. The answer came the following year in the shape of Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now. In light of further Vietnam films (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket) which also surpass The Deer Hunter in vision and integrity, Cimino's film looks more and more like a simple case of good timing.

Fairly average 'classic' movie.......2008-01-05

Naturally, I'm watching this movie almost 30 years after it was made, so things have changed a little in regards to audience expectation around movies. However, this is one slow movie. The first hour we watch a group of ordinary American Joes going about their days, drinking, shooting, larking around. It's not that interesting, and it doesn't need to be an hour of the screen time.

The scenes in Vietnam is when the film gets going, but they seem exaggerated. I was neither moved by them or excited by them, and normally war movies do just this for me. For me, De Niro is the reason to watch this film, turning in another great performance. In fact, I thought the acting in general was pretty good all round.

But damn, is this movie slow. I found the climax slightly contrived and ridiculous. But anyway, if you like ponderous war movies, or like watching classics of cinema to see what the fuss is about, it's worth a watch. Just make sure you're alert when you press the play button, 'cause this goes on for a while!

More right wing than Rambo.......2007-12-16

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 Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers."

Five reasons to watch this film.......2007-11-27

Five reasons to watch this film;

1) The haunting soundtrack,"Cavatina' that got John Williams noticed as a great musical composer.

2) The Russian roulette scene ;the folly of how war affects even the strongest mentally

3) The performance of De Niro - a rising star who already had Godfather 2, Mean Streets and Taxi Driver under his belt

4) How The Vietnam War affected everybody from the global community right down to the little working class community in a smalltown in Pennsylvania

5) The love triangle between Meryl Streep.De Niro and Christopher Walken.

Some part of the film might seem like fillers but it gives great intensity.......2007-08-19

A good number of viewers believe that "The Deer Hunter" is overlong and a bit overrated, probably due to a handful of scenes, but beside that its an important film that was the first commentary on the topic of Vietnam. It wouldn't have worked nearly as powerfully if the first hour been trimmed down a bit. It wasn't the director's attention because he meant to focus on "character development," base on the lives of three all-American friends, Niko (Christopher Walken), Michael (Robert DeNiro) and Steven (John Savage) through the affects of the war.

We have to sense the careless and frat-boy-like immaturity of these young men. That's why the scenes all revolve around frivolity and seemingly senseless boyish behavior; it creates such a stark contrast to the devastated characters of the three who went to war (and the relatively unaffected personalities of those who stayed behind, like Stanley). Although both De Niro and Walken have made a lot of great films after this movie, I have to say that this is one of their best movies in their career. They both give powerful performances and are the ones who were the best things about this movie. Both actors are at the top of their careers and were wonderful together.

Director-write Michael Cimino doesn't try to turn this into one of the goriest movies ever made. It's quite the opposite. Although there were a few bloody scenes throughout the movie (which I didn't mind), all of those scenes were done in a realistic portrayal of the war (or any of the other bloody scenes, such as the Russian Roulette scene at the end of the movie). Because of this, the movie doesn't become a disturbing war film, yet respectable.

"The Deer Hunter" is important film that wasn't done for nothing because it carries a strong message about life, death and love. It is a movie that should be experienced by everyone at least once, and if you like movies dealing with the Vietnam war several of them, like "Full Metal Jacket", "Platoon", and "Apocalypse Now," should also interest you.

The Deer Hunter (Special Edition) (2 Disc) [1978]

Average customer rating:

Not the masterpiece it once seemed, but not the propaganda its detractors claim either
It only takes one shot

The Deer Hunter (Special Edition) (2 Disc) [1978]
Starring: Robert De Niro , John Cazale , John Savage , Meryl Streep , and Christopher Walken
Director: Michael Cimino
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HEVTOK
Release Date: 2006-10-23

Customer Reviews:

Not the masterpiece it once seemed, but not the propaganda its detractors claim either.......2007-11-10

For all the naturalism of the presentation, the plot of The Deer Hunter is melodrama and metaphor, sometimes effective, often contrived, and seen today it's hard to get over how the main characters seem far too old to be going to Vietnam. Indeed, the film itself seems so much less impressive than Heaven's Gate today that it's surprising that this is the one the critics feted. Not that it's as bad as the revisionism that subsequently hit it would have you believe, but a lot of its original power has been diluted by the better films about Vietnam that would follow it. There's definitely a feeling of avoiding saying anything about Vietnam: this could almost be any war, from Korea to WW2, leaving much of the last act a 70s Best Years of Our Lives.

