The Deer Hunter
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Movie Reviews of The Deer Hunter
Movie Review: Sometimes You Can Never Go Home
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Michael Cimino made this masterpiece and it seems to have drained all his talent, as he followed it up with the legendary "Heaven's Gate". Put that aside, as this is a riveting and thorough examination of a group of small town Pennsylvania steel workers that go to Vietnam with varying end results. Michael (Robert DeNiro), Steven (John Savage) and Nick (Christopher Walken) are the best of buddies that regularly go deer hunting and bar hopping. The first hour of the film dives deeply into the personal aspects of each characters personality and make-up, including a long wedding scene that is preciously real. Suddenly the film turns from American normalcy to the horrors of the war. All three men are prisoners of war in hellish conditions, forced to take part in a cruel and devastating game of Russian roulette with their captors. The scenes of war are brief but to the point. It is pure madness and although the men 'survive', they are in differing states of change. The final act shows Michael desperate to get Steven back into the real world, but his biggest challenge is to rescue Nick, who, severely disturbed by his ordeal, has stayed back in Vietnam. The last scene with DeNiro and Walken is nerve wracking and heart-breaking. The ending is unforgettable. This is the kind of film that rarely comes along - the kind of movie that makes you feel like you are there. Trivia: The Pennsylvania mountains scenes are beautifully filmed, but it's painfully obvious it's the Cascades of Washington.Movie Review: Brilliant movie - for the time, the place, and the people
Summary: 5 Stars
Post-modern criticism teaches that all language and judgement is culturally relative. This film exemplifies that. It spoke to a particular people at a particular time and place. It won't make much sense to today's Iraq War generation.
The Deer Hunter was set near the end of the Viet Nam war when popular dissent against the war was starting to take hold in Main Street, USA. This movie is not about evil Vietnamese or American heroes. It's not about patriotism. None of the themes that sway today's generation made sense then.
This movie is about people - American teenage boys - and their breaking points. These youung men were born into a place with no opportunity, and no choice but to follow a path laid out for them by forces much stronger than they. In a deeper way, this movie is about the poor people who have fought rich men's wars throughout history.
The Deer Hunter was deeply anti-war - it was also deeply pro-American. Neither government hawks nor Jane Fonda Hollywood liberals liked this movie.
One part of this movie is even more endearing today than it was in the 1970's - setting the heart of it among the Eastern European, Ukrainian, Russian Orthodox church people of Western Pennsylvania; a hard-working white ethnic area of miners and steel-mill factory workers.
I don't know if I would recommend this movie to anyone who didn't live through that era. But I am richer for having seen it. It is a brilliant snapshot of an American time and place that is gone now.
Movie Review: Spin the Revolver
Summary: 5 Stars
What can we say about this unusual character study of small town men and women from Pennsylvania who are faced with a paradox of two worlds. One at home and the other a world away. The accent is not so much on Vietnam, but on psychological effects of growing up in America with all of the traditions and life that we had all come to know in the late 1960s, and the aftermath of experience in a violent, war torn country on the other side of the world.
Each character handles that experience differently, but all are profoundly affected by the practices and atrocities committed to them during a short period of captivity. This is the consistent theme of the movie and the sharing and commitment of brotherly love.
The movie garnered top honors, and deserved just about everything it received. But perhaps the secret of this picture is that you cannot walk away from it without being affected by it in some manner. In the end, you share in the loss, because the depth of character study is so deep.
This movie is not suitable for young viewers. But it is perhaps very important to be seen as an adult. Never in the field of psychological study has a picture so effectively dramatized post traumatic stress disorder in this fashion.
The details can be discovered among the hundreds of other reviewers here as to the how and why. I cast this review for the purpose that in the many films recommended that you see during your life if possible, this is certainly one of them.
Movie Review: 5 stars not enough
Summary: 5 Stars
If you watch this film patiently (because it's long), and hang on every word that's said, you will be left dumbstruck. This film is so real it is like a documentary. Here are the details: the film is divided into 3 parts. The first part depicts three ordinary men (Mike, Steve and Nick) living in Pennsylvania, going about life just as you and I do. They live as if there is no tomorrow: having a good time, getting drunk, Mike getting married. This part lasts 1 hour. The film then moves up a gear, and takes you to the other end of the spectrum of their life: playing Russian Roulette against each other forced upon them by the Vietnese. The Russian Roultete scene, which is carried out in detail and leaves you sweating, lasts about 20 minutes. In the third part (post Vietnam) the film moves into top gear. De Niro (Mike) returns to Pennsylvania a traumetised man who is now far aand distant from his friends. He eventually tracks down his collegues who are also broken by their experience (I'm not saying what has happened to them). This part lasts about 1 hour. The film is so moving to me because of the way the three men appear experts in Russian Roullete after their ordeal - they are able to pick up a gun and point it to their heads as if they know they will win. I could write much more. Don' be put off by the slow start - it's necessary in order to see the contrast when they move to Vietnam. The dvd quality is ok, though I found some scenes a bit gloomy.Movie Review: 5 stars not enough
Summary: 5 Stars
If you watch this film patiently (because it's long), and hang on every word that's said, you will be left dumbstruck. This film is so real it is like a documentary. Here are the details: the film is divided into 3 parts. The first part depicts three ordinary men (Mike, Steve and Nick) living in Pennsylvania, going about life just as you and I do. They live as if there is no tomorrow: having a good time, getting drunk, Mike getting married. This part lasts 1 hour. The film then moves up a gear, and takes you to the other end of the spectrum of their life: playing Russian Roulette against each other forced upon them by the Vietnese. The Russian Roultete scene, which is carried out in detail and leaves you sweating, lasts about 20 minutes. In the third part (post Vietnam) the film moves into top gear. De Niro (Mike) returns to Pennsylvania a traumetised man who is now far aand distant from his friends. He eventually tracks down his collegues who are also broken by their experience (I'm not saying what has happened to them). This part lasts about 1 hour. The film is so moving to me because of the way the three men appear experts in Russian Roullete after their ordeal - they are able to pick up a gun and point it to their heads as if they know they will win. I could write much more. Don' be put off by the slow start - it's necessary in order to see the contrast when they move to Vietnam. The dvd quality is ok, though I found some scenes a bit gloomy.