The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray + DVD)

I went into this movie having studied the infamous scene that everyone knows best, Russian Roulette with the VC gambling green berets' lives away. So, I wanted to encapsulate this movie having known that scene from film school.First off, this film is WAY too long. with just over 3 hours of runtime, I hated to find myself sitting in a lot of it, but then catching myself skipping ahead through the overly drawn out scenes of jokes, gags, drunkards, and eventually Mike finding Nick. The movie, understandably, wants you to experience the slow burn, even though we have established how quickly we jump from period to period in this film. Because of this, the pacing is botched, making it neither a fluid and smooth sail, nor a cigarette being put out on your flesh; it lands somewhere undecidedly in the middle.Second, a lot of the movie labels itself as a war film, and while I loved seeing the performances of each Vietnam vet's PTSD and how it's screwed up their lives or ruined it forever, we didn't really see all that much to work with. In just about an hour and a half, we've seen where the men work, hangout, get ready for a wedding, and then the women doing all these things as well (including an unused side-plot with Linda, Meryl Streep's character, being abused by her sickly father...which never gets developed to anything??). The hunting trips infuriated me as much as De Niro's character was bringing these sloppy drunkards hunting! They never shut up, they're always drinking, and the one character, whose forgettable name I've already...well, FORGOTTEN, doesn't bring any of his gear when they go hunting. I seriously cannot fathom how they've been on THIS many hunting trips alone. After about the 2nd time where this bozo has forgotten his gear, I'd have not invited him, PERIOD. Nothing against him, just he isn't a hunter...AT ALL. Nick and Mike are the only relatable ones who seem to understand how hunting works: you track, you stay quiet, and you do not take a shot until you have a clear sight of your deer, and you make it in one shot. Two shots, meaning you're both A. a bad aim, and B. making the animal suffer because you didn't kill it on sight.Not only is Mike the most relatable character in my own eyes, especially with drunkard, loudmouthed and irresponsible friends, but he also becomes the most broken...he loses the most before realizing he needed to appreciate those things before shipping off to hell itself.Now that we've gotten through the worst setup to a war film, let's talk about Vietnam:It ain't pretty, it's war; it's bloody and cruel.That said, you'd expect maybe some more scenes of it? We see only 2 scenes of any REAL war zones in the movie: the village, and then abruptly the "POW Camp". It's a shoddy hut on the river, and it's practically asking to be unprotected, asking to be overrun in a mere matter of seconds. If the screenwriter had it dubbed or labeled as a FOB/Outpost POW Camp or something of the like, even THEN I'd say you're full of it. 1 measly fisherman's hut on the river, and 6-7 VC soldiers...that's it? After a few moments of seeing a field of them sweep out of the trees to capture these characters, and we get a handful of goons to be shot. Frankly, it's rather underwhelming, as you know things are gonna swing in their favor with how much runtime is left. And literally after escaping from one of the biggest parts of the movie, it just takes you back home, with another hour and fifteen left to fill the void on a very short section of the movie.This is where the film shined brightest, as it showed how damaged these men were coming home; maimed physically and mentally. Mike, a spirit and mentally broken steel mill worker/deer hunter, now unable to one shot his game anymore...nay, miss and let it get away. Steven, forever scarred by war, and Nick AWOL.The film finishes in a rather unfulfilling way with no sense of if everything will work out, or what: which is why I loved it's ending. Like the memories of war, it's frozen in time, frozen in memory and nightmares. It will never go away, but have to endure the struggles they faced. As a group of friends; as a broken family.The film direly needed some more war to protest it's anti-war agenda. I am anti-war as well, but if all you're going do to convince me is put me through Russian Roulette for a half hour, and then yank me out of Vietnam, I'm sorry you're gonna have to do better than that.I am not diminishing the players' performance, I am diminishing the play (so to speak).The movie lacked so many things that Apocalypse Now, or Platoon, or Hamburger Hill, or We Were Soldiers had (Mel Gibson's film being all the more similar in this list, in regards to the things I mentioned above). A war film about Vietnam where we show a wedding for half the runtime is like a gangster film where all we see is the crooked fellas cooking spaghetti for half the film, and then having a 20 minute segment where the gangsters get in a shootout and all die. It's built up well, but then tries to burn it with alcohol and ends up just accidentally snuffing the flame out more--It's a slow burn, that never evolves into a flame. And that is why I deem it a 3 star, frustrating, but important period piece film.

Great classic! Thanks!

