#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)