X
- 1978
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 3 h 3 m
- 1978
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 3 h 3 m
Summary The Deer Hunter tracks a group of steelworker pals from a Pennsylvania blast furnace to the cool hunting grounds of the Alleghenies to the lethal cauldron of Vietnam. Robert De Niro gives an outstanding performance as Michael, the natural leader of the group. The Deer Hunter is a searing drama of friendship and courage - and what happens...
Directed By: Michael Cimino
- 1978
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 3 h 3 m
- 1978
- R
- Universal Pictures
- 3 h 3 m
The Deer Hunter
7.7
Where to Watch
Summary The Deer Hunter tracks a group of steelworker pals from a Pennsylvania blast furnace to the cool hunting grounds of the Alleghenies to the lethal cauldron of Vietnam. Robert De Niro gives an outstanding performance as Michael, the natural leader of the group. The Deer Hunter is a searing drama of friendship and courage - and what happens...
Directed By: Michael Cimino
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
90
89% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
90
89% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
11% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Stark and haunting, and still unbearable to watch at times, The Deer Hunter remains a powerful movie experience. Unlike the broad strokes of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, the 1979 best-picture Oscar-winner provides a more personal take on the human casualties of the Vietnam War.
For me, The Deer Hunter is THE great American film of 1978. I realize that we still have a few major releases yet to come, like Superman, but I can't imagine anything more timely, more important, more uncompromising than this Universal-EMI production.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 259 User Ratings
7.7
78% Positive
202 Ratings
202 Ratings
10% Mixed
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
12% Negative
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 259 User Ratings
7.7
78% Positive
202 Ratings
202 Ratings
10% Mixed
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
12% Negative
30 Ratings
30 Ratings
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The idea of sacrifice permeates everything, along with the cruelty and horror. This is Cimino's masterpiece.
Among the considerable achievements of Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter is the fact that the film remains intense, powerful and fascinating for more than three hours.
Overlong, but with moments of greatness.
A big, awkward, crazily ambitious, sometimes breathtaking motion picture that comes as close to being a popular epic as any movie about this country since "The Godfather."
While the results are far from unprofessional--the cast is uniformly good, including a characteristically slapped-around Meryl Streep...The male self-pity is so overwhelming that you'll probably stagger out of this mumbling something about Tolstoy (as many critics did when the film first came out in 1978) if you aren't as nauseated as I was.
I confess that I didn't really know what to expect from this film when I started watching it. I knew it was a prestigious film, considered by many to be one of the best films of the 1970s, and I knew the basics about the plot. In the end, I liked what I saw, but it doesn't look as good as a lot of people say it should be and what should be a film that won five Academy Awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor) and was nominated for four another categories (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay) in 1979!
The script is complex and you should pay attention as each character is introduced. The film focuses on three young Russian-Americans from a rural Pennsylvania community who go to the Vietnam War: Michael is the strongest and most charismatic, Steven is getting married and Nick leaves a girlfriend behind, for whom Michael has a crush. United by friendship, they end up separated by war.
Much can be said about the story told in this film, directed by Michael Cimino in the only successful film of his short and obscure career. The first hour cost me a lot: the film takes a long time to start and the introduction is overloaded with dialogues and scenes that could have been cut in the editing room. This part should be shorter, presenting the characters and their environment without bothering the audience too much with details that are irrelevant to the story (such as the details of the wedding and the party). Another problem I felt was seeing the main characters being so immature all the time. For the film to work, they have to win the public's sympathy and not their hatred!
After an hour of suffering and looking at the clock, the three boys finally go to Vietnam. And here is another surprise: the Vietnam War never took up so little time in a film about it! I won't be exaggerating if I say that I saw only half an hour of war scenes. I felt that Cimino wanted to quickly go over the war and developing that was not something he wanted to do. But if this is a film about the war and how it affected people it was a major theme and needed to be developed further! We only saw one attack! Was that damn marriage more important?