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I saw this movie when it was first released. I was pretty young at the time but I do remember that It helped me to understand why so many soldiers were coming back emotional trainwrecks. When I recently watched it again it had the effect of making me feel transported back in time to 1970s, it's just so real to that time. The deerhunter movie is like a time capsule of real life during the seventies. The houses, the buildings, the steel mill, the bar all look reminiscent of life in an established city of the time. This could be Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland or an number of areas in the U.S. The wedding, the Polish neighborhood, the ethnic dancing, the clothing, the cars once again are accurate to the times. The behavior of people in the neighborhood as well reminds me of the seventies. People were friendly and knew each other. The mother of the groom looking for pity because her son isn't marrying a neighborhood girl. The bridesmaids look real not like models with a ton of makeup. The group of women wearing babushkas and carrying the wedding cake to the hall. This is something you might have seen in such a neighborhood. The behavior of the men who hung out together after work and who go deer hunting together. The phones are few and are attached to the wall. The men trying to honor a soldier who doesn't want to talk about the war. So true of the turbulent seventies. As we follow the group to the Vietnam war we see them dealing with a lot of different circumstances which have changed them in different ways. In the initial Vietnam scene one of the friends can barely deal with the emotional trauma of hearing men pulling the trigger with a gun held to their head. In the hospital Christopher Walken is so traumatized that he can barely communicate. These are things which really occurred during the Vietnam war. People treating death and killing as casually as swatting a fly. Later we see that the recently married fellow has lost both his legs. We see scenes in which multiple soldiers are returning home dead in metal boxes. And of course the scene where Robert Deniro attempts to persuade his friend to return home but Walken shoots himself instead is also very emotional. All of this gives those of us who didn't go to Vietnam a peek of the horror show we missed. This is a movie about a group of people dealing with the effects of war during the seventies. Those people were changed forever by war. Robert Deniros character can no stand to see handguns mishandled and will not shoot a deer. His recently married friend will not walk again on his own legs and possibly may never work again. The third friend is dead and buried at the end of the movie. Anyone who watches should be changed also in some way. This is movie that shows the watcher that war is hell. This is important especially for the young to learn. Today it is common to see so many kids glamorizing war and viewing themselves as indestructible while playing video games. This is a movie that makes a statement to "wake up and see the reality of war." Few movies have have made an impact upon me as this one has. I think that's why do many people see this as one of the greatest movies of all time.

Time for a reappraisal of this war drama regarded by many as a classic, and it is another dvd that is still available in multiple editions and is still often watched and reviewed on Amazon.The edition I'm reviewing is the 2 disc Special Edition. Sadly it clearly states that there are NO English subtitles.Disc 1 has the film at 2 hours 56 minutes with director Michael Cimino's audio commentary as an extra. Disc 2 has all the bonus features as listed by Amazon.Superb widescreen presentation, acclaimed cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond ( yeah, me neither ) but be aware that huge segments of the film are set in industrial Pennsylvania and it's not meant to look pretty. Certainly yer man has captured the dourness of that part of the world extremely well. So too the excruciating chaos of the fall of Saigon and in-between the awful prison sequence that set our three protagonists on their road to the irrevocable change to their lives. The contrast of these settings is outstandingly handled by Cimino and his writer of the screenplay, Deric Washburn.As I saw the film the first hour tries to be jovial and is set around the wedding of one of the three. There is always an edge and it didn't work entirely for me but I admit that I knew what was coming ---- like many others we were expecting a war film and needed to go there. Perhaps reflecting over the overall plot the wedding segment could have been shorter, but for some it probably was the best part of the film.A good part of the next hour is set in Vietnam ---- the Russian Roulette game may be a total invention and fanciful as some have criticized the film for that content, but let me say that as a young many I met some ex- soldiers who served in Vietnam who claimed that an American could be filmed shooting a Vietnamese on camera......... for a price. I have never read confirmation of that service offered by unscrupulous Vietnamese. Perhaps that too was an invention but I believed the guys who recounted their experiences.The final part of the film shifts between both countries and is so desolate, leaving this viewer very sad and confirming the powerful performances of De Nero, who has never looked and sounded better in a film, Walken and Savage.Sad to say again this 2 disc Special Edition with the Studio Canal logo has no English subtitles.

The film stars Robert de Niro and Chris Walken, and is about a group of friends from Pittsburgh PA, who are totally unaware of the horrors of the war that is going on in Vietnam.They are sent there when they are conscripted into the US Forces, who are fighting the Vietnam war against the Vietcong in a guerrilla war.The war really comes home to them when some of them are captured as POWs by the Vietcong, and are forced to play Russian roulette for their captors entertainment.Two of them manage to escape from their captors, and when the war is over they go back to try and find one of their friends who was left behind, and try to get him to return to the USA.The film brings to the screen the horrors of the Vietnam War.

This film has been criticised for being over-long and I can understand that critique. However, for me anyway, the portrayal of the Pittsburg area steel workers Orthodox community was brilliantly done over an extended time; I've watched it a few times ... outstanding ... I'd have to draw a veil over the Russian Roulette sequences in VN, though, so 4*... the steel workers are not there anymore, their government shipped their industry abroad after shipping them abroad to fight a pointless war that it (the govt) started ...

Absolutely classic film, particularly for the way in which it spends most of the movie building up its characters (which most movies don't seem to do anymore) with phenomenal acting and a great soundtrack. Despite some tense scenes and emotional depth to the characters and situations it is not the most exciting film to watch and if you are looking for a 'war film' you will be disappointed with the lack of action and inaccuracy.

Brilliant film and actors. A long film but the storyline keeps your attention. Different emotions emerge as you watch the film, sadness, bravery, stupidity etc. Robert de Niro, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep are great in it.