United States, 1978Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, Meryl Streep
Director: Michael Cimino
My Rating: **** / ****
If you knew me at all, you know that i'm going to love this film. A three-hour more film about characters development, about war, and its tragedy. Yeah, it's tragic drama, sometimes breathtaking but rewarding in the end which came with a full package of three-hour running time. Yeah, you know i love this kind of film.
Mike (DeNiro), Nick (Walken), and Steve (Savage) were three friends in which this film focused at. They and bunch of other friends lived in a small town where they worked on a steel-mill, spend their night on a local bar, and once in a while go out for Deer hunting. They were unique personality, and during the first half of the film, we're given much of their personality, even on some characters, enough to love him earnestly. My personal favorite was of course Mike, you (who have seen the films) probably scoffs of how i say that Mike was quite a resemblance of my character. The greater part of the hour of this film was spent on Steve's marriage prior of his (with Mike and Nick) departure to serve their country in the war of Vietnam. Now, this marriage scene was a very enjoyable scene to watch, all those costumes, all those tunes, and all those dancings, i loved the grand reception, and i found myself even dancing to the tunes. But it makes me also wonder, seeing how Steve who was unabashedly happy would leave all that behind and went to Vietnam where chances are that he won't be back to his family. All in all, the mood was perfect. The characters were developed nicely as we see how Nick and Mike were the best of friend promising each other not to leave another behind. However, the mood was gradually but surely turns into gray. And at least, i feel the heavy cloud hanging as the mood finally changes. To Vietnam.
Friends of mine who had seen this film all said in one agreement that the Russian roulette scene was fuckingly superb. They were right. The Russian roulette scene was a breath-taking scene and i found myself almost barely able to breath. That scene on the river and of course the final scene in Hanoi. They were violent, brutal, and most important of all, engaging.
The film was clock in at 183 minutes, but not even once i stiffled a yawn (even LOTR: Return of the King has made me yawn), not even once i detered my attention from screen even though that i was hungry at the time, or even though i had several real-life problems to deal with at the time. The length of film was proved necessary and almost enough to develop the characters to where the film was aiming at. It was a study on how war changes one's personality. How one treats love, and how one reacts to the unrequited love he has. And my god, i've seen Christopher Walken like in thousand different movies. But in "The Deer Hunter" he was so freakingly young. Still dancing, still singing, but so young. Eerie. Truth be told, nonetheless, i feel like this was his (Mr.Walken) best. And this film in overall, would be one of the film i liked best. Visually stunning, the film has a very much visible depressing feels which at the end, leaves me troubled. But of course, if you knew me at all, i loved depressing movies.