Review of The Deer Hunter (1978) by Mike H — 04 Oct 2010

I always envisioned that this movie was about Robert De Niro going on a people-killing rampage. Based on what little I'd heard of it, and that the cover art utilizes the image of De Niro that we see for about three seconds in the movie during an otherwise unmemorable shot, that notion just seemed implied, although the movie is not at all that. Instead, the movie is a multi-character study, certainly centered around De Niro, but really the entire group of friends is the main character. What we observe is a solid hour of the group pre-Vietnam, thirty minutes of a piece of the group in Vietnam, and an hour and a half of the group post-Vietnam. The most mesmerizing section of the movie is shortest, but even so the other pieces are so well-acted that there's no shortage of interest throughout the three-hour running time. There are some weaker moments and one or two pretentious moments (particularly during the third section), but cutting an hour out of the running time would have been completely out of the question, at least if you're interested in the story rather than just anxious to know what happens at the end.

It seems like I always have something to say about Meryl Streep, and this time is no exception. She was absolutely flawless. Why as a young adult was she a superb screen actor and as she aged became a half-rate theater actor? I can't say. What I can say is that her performance here is an almost uniquely brilliant example of exactly how to play in front of a camera; she had a lot of close-ups in "The Deer Hunter," and not a one was botched or squandered. Her strictly realistic yet emotive approach is precisely how 95% of all screen performances should be approached.

Now that I've written all that, I've been sitting here for too many minutes trying to decide if this is a 4-star or a 4.5-star movie. The answer is that it's a solid 4.5 all the way through the movie until a few plot developments in the third section spoil it. Sadly, the stupidity of Walken's last scene ruins what's supposed to be the most dramatic part of the movie; instead it was the part of the movie that I felt the most distance from (I kept thinking: Why did Walken survive as a Russian Roulette champion for however many months -- hell, even if it was one month, which it wasn't -- and now we have to come to the predictable conclusion and moronic coincidence that his supernatural luck is going to run out the same day De Niro comes to save him right in front of De Niro's eyes for dramatic effect? And why does he have to magically not recognize De Niro for dramatic effect? Please don't let it be as poorly written and as melodramatic as that. Oh, God damnit, it is.) Oh yeah, spoiler alert by the way. If you can call that a spoiler.