From that moment on the film improves substantially, with the development of a dramatic story around the fate of each of the characters. I have only two objections to make: I am able to understand the symbolism of the Russian roulette, and that Cimino had the idea of betting on it as a kind of… leitmotiv for his film. I understand that. But a question of logic and credibility arises: Michael plays the game about seven to ten times, not counting all the games that Nick will have played... unless he cheats in some way, it's impossible to stay alive so much time. Oh… and that ending, with the whole cast singing “God Bless America”, seems so absurd that it's even cynical.
Let's talk about the cast… and we have a cast full of heavyweights. Robert De Niro offers us an exceptionally restrained performance, but still full of charisma and intensity at the right time; Christopher Walken leaves us the best work of his career, which isn't to say little considering his longevity and the regularity of his work; John Cazale and his wife, the young Meryl Streep, are also in this film, which was the farewell of Cazale, famous for his part in “The Godfather” trilogy, and who entered this film very weakened by the cancer who victimized him, days after filming was ended.
Technically, it's a film with ups and downs. We have an excellent cinematography which knows how to make good use of light and shadow, create an environment and sensations in the public; the sets and costumes were very well-made and thought to detail, with special attention to the wedding and the jungle scenes. The choice of landscapes and filming locations was satisfactory but not always accurate, considering that Pennsylvania was portrayed and shown in a way that is more like Colorado. The editing is miserable and I remember that the film won the Oscar in that category, which is at least surreal and says a lot about the choices of the Academy. The sound effects are decent but the sound quality is below what we could expect. Much better is the soundtrack, especially the cavatina composed for this film by Stanley Myers.
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The Deer Hunter doesn't have such a bad premise, or acting, for that matter; in fact, it pretty much succeeds in those categories. But the movie drags on and is way too long. A good 45 minutes could've been cut from the film, easily. Also, the movie is unrealistic, banal, and horribly scripted.
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My expectations were high. I had heard so much about this film - THE defining Vietnam film. Gritty, unnerving, fearless and provocative, and with a wide scope that broached all the mores of the times...
What a load of guff. I'm serious. Perhaps when the film was released in 1978 it was such a great achievement to even attempt a film about Vietnam that it got a by on artistic merit. Here's the lowdown (no spoliers): *An incredibly long wedding scene that has no particular bearing on the plot (including the memorable line "f**k it" which nicely defines the movie). *Lot's of irrelevant hunting scenes (is killing a stag like... killing a man? Am /I/ the stag?). *A combat scene in Vietnam that lasts 20 seconds (when we had to sit through the wedding scene for a half hour). *A lot of repetition of the Vietnamese word 'Mao' (and slapping) *An unrealistic firefight. *Survivor guilt *Lots more survivor guilt *A bit of amnesia and one of the characters who couldn't get enough of the Vietnamese word 'Mao' in the first place. It might seem unfair to sum up a movie like this - but the fact that the movie believes its irrelevance is portentous makes it merely pretentious. Besides some very good acting from De Nero and co. the film in reality has very little to say apart from the overarching theme of "f**k it". It does not look at America in any real way, and certainly makes a determined effort to not look at all at Vietnam. It comes in at the very tail end of the Vietnam conflict, makes some overarching gesture saying: well war makes you go mad, and then stands back at a distance marveling at the tragedy of it all. If you are going to have irrational characters, at least give their irrationality due cause. If you are going to make a film, hire an editor at some stage. If you are going to write a story about war, attempt to the utmost of your ability to feature that war. If you are going to make a film about deer-hunting, make a film about hunting deer. Do not give it an hour of screen time just to facilitate some tenuous symbolic meaning.
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Production Company
EMI Films,
Universal Pictures
Release Date Dec 8, 1978
Duration 3 h 3 m
Rating R
Tagline One of the most important and powerful films of all time!
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 5 Wins & 9 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
BAFTA Awards
• 2 Wins & 9 Nominations
