The Deer Hunter
by Michael Cimino
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, Robert De NiroDirector: Michael Cimino
Cinematographer: Vilmos Zsigmond
Writer: Michael Cimino
Editor: Peter Zinner
Writer: Deric Washburn
Writer: Louis Garfinkle
Writer: Quinn K. Redeker
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog; French (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); Vietnamese (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 183 minutes
Release Date: 1992-03-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: MCA/Universal Home Video
Studio: MCA/Universal Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of The Deer Hunter
Movie Review: Sad To Say, It's Lacking
Summary: 3 Stars
This is one of those movies that SHOULD have worked so well, and comes so close. The best way for me to describe it is to actually compare it to another film with Robert De Niro: "The Mission." Although a very different film, it shares the same fatal flaw as "The Deer Hunter": we really never get a chance to get to KNOW these characters very well. So instead of feeling what they're feeling, we just sort of watch what happens to them. Both films feel very impersonal. But I think "The Mission" actually has more food for thought that this one.
But hey, I'm supposed to be reviewing "The Deer Hunter," right? This movie is incredibly well-acted and well-photographed, but the story doesn't compel. The opening wedding scene, for starters, is ridiculously long and ends up serving no dramatic purpose. And the different portions of the film (wedding scenes, hunting scenes, war scenes, coming home scenes) don't gel so well. And the pace for the entire film is out-of-wack; rather than gripping, it's for the most part uninvolving.
So, what's good about the movie? Several things, actually. Like I said, the performances by all involved are absolutely superb, even if their characters are all left underdeveloped. The Vietnam scenes are stunning and disturbing (I actually had a conversation with a Vietnam vet once who said that this is the one Vietnam War films that he could never watch), and you will never be able to erase the images of the Russian Roulette from your mind. Harrowing stuff, regardless of its apparent historical inaccuracy.
It's not a bad movie by any stretch. It's just not that great. Worth seeing at least once, though.
Summary of The Deer Hunter
Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, The Deer Hunter is simultaneously an audacious directorial conceit and one of the greatest films ever made about friendship and the personal impact of war. Like Apocalypse Now, it's hardly a conventional battle film--the soldier's experience was handled with greater authenticity in Platoon--but its depiction of war on an intimate scale packs a devastatingly dramatic punch. Director Michael Cimino may be manipulating our emotions with masterful skill, but he does it in a way that stirs the soul and pinches our collective nerves with graphic, high-intensity scenes of men under life-threatening duress. Although Russian-roulette gambling games were not a common occurrence during the Vietnam war, they're used here as a metaphor for the futility of the war itself. To the viewer, they become unforgettably intense rites of passage for the best friends--Pennsylvania steelworkers played by Robert De Niro, John Savage, and Oscar winner Christopher Walken--who may survive or perish during their tour through a tropical landscape of hell. Back home, their loved ones must cope with the war's domestic impact, and in doing so they allow The Deer Hunter to achieve a rare combination of epic storytelling and intimate, heart-rending drama. --Jeff ShannonDrama VHS Video
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