 "great movie" | 2009-10-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3PAYDTVKJAJ1T |
I've seen this movie before, but I had forgotten the plot since then. I appreciate it more seeing it again. You can see what the actors look like when they were young, compare their acting then and now, and also see how well the movie was made then.
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 "In the first rank of American film-making." | 2009-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By anmcl |
I watched Michael Cimino's The Deerhunter again recently, some thirty years after I first saw it. It remains a remarkable film, a piece of powerful story-telling, a coming-together of fine actors and fine acting, engrossing scene-setting, careful character-building, and deep meaning. I was struck most forcefully on this second viewing by two things: the film's foreshadowing of American decline, and its testament to the power of myth.
The America of The Deerhunter, the massive industry, the doughty immigrants, the omnipresence of Detroit, the mysticism of guns and hunting, the wealth that made the war, and the way it was waged, possible--all that is gone now, or going. Did Cimino see that it was being destroyed, that Viet Nam was destroying it, or is it just very easy to see now that that was when the darkness began to take hold?
In the final scene of the film, the main characters are gathered for breakfast after the funeral of the friend who destroyed himself in Southeast Asia. One man is legless and broken, another alienated forever from his civilian friends by the knowledge of what the war really was. Their women are emotionally shattered. The men who stayed at home are well-meaning but lost. The gathering is awkward, grief-laden, every participant burdened with the incomprehensible. What has happened is not what should have happened, not what anyone ever dreamed could happen, not what anyone knows how to live with. And what do they do? They begin hesitantly, spontaneously to sing together, God Bless America. What else can they do? They have no other story to live by.
It is an extraordinarily touching, delicate moment, vibrant with human truth, a grand anti-climax to a story of heroism, community, patriotism, friendship, and madness, of failed faith. This is a film by a man who understands our country, believes in it, but has the courage and the gentleness to relieve of us our illusions about it, if we will allow him to. We need this film now, as we needed it when it was made, when we could not fully understand what it was telling us. |
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| "War Changes...Everything" | 2009-10-03 |
| - Reviewed By thuds45 |
1979's Gut-wrenching classic "The Deer Hunter" was Director Michael Cimino's masterful capture of a time ten years earlier, when the Vietnam War was in full swing but hadn't yet caused much of the country to go sideways over it.
The movie opens in a small Pennsylvania steel town, where a group of young steelworkers attend a wedding for one of their own, then take off on a deer hunt. This long sequence introduces us in a measured and honest way to the three young men, and one woman, at the heart of the story.
The movie then shifts to Vietnam, where the three young men are taken captive in combat by the Vietcong. The three will escape, in the harrowing but iconic Russian roulette scene, but each will be damaged by the experience in different ways.
The third portion of the movie concerns the return of one of the young men to their hometown, to find much has changed, including himself. He and the young women will try to patch together what remains of the life they had known before Vietnam. That quest will trigger a return to Vietnam to fulfill a final promise.
Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage as the three young men, and Meryl Streep as the young woman, are the best of a superb cast. The story, the dialogue, and the settings are authentic to the time and place, almost painfully so. The movie's principal flaw may be the choice of Russian roulette, an obscure event at best, as the pivot of the plot, when more plausible plot twists were certainly available. The movie works extraordinarily well in spite of this flaw, and perhaps because of it. "The Deer Hunter" is now thirty years on but has lost none of its capability to move the viewer, and is very highly reocmmended. |
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| "WOW" | 2009-08-07 |
| - Reviewed By ma1963 |
I watched The Deer Hunter last night and I was absolutely mesmerized. Everything is so well done that I couldn't keep my eyes off the television screen. The acting and casting couldn't have been better; the choreography is excellent and the cinematography reflects good, artistic judgment. The plot moves along at a very good pace and I don't think too much time was spent on the wedding scene; yes, it was long but it firmly establishes the tight bonds people had in a small Pennsylvania town where steel working is a major part of the economy. I feel the same way about the Russian Roulette scenes; it may be true that this did not happen often but the idea of "playing" Russian Roulette with guns and a live bullet represents the incredible dangers of war as well as the senselessness of good, decent human beings losing their lives on the battlefield so far from home.
When the action begins, we meet several residents of a small Pennsylvania town in which most men work in a steel mill; there is Michael (Robert De Niro); Stan (John Cazale); Steven (John Savage); Nick (Christopher Walken); and Linda (Meryl Streep). We also see Steven's mother (Shirley Stoler), who is mortified that her son Steven must marry Angela (Rutanya Alda) because they think he could be the father of Angela's unborn baby. Steven tells one of his close buddies that he couldn't be the father of Angela's baby; but he marries her anyway. The wedding scene is extensive and very well done; there is so much dancing and drinking that you get a feel for the town and you also truly feel affection for the principle characters in the film. After the partying some of them go deer hunting for the last time before Steven, Michael and Nick must enter the military for mandatory service in Vietnam. There's one scene that is so poignant in which Michael and Nick deal with their stress by "acting out;" Michael suddenly takes off his clothes and starts to run naked but Nick catches up with him, throws a towel around his waist and makes Michael promise him that if he dies Michael will make sure that Nick is buried in the United States.
Of course, the real terror comes in the next part of the movie. We see villages being torched with women and children killed mercilessly by the North Vietnamese; and eventually Michael, Nick and Steve are reunited--which is when they fall victim to Vietnamese men who force them to play Russian Roulette. Steve breaks down and is then thrown into a watery pit where the rats could take a bite out of him at any moment; Michael tries hard to keep his senses and Nick begins to lose his sanity. We also see refugees fleeing their homes in mass numbers.