The biggest revelation watching it again is how good Robert de Niro used to be, leaving you with the suspicion that the pod people got him and replaced him with a lifeless hack who gets his assistants to phone in his performances while he's down at the bank cashing the checks these days. It's a surprise to see how engaging and credible an actor he once was. Unlike his later work, he seems less selfish here and able (in the first half at least) to connect with the other actors in the ensemble rather than constantly standing apart, which makes the character's feelings of disconnection with his old life far more effective in the latter part of the movie. Similarly, Meryl Streep is surprisingly natural in an early performance before everything became a veritable computer program of meticulously planned mannerisms and inflections that bore increasingly little relation to human behavior, while Christopher Walken didn't have the baggage that would increasingly prevent him from playing regular guys onscreen.

Scary anecdote from the DVD interview on the 2-disc set with a now very scary looking Michael Cimino (imagine a blonde Truman Capote in sunglasses playing an alien on Dr Who and you're not even close): for the scene where De Niro holds a gun to John Cazale's head and pulls the trigger, De Niro asked for a real bullet to be put in the chamber - and Cazale agreed!

It only takes one shot.......2007-02-26

(Warning: this film contains war bruality and violence that is "not suitable" for sensitive people)

The Deer Hunter was the one, that no studio would take on, following the end of American involvement of Vietnam, a couple of years previous. The help of Sir Henry Belfonte, the chairman of EMI as one of a three-picture-deal, ensured it was made and released to the public.

Fresh out of Thunderbolt and Lightening, Cimino and his crew studied the impact of Vietnam War, via many sources, to add to the accuracy and realism of the tough times in half capitalist and half communist divided states of North and South Vietnam.

The Deer Hunter deals with a group of blue-collar steel workers drinking buddies' in a small Pennyslevania town. Michael and Nick are the closest and are probably seen in our eyes as the most afraid of going to fight, Nick promises whatever happens, he wants Michael to take him home where he belongs......

The title, is a metaphor, since in this case, the men refer the deers as "girls", hence it is important to find one to settle down with and that "you've only got one shot" like the precise shot to kill the deer, to get it right before the oppertunity is gone forever.

The acting, shows the men try to stride along with three serving in Vietnam, how difficult and lost their lives' become, how empty and meaningless. The performance of Walkden, who comes across as loving, cheery and happy, slowly reverts in a suicidal troubled man whose longing to go back, means nothing to him now. De Niro gives the emotion of a man of dedication, glory and trust, but deeply worrying and sad. Meryl Streep in her first main role, plays the role of abused Linda, who is Nick's girlfriend, but doesn't cherish her love for him as much as she likes to think.

The editing of The Deer Hunter places the film into chapters, broken down and easy to follow, to show the horror of war and conflict, also the slow distrengtion of their friendship and the lives' which are recked.

The Deer Hunter is daunting, brisk and moving, it is one of the finest Best Picture films and arguably one of the finest seventies films ever made.

Average customer rating:

The Deer Hunter [HD DVD] [1978]
Starring: Robert De Niro , John Cazale , John Savage , Meryl Streep , and Christopher Walken
Director: Michael Cimino
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

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ASIN: B000MCH7D4
Release Date: 2007-03-26

The Deer Hunter Special Edition [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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The Deer Hunter Special Edition [1978] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Robert De Niro
Manufacturer: Universal Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 1417054441
Release Date: 2005-09-06

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