The Deer Hunter

"You're just too good to be true..." It’s very hard to rate The Deer Hunter. On one hand it has acting that you don’t see every day and also there is an incredible amount of strong scenes which will leave you shaken and stay imprinted in your mind. On the other hand there is no need whatsoever for the movie to be so long. You are waiting for Godot for one hour (3/5), he comes and stays for forty minutes (5/5), but then he leaves and you start waiting again (4/5). Then just you are expecting it to end when Godot comes back for a couple of minutes (5/5). In every part you could find whole passages that are unnecessary or could be cut out here and there without any significant impact on the movie as a whole. Nevertheless The Deer Hunter belongs amongst those few rare films that are a must see. (10/02/2008)

It doesn’t matter that he didn’t make many films and that his later works showed some stagnation, it only took three films, The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate and The Year of the Dragon to make Michael Cimino one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century in my eyes. It's a great shame that he was later so disheartened by audience misunderstanding and financial difficulties that he lost his creative spark and withdrew into himself. Paraphrasing film critic Jaroslav Bocek in his review of Marketa Lazarová, The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate are revelations, huge boulders that have grown up and suddenly moved our cinematic and aesthetic standards. Cimino's film is told slowly, in all its epic breadth, as seen, for example, in the seminal works of David Lean. The Russian roulette, which puts the lives of the main characters at stake, is a kind of metaphor for war, and one can laugh smile at Jane Fonda's misunderstanding, who accused Cimino (wrongly, of course) of racism and sucking up the system. PS: Thanks God for Blu-ray! Compared to the lame DVD edition, The Deer Hunter looks amazing in it! (09/04/2014)

Very strong finale and amazing performances from Walken and De Niro. Not so much of Vietnam, but when there is, it’s worth it. Cimino focuses on human relationships and tells a story about three friends, each of whom returns home changed by the war. The exposition is a bit too long, but not without reason. Personally, I like different slants on the Vietnam War, but The Deer Hunter is definitely worth seeing. (04/07/2016)

The hell of Vietnam, which always was the main strength of films like this, is only given thirty minutes of the total runtime, but despite that, or maybe because of it, The Deer Hunter is one of the most impressive war dramas of all time. Michael Cimino was able to portray exactly what he originally wanted to portray: the futility of that conflict and the terrible impact it had on thousands of young volunteer soldiers, and that's why the Russian roulette scenes have become so famous; they are, of course, wonderfully filmed and acted, but more importantly, they are a perfect metaphor for how American society viewed the conflict. The best Vietnam War film for me remains Coppola's Apocalypse Now, but The Deer Hunter hangs firmly in second place. (26/10/2012)

This is not about a film about the war in Vietnam (where at most 40 minutes of the film take place); it is a film about the war after Vietnam. The Deer Hunter is a tremendous, admirable film. Extremely bold and requiring viewers who are willing to listen. Despite that, one question repeatedly came to mind: “Isn’t this needlessly excessive?” Does the first part of the film, which comprises a wedding and one hunting trip, have to take a whole hour? Does Michael’s final search for Nick have to take fifteen minutes? Is this a case of artificially dragging things out? People who have watched the full three hours of The Deer Hunter with fascination will surely disagree, but if there is a passable route to the characters, I couldn’t find it. The film features three charismatic actors in the lead roles and the casting of the supporting characters is no less magnificent (Meryl Streep towers over all of the devotedly loving women from who the war has taken their reason to love). Unfortunately, they are still only actors, whose performance I admired and whose actions interested me, but I did not become immersed in their stories. Among the films with a connection to Vietnam, this one is hard to overlook due to its length, but in comparison with the similarly epic Apocalypse Now and the much less epic Coming Home, I can’t shake off the feeling that the years have diminished The Deer Hunter’s impressiveness. 80% (08/10/2011)