RATED R: strong language and violence, brief nudity, sexual situations
Directed by Michael Cimino, Starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep
A movie in 3 parts, this 3-hour epic put Cimino on the map as a screenwriter and director. Winner of 5 Oscars in 1978, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken), the movie is set across a decade (late 60s to early 70s) and is about a close knit group of friends who go to Vietnam and how the experience changes their lives.
The first act is set in an industrial town, Clairton, Pennsylvania, where a community of Russian-Americans are celebrating a wedding party and a going away party for three steel workers (the groom, Steve, played by John Savage, Walken, and De Niro ) enlisting in the airborne infantry to Vietnam. The film paints a vivid picture of blue-collar workers, carousing, drinking, going hunting, and just having fun in the throse of naivety about their future. Meryl Streep plays a young woman caught in a bit of a love triangle between two of the friends, Michael (De Niro), and Nick (Walken). John Cazalle (Dogday Afternoon, The Godfather) is wonderful as a part of the strong ensemble cast.
The second act is a sharp contrast to the safe, small town lives led in Clairton, PA. We find Steve, Michael and Nick fighting for their lives behind enemy lines as POWs. Some of the violence in the Vietnam sequences is tough to take, but strong performances by De Niro and Walken really bring a human emotion to the film (De Niro was also nominated for Best Actor). There is an especially haunting scene where the friends are forced to play Russian roulette at gunpoint. Director Cimino seems to go out of his way to make the viewer understand that these boys are completely cutoff from any familiarity of their past life.
The third act is again set in Clairton a few years later, with the boys back and trying to get on with life as normal. But one by one they realize that the war experience has forever changed them, and the familiar surroundings now only create a sense of physical and emotional distance between the group of friends.
The Deer Hunter gets its title from the lead character Michael, who loves hunting deer. He is fond of saying "To kill a deer, only use one shot...two is p***y." The 'one shot' theme fleshes itself out throughout the movie, as the different characters are faced with what they want in life, and their realities.
At 3 hours, this film clocks in on the longish side, but Cimino expertly fleshes out the characters and locations so thoroughly, you feel like you are there with them. Strong performances all around make this a definite classic in my book. Required viewership. My rating: 4 out of 4 stars.
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