#30: THE DEER HUNTER (1978)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, about 20 years ago

BEST SEQUENCE

All the Russian roulette scenes are harrowing and tense and darkly suspenseful, and you could pick any one of those. However, in terms of most memorable sequence, I have a soft spot for the scene of the guys all hanging out in a bar, playing pool and belting out "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli

BEST LINE

"If anything happens, Mike, don't leave, don't leave me over there."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Its greatness is blunted by its length and one-sided point of view, but the film's weaknesses are overpowered by Michael Cimino's sympathetic direction and a series of heartbreaking performances from Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The lives of a group of friends are forever changed by the Vietnam War."

DIRECTOR

Michael Cimino

MAIN CAST

Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep

THOUGHTS

• I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it's not a very cheerful exercise to decide how thrilling a dark and sombre war movie is. War is Hell, and war movies aren't really in the same category as most of the films I've reviewed. Assigning an arbitrary Thrill Score is extra hard for a movie like The Deer Hunter, which is 3 hours and 3 minutes long, and, shall we say, somewhat leisurely paced at times. A huge chunk of the movie's first hour takes place at a Russian wedding, and a thrilling wedding it is not. There are some who say that this attention to detail is crucial to show what the characters' normal lives are like, and to let us get to know these men before they go off to war, and I can see the logic behind that argument. It could also be said that the scenes of normalcy make the horrifying violence all the more startling, and I can understand that argument too. However, the movie certainly takes its time for long stretches, and I'm not sure I'm personally convinced that it's necessary to this extent
• That said, a 5/10 Thrill Score might seem generous, but I'm following my Ben-Hur philosophy. The movie as a whole isn't all that thrilling, but the heart-pounding sequences really do stick in your mind. That brings us to this movie's use of Russian roulette, a terrifying concept that has claimed many lives. I don't want to describe it in detail, but if you're unfamiliar, here's the Wikipedia article. There aren't many movies with scenes tenser than the Russian roulette sequences in The Deer Hunter, they really do rip your guts out. However, The Deer Hunter was fairly controversial when it came out due to its negative depiction of Vietnamese people. This is compounded by the fact that there's no evidence whatsoever that any Russian roulette occurred during the Vietnam War, making this an effective central metaphor for the movie, but one that was pretty much invented by Cimino
• De Niro is very good as the stoic Mike, but it's Christopher Walken who really leaves an impression. For people my age, it may even be hard to think of Walken as a serious dramatic actor, given his warm, relaxed public persona and the fact that he hasn't been known for any really serious roles for a very long time. He won the Best Supporting Oscar for The Deer Hunter, though, and it's well deserved, especially for the way his cheerful and carefree early-movie character contrasts with the haunted (and haunting) late-movie scenes
• Aside from Walken's Oscar, The Deer Hunter won four more, including Best Picture and Best Director
• This was John Cazale's last movie, and he died before it was released. We've talked about Cazale before (Dog Day Afternoon) and we'll talk about him again (The Godfather). Cazale was only in five movies total, but every one of those movies was nominated for Best Picture, and three of them won. Meryl Streep has a relatively small role in The Deer Hunter, and it's said that she accepted the part mostly to be close to Cazale, her romantic partner until he died
• Lastly, not to be too glib about a very serious subject, but please enjoy Bob & Doug McKenzie playing The Beerhunter

Up next: We'll hear from two guys we haven't seen in a little while. It's Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, based on the book by Stephen King (and we'll talk about it more, but believe it or not, King wasn't a fan of the movie)

BONUS REVIEW: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

9

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, a few times

BEST SEQUENCE

I'll talk about a couple of other scenes in the "Best Kill" category later, but for "Best Sequence" I'll go with the iconic bathtub scene. The shot of Freddy's glove rising out of the water is unforgettable

BEST LINE

"Whatever you do, don't fall asleep"

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

94%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Wes Craven's intelligent premise, combined with the horrifying visual appearance of Freddy Krueger, still causes nightmares to this day."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life."

DIRECTOR

Wes Craven

MAIN CAST

Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Johnny Depp, Ronee Blakley, John Saxon, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri

THOUGHTS

• As some of you may recall, for the past few years now, I've been reviewing the Friday the 13th franchise every time a Friday the 13th rolled around. In my last Friday the 13th review I decided, this is all well and good, but we're missing out on some other famous slasher franchises, namely Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and I would consider these three properties to be the Slasher Trifecta. And now, here we are! From this point forward, with every Friday the 12th, I'll review another Elm Street movie (and Halloween movies on every Friday the 14th)
• Given the nature of this, comparisons may be hard to avoid, but I'll try to focus on each franchise as its own thing. I will just say, though, Halloween and Friday the 13th both started out fairly grounded, adding more supernatural touches as time went by (especially Friday the 13th, which basically turns Jason into a magical zombie), but Nightmare was supernatural right from the jump, and it's this flavour of scares that really sets it apart from the others
• Director Wes Craven really let his imagination run wild with Freddy Krueger, a killer who can attack you in your dreams, and Craven's creativity and inventiveness are a lot of fun in this movie, even aside from how effectively he uses the lack of real-world constraints to scare us. Moments like Nancy's phone turning into Freddy's mouth and tongue, or his arms crazily stretching out while stalking Tina, or the aforementioned shot of Freddy's glove reaching out of Nancy's bathtub, all of these moments are not just scary and shocking, but also incredibly memorable
• Speaking of Freddy's glove, certainly not the most practical movie weapon, but maybe the most iconic?
• Which brings us to Best Kill: Johnny Depp getting dragged into his own bed, and a geyser of blood flooding his ceiling
• Second-Best Kill: Tina getting thrown around the room and dragged across the ceiling
• There are some fairly melodramatic performances in this movie, especially from Ronee Blakley as Nancy's mom, and while there's a kind of fun scrappiness to Heather Langenkamp's performance as Nancy, she's not great. In fact, I think Baby Johnny Depp probably gives the best performance. He was 21 or so, and this was his first on-screen performance ever
• I did like Langenkamp setting a bunch of traps for Freddy, a sequence that gave very strong Home Alone vibes
• Especially in comparison to other slasher villains, Freddy would come to be known as the one with a strong personality and morbid sense of humour, but we actually don't get a whole lot of that in this first movie. Which is probably just as well as a starting point, since we need to be scared of him first
• Finally, even without factoring in Freddy as the killer, I find the whole premise of this movie incredibly effective - the idea that you can't let yourself fall asleep, or you'll get killed. When you really stop to think about it, the whole idea of sleeping is really kind of strange, and the fact that the human body requires it, and you can't delay it forever, adds a lot of tension to Nightmare. Eventually Freddy will get his chance to get you, and hey, if you don't sleep, you're going to end up dead anyway. You only have so long before your body forces you into a dangerous situation
• And that's our first Nightmare! We'll be seeing Freddy again in 2027, on Friday, February 12th