Review of The Deer Hunter (1978) by Ben M — 19 Jun 2011

This movie is essentially Unforgiven for the war-movie genre. It doesn't rely on cinematic battles or frequent explosions, in fact there is barely any shots of the frontlines in the entire picture, rather this movie is unmatched at its ability to capture the mind and the lives of the soldiers who were effected by the Vietnam war.

The movie is about a group of working class friends in the steel belt of Pennsylvania (my home turf!) who enlist in the U.S. army at the height of the Vietnam war for the heroics and honor that comes with being a G.I. There is Michael (DeNiro)and Nick (Walken) who are in love with the same woman (a very young Meryl Streep) and Steven (Savage) who marries his pregnant girlfriend on the eve of their send-off. They soon join a few of their other friends (Fredo Corleone among them) for a deer hunting trip in the mountains. This is the part where the movie drags on. An entire third of the movie is spent building up to Vietnam and I think we can all be in agreement here that the wedding scene could've been shortened by like 30 minutes. Don't get me wrong I really liked these scenes, they had a very Scorsese attitude and way about them, but to the movie, other than building the characters for a whole hour they add nothing else.

After a successful deer hunt for Michael and one last look at the young and charismatic faces of the friends, we are thrown into the savagery of the Vietnam war and the movie begins to pick up. The friends' captivity is shown in some of film's most intense, dramatic, and heartbreaking scenes. Torture, disease, and the infamous Russian roulette is thrown in your face with a pull-no-punches way about it. Watching the American cry just before blowing his brains out was heart-breaking and all too graphic to forget.

None of the friends die in the conflict, there is no melo-dramatic 'throw your hands in the air as you get gunned down mercilessly', rather this movie shows how the war effects those who survive the slaughter and how the three lives of the steel workers from a little town in Pennsylvania will never be the same again. With three different paths to follow, director Michael Cimino makes me angry again by focusing almost the entire time on De Niro. Each of the main characters (although Walken's tale was the best IMO) each had their own story to tell and were over-shadowed in a way. That set aside, the second half of the movie is more dramatic as Michael finds himself trying to return to normal society with all the horrors of war still in his brain. His one friend is crippled to a wheel chair and his other friend is...gone in a way would be a good way to put it. We are shown how he just can't get over his experiences through his interactions with his friends and even his deer-hunting prowess is gone. It was tragic to see a former popular and easy-going soul become lost in his past.

The ending...MY GOD THE ENDING! it was probably one of the most striking and emotionally-wrenching scenes I have ever seen. I forgot about all the flaws and tedious moments from this film and was struck with the raw and brutal depiction of the war that is cemented ever in my mind as I type this. That my friends, is why The Deer Hunter is great, it may bore you around some corners but when it wants to it will bring you to tears.