The Deer Hunter

The authors' concocted Vietcong League of Russian Roulette can be viewed as an allegory or symbol that is initially untouched in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt, amidst all those rituals, celebrations, friendships, and petty squabbles, only to brutally reenter the game upon returning to the same place. Those who come back get so little and lose so much. It’s no wonder that the war often ends for them with that one final shot. Unlike Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket, Michael Cimino struggles to justify the presence of every single shot, but his epic anti-war drama remains one of those films that, even after decades, continues to resonate with a changing audience. For me, scenes like the hunting sequence after the return, where the encounter with the antlered trophy takes on a completely different meaning, or the moments in the bar just before departure, where the boisterous revelry is interrupted by Chopin on the piano, are particularly striking. Everyone senses what’s coming, and John Cazale knows it best. And of course, Cavatina. (09/05/2023)

"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)

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)

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)

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)