What ultimately happens to Steve, Nick and Michael can never be repaired. The physical wounds and disabilities are permanent; and the psychological scars are every bit as horrific. Two of them return to the USA but one stays behind for one of several shocking conclusions near the end of the film; you won't forget this anytime soon. We also see how the residents of the small town are deeply emotionally scarred by the war themselves; look in particular for a stunning performance by Meryl Streep whose character Linda loved Nick so much.
If you buy the two DVD set of The Deer Hunter, you'll get plenty of extra bonus features. The first DVD features an optional running commentary with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and film journalist Bob Fisher. The second DVD offers deleted and extended scenes; the original theatrical trailer and production notes. I would have liked some commentary by some of the actors in the movie; but this is a minor disappointment.
The Deer Hunter will forever be one of the best films ever made about the conflict in Vietnam. In fact, it's one of the best films ever made--period. I highly recommend this for fans of the actors in this movie; people who like epic motion pictures that are extremely well done will cherish this as well. It's stunning in every way and it deserved the five Oscars it won including Best Picture. |
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| "Not as good as Heaven's Gate, but a modern classic nonetheless." | 2009-06-28 |
| - Reviewed By xterminalx |
The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
In Final Cut, the documentary about the spectacular failure that was Heaven's Gate, at least one person hypothesized that the reason Heaven's Gate was the flop that it was was that critics were overreacting, feeling that they have overpraised Cimino's previous film, The Deer Hunter. Having now seen both pictures, I do have to say that I much prefer Heaven's Gate, but really, when your main cast consists of Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, how wrong can you really go? Add in a top-notch script from Deric Washburn that actually justifies the movie's three-hour runtime and a supporting cast containing the best mix of established, rising, and falling stars that Hollywood had to offer at the time, and while it may not be Heaven's Gate, you certainly can't fault it for trying.
The movie is split into three parts (three acts, as it were), with each one depicting a different time in the lives of its main characters. The first hour gives us hometown life in steel-town Pennsylvania on the eve of childhood friends Michael (DeNiro), Stephen (Savage), and Nick (Walken) leaving for Vietnam. Other friends have to stay behind, and we get to know them, as well. The second hour shows their time in Vietnam, and it's the part that most people who haven't seen the movie in a while remember; after a battle, the three are captured and taken to a Vietnamese prison camp, where they are forced to play Russian Roulette with both other prisoners and the guards themselves, who see it as a way to pass the time (and a reason for gambling). The three of them each handle the stress in different ways. And in the third act, Michael returns home, fundamentally changed. Stephen has come with him, but the pressures of life in the camp, as well as physical injuries, have relegated him to life in a VA Hospital, and he's terrified of coming back to a town that's remained constant when he has changed so much. Nick has remained in Vietnam, which preys on Michael's consciousness until he is forced to go back and try to bring him home.
What impresses me most about The Deer Hunter is that wile it's one of the most powerful anti-Vietnam films ever made, Cimino never stops the story in order to give us the oh-so-tiring "war is bad mmmmkay?" speech that you get from antiwar directors such as Oliver Stone. Cimino lets the story get the message across, and that is a wonderful, wonderful thing, so rare in film (or any other medium). As well, the movie's three-hour running time flies by, evidence of a mastery of pace few directors are capable of achieving in films half as long. Not to say that the pacing is always perfect; there are pieces, especially in the first hour, that could have used a bit of trimming. (I assume they were left in in order to preserve the roughly equal duration of each act.) But the acting, my lord, the acting. The home team is represented by such lights as John Cazale (in his final onscreen appearance before his death at the age of forty-three), George Dzundza, Meryl Streep (nominated for a Best Actress Oscar; DeNiro was also nominated for Best Actor, while Walken took home the trophy), and Rutanya Alda, among others. The visiting team? Four actors playing VC guards, none of whom ever made another movie: Ding Santos, Ot Palapoo, Krieng Chaiyapuk, and Chok Chai Masahoke, and all I can say about them is "wow". Why they were never tabbed for more film work is entirely beyond me. Holding your own against three of America's most talented actors in the late seventies? They would seem to have become stars by default, but it never happened.
Where the movie really wowed the Academy was in its technical details, however. The film won five Oscars, but only one was given for acting; it won Best Picture and Best Director, but the two really interesting Oscars were for the sound and the editing. (Odd, that editing award, given the minor pacing problems I briefly touched on before.) It was also nominated for Best Cinematography, losing to (are you freakin' kidding me?) Days of Heaven. It shouldn't have. Vilmos Zsigmond's camerawork here should be in textbooks. (I have little doubt that it was a big influence on Vittorio Storaro; there is more in common here with Apocalypse Now than just the scenery.) And Zsigmond's transformation between the drab blues and greys of Pennsylvania and the lush greenery of Vietnam have already been written on elsewhere, so I doubt I need to go into that here; suffice to say the camerawork is a big part of the movie's impact.
An amazing achievement. One wonders what Cimino could have done with the five and a half hours of Heaven's Gate here. **** ½
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| "Movie Classic" | 2009-06-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: AHY9XJHQV5780 |
| Classic movie. A little long. A little far fetched for this Viet Nam vet. Great acting. |
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