Review of The Deer Hunter (1978) by Chris Z — 30 Dec 2010

It takes a long time to get there (3hrs), but by the time it does, this film is devastating. Wow. The film is basically three movements: Wedding, War, Funeral. A portrayal of a working-class town, and a group of friends off to Vietnam, and how the experience destroyed their place in their town and their place inside themselves. A staggering, brilliant, emotionally shattering film. At first, the beginning seems dragged out and lingers too long, but by the end of the film, the depth of the wedding celebrations really leaves you with how much substance was truly lost: a portrait of whole lives, not simply fragments. On the other hand, the center of the film, the war, is not a story of battle. There are no armies, really. The entire experience is boiled down to a horrible and recurring game of Russian roulette. It is the horror of meaningless and random death, and the devastation wrought by it. And by the time the film reaches what could be a lazy or pastiche scene of the remnants sitting in a bar, eating breakfast, breaking out into singing God Bless America, the guts ring so true and so honest, that the endless confusion of beauty and tragedy of that song, in that place, at that moment just bleed out all over everything.

A Masterpiece.