Rating: 
Summary: A good film displaying the after effects of war, on men
Review: A nice interpretation of what war does to men. Some people say this film was too long, I don't think it was, it was neccesary to show their lives back home so you get a better feel of who they were, it made them more human. The three friends, Michael , Nick , and Steven entered into the war with patriotic zeal , thinking it would be some kind of grand adventure , but quickly realized instead that it was a waste of humanity. Some people say that this movie is racist, no its not racist its factual these things did happen, P.O.W's were tortured , and killed they were'nt put up at four star hotels,and fed steaks! This movie has its share of moments where you just sit there stunned at the futility , and the waste. This movie will make you think,if you just want to watch another brainless dumbed down film don't watch this movie. If you want to really be forced to think this is a film for you.
Rating:
Summary: SPEECHLESS THE FIRST TIME I SAW IT
Review: The first time I saw this movie, I couldn't speak afterwards. The Russian roulette scenes are some of the most haunting scenes you'll ever see. To see Walken go from his youthful exuberance to his stone-faced resolve is amazing. And the way the movie takes its time setting everything up gives the viewer a good sense of the setting - you feel like you really know the small steel town in Pennsylvania and its characters after you've watched it. This movie is one of a few semi-older (70's) movies that actually holds up well today. (A good example of one that doesn't is Network, by the way)
Rating: 
Summary: Some holes in the plot, but very good nonetheless.
Review: There were gaps in this story wide enough to fly a helicopter through, and that distracted me a little. I know the film was more a metaphor on courage and friendship than an actual story, and it worked very well on that level. The ending was especially powerful. Don't see this if you insist on taking everything literally though. It doesn't work that way.
Rating:
Summary: frightening
Review: What most reviewers miss in their reviews is that this ISN'T a war movie. I read people saying things like "this is the worst war movie". Just because there were scenes set in vietnam, it doesn't make this a war movie. The war just happened to be an incidental stumbling event in lives of the Michael, Steven, and Nick. The main point of the movie, as how I saw it, is about love, courage, friendship, and honor, and how through the course in the lives of these three men, these qualities are beautifully revealed. The scene where DeNiro is holding Nick's bloody head has to be one of his all time best performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn
Review: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............. The critical acclaim of the Deer Hunter once again proves the common wisdom that if you produce an utterly boring movie, devoid of plot or substance the artsy crowd will fill it with imaginary attributes. In a nutshell this movie is zzzzzzzz.......... There was nothing in it anywhere that relates to my experiences in Vietnam or its aftermath, nor any relation to the lives of other vets I know. If you think it's art, fine. But don't think it has anything to do with the real Vietnam War. Chop it to 90 minutes and it might become watchable. Deer Hunter most resembles one of those Italian or French films where actors stare into spce for 5 minutes of dead screen time.
Rating:
Summary: Watch It Without A Scorecard
Review: If you really want to get the most out of viewing this picture, don't make the mistake many of these Amazon reviewers do, by either assuming the politics of Cimino et al or using your own pro- or anti-America agenda as a critical yardstick. Because really this film isn't proselytizing a particular viewpoint, unlike Cimino's disastrous followup HEAVEN'S GATE. And don't think of it solely as a war movie. Actually, it's a lot like GONE WITH THE WIND: an epic-scale look at life and society in a specific place and time in the past (in this case, 1968, ten years before the film was made), and how folks send off their high-spirited young men to a war that no one pays a great deal of mind to - and how that war shatters not only the young men but the world they left behind, forever. The wedding scene IS long and in lesser hands on either side of the camera would be a dead weight but Cimino and lensman (sorry) Vilmos Zsigmond frame it in reverent widescreen grandeur, and a once-in-a-lifetime cast nails every character nuance and conversational tic, so that the scene flows on and on, vibrant with life and perfectly evoking not only a rust-belt town but the fast-fading rust-belt values of the nation. Besides, with a cast like this movie's, working at the height of their powers with inspired material, you really don't want scenes to end. When the movie segues to Vietnam, the tone shifts to horror and finally surrealism. Many consider this portion of the movie horribly racist, but that's a safe, kneejerk-liberal reaction. These aren't Harvard freshmen, they're barely-educated steeltown kids being sent to a faroff jungle to kill VC, who get captured & tortured by the men they are trying to kill. For enlightened liberal pieties to inform the dialogue or the tone of these scenes would be criminally false. That's probably what makes this a great flick, however, that right-wingers can despise it for its obvious liberalism and the bleeding hearts can hate it for its reactionary jingoism. Ain't consensus wonderful? Check your own politics at the door before watching this (widescreen version only!) and savor four transcendent performances by DeNiro, Savage, Walken & Streep, plus the late John Cazale doing his patented sweaty-weasel turn as an added bonus.
Rating: 
Summary: What was the point of the movie?
Review: I found this movie somewhat engrossing but I guess I must be stupid or ignorant because I fail to see what point the movie made. During its three hour running time, all it did was crosscut between a wedding, a deer hunt, and playing Russian roulette and the audience, presumably had to guess the point, if any.
Rating:
Summary: God bless America
Review: Prepare to cry at the end
Rating:
Summary: The most powerful motion picture I've ever seen.
Review: Kudos to the casting crew. Every actor fit his/her part brilliantly. Christopher Walken made an inpact on me with his exceptional acting - from the pool-cue dance to Valli's "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" to his blood-chilling russian roulette scenes. The way he moved, looked, spoke, it was all perfection. The epitomy of "Best Supporting Actor" (and I don't usually agree with The Academy). John Savage played his role with such excellence, I don't even know how to address it. One scene that sticks in my mind is the way he did a dance at the wedding reception - it was a dance which included jumping down and up again swiftly and gracefully. The best motion picture ever made.
Rating:
Summary: A dramatic, distressing and extremely violent masterpiece!
Review: Strong, violent and extremely sad - The Deer Hunter is a furious critic on a cruel and unnecessary war that slew million of American people.The scene that synthesizes Cimino's hate for the Vietnam confront is the one in that Christopher Walken is tortured by the enemies: the director's camera exposes, documents and studies the brutality during the conflict.Even having a cheerful and entertaining beginning, The deer hunter becomes progressively sad and distressing. Starting from the three Pensilvannia friends' story,who are chosen to combat in Vietnam, Cimino analyzes the consequences and posterior trauma, not adopting the partiality: here, he evidences all his displease and riot for the violence, and the way that the film maker found to declare his repulse was exactly filming an extremely unpleasant and hair-raising scene: when De Niro and Walken have to play the Russian roulette with three bullets on the barrel. When you stare Walken's eyes in that moment ,they remind the look of a hunted animal, and the physical and psychological torture that he has to face are reflexes of the price that the innocents have to pay for the human ignorance. The magnificent performances (Walken received an Oscar for his acting) Vilmos Szigmond's exuberant photography (the man behind other great movies, such as Deliverance. One thing that I realized, in Deliverance, is that, like The Deer Hunter, Boorman's film is a kind of a critic on Vietnam, in the way that his film shows four men in a place in which they don't have anything to do with it) and the precise and tense Cimino's direction consecrates The Deer Hunter as one of the greatest films of the seventies, a dramatic, although extremely violent, masterpiece...
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