Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful Look At How the War Changed Us!
Review: For many of us who came of age during the Vietnam conflict, this was the first of many movies to treat with broad-brush approach the way the war raging across the ocean affected us so profoundly. And given its all-star cast of Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, Meryl Streep and others, one can hardly question the level of seriousness and calculation with which the subject was broached. Yet in many ways this otherwise wonderful depiction of how so many working class boys became men and had their lives altered forever by the experience of Vietnam is flawed by its pedestrian treatment of the war itself. Thus, while this is truly a wonderful work of entertainment, its tongue-in-cheek depiction of a band of buddies who enlist and serve together in Vietnam is sheer nonsense at the level of realistic portrayal of men in combat. The very idea that Viet Cong soldiers would knowingly arm any American soldier with a loaded weapon while in captivity strains to the point of credulity any subsequent dramatic effort that depends so strenuously on such an action. So too does DeNiro's suave and cavalier soldier of fortune pose, bedecked as it is with a stylish and rakish Van Dyke type beard and longish hair. As a special forces soldier, he would hardly have been so romantically attired or coiffed. Please don't misunderstand me; this is a great film as long as it sticks to things found native in the American landscape, although the sequences depicting the deer slayer type scenes are not terribly accurate either. Yet somehow this small steel-town boy is some kind of phenomenal marksman, without much practice or explanation where this unusual skill came from. Yet in spite of these obvious shortcomings, DeNiro, Streep, and Savage add immeasurably to the level of the film through wonderful performances. Walken, as usual, is quite over the top, although the part itself is so far fetched that it is hard to see how he could have made it more believable or empathetic. The cinematography is evocative and stirring, and the combat scenes were shot in a topographical setting quite reminiscent of the tropical forests and the muddy rivers of Vietnam. The true story is back at home, however, where the survivors have to do the best they can to string their broken lives back together in some semblance of meaningful adulthood in the wake of the devastation the war leaves in its wake. In that sense this is a very accurate portrayal of the way the war came home to change America forever. This is a terrific film; one wishes the director had opted for a little more realism and accuracy in his portrayal of the actual experience ion Vietnam. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: I'll keep this simple...
Review: This is definitely one of, if not the worst movie I have ever seen. It is horrible.
Rating: 
Summary: "Home is the hunter...."
Review: Nominated for nine Academy Awards in 1978, The Deer Hunter received five for best film, best director (Michael Cimino), and best actor in a supporting role (Christopher Walken) as well as for editing and sound. It also generated a great deal of controversy immediately after its release, notably about the inclusion of Russian roulette contests which the Viet Cong require their prisoners to play; also about the portrayal of the Viet Cong themselves as heartless, bloodthirsty animals. Nonetheless, The Deer Hunter remains one of the most highly-regarded films about, arguably, the most unpopular war in which the United States has ever been involved. (Curiously, very few outstanding films have as yet examined another unpopular war, the so-called "police action" in Korea.) Guns of various kinds contribute to the film's dramatic impact. The pistols used in the aforementioned Russian roulette contests, of course, but also the rifles which Michael (Robert De Niro) and his buddies carry with them into the Pennsylvania mountains during their last deer hunt together before several report for military duty. Throughout the film, Michael remains the unquestioned leader of his friends in Clairton, a steel mill town, and takes personal responsibility for each of them. Those who admire this film as much as I do have their own reasons. Here are mine. First, Michael's efforts to locate and save (in several different ways) Nick (Walken) during the last days of the war as well as his efforts to return Steven (John Savage) to Clairton from a veterans' hospital combine and illustrate so many of the film's basic themes. For me, these efforts also indicate how committed Michael is to friendship worthy of the name. Also, the scenes in Clairton create a profoundly human frame-of-reference for the inhumanities which Michael and others experienced during the war in Viet Nam. This is especially true of Steven's wedding and reception, later when Michael strolls with Linda (Meryl Streep) to her job in the grocery store, and especially at the end of the film when they and their friends assemble in the tavern for breakfast and quietly sing "God Bless America." Vilmos Zsigmund was nominated for an Academy Award for his cinematography in 1978 but Days of Heaven was selected and I have no quarrel with that selection. The Deer Hunter deserved its nomination but, in my opinion, the other three (Heaven Can Wait, Same Time Next Year, and The Wiz) did not. The third reason (among several others) for my great admiration of this film is that the impact of the war is so effectively dramatized in the lives of the central characters, of course, but also in the lives of their family members and friends in Clairton. In the same year (1978), another controversial film, Coming Home, was also released. Its focus is limited almost entirely to Sally and Bob Hyde's marriage (Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern) which gradually disintegrates, only in part because of Sally's involvement with Luke Martin (Jon Voight). In The Deer Hunter, the scope is much wider but the war's impact is no less destructive, notably in the lives of Nick, Steven, and his wife. The changes in Michael's life are also significant but at least he has gained some wisdom and, as the film ends, we are left with the thought that he and Linda will begin a new life together. There is an especially significant moment during the wedding reception when Michael and his friends attempt to engage a soldier in conversation. Only later do we realize how much of a harbinger the soldier's dark attitude is. He has already experienced and been changed by what yet awaits for Michael, Nick, and Steven. Voight rather than De Niro received the Academy Award as best actor (as did Fonda as best actress) but The Deer Hunter and Cimino prevailed in competition with Coming Home and Hal Ashby. In my opinion, all deserved their nominations and each would have been a worthy recipient. One final opinion: In years to come, The Deer Hunter will continue to be held in high esteem but I doubt if that will also be true of Coming Home whose dramatic impact depends almost entirely on the performances by Fonda, Dern, and especially Voight.
Rating:
Summary: A classic forever, Timeless
Review: I love this movie, As a Polish American and a movie lover.Robert Deniro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, all give performances which stand the test of time. As far as a Vietnam movie, there weren't many films that talked about the Vietnam expeience at home,the scenes with the steel mills, to the wedding to the hunting trips show life carrying on as Vietnam erupts. The scene where Walken takes the bullet in the final scene defeinitley puts a chill down your spine. If I had to compile a list of the 100 greatest movies ever, this film would be on it. Two thumbs way up!!
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: A friend of mine asked me a while back whether I could recommend a good film to watch.Making an earlier note that Deer Hunter was on TV that evening, I made sure to stress that on no account he should miss that film.I was very surprised to find out that not only he has not seen it yet, but he knew little about it. So I volunteered to explain why I consider the Deer Hunter one of the most beautiful films ever made.
Firstly, it is not a war film a la Saving Private Ryan, Platoon or Thin Red Line, yet it is all about war. The effect of war on the human soul, though the film is set in Vietnam, it can really be any war,anywhere,at any point in time. Only the strongest will survive the cruelty,savagery and uncertainty of war,and the weaker ones will succumb to its evil grasp which will destroy them forever. This is the story of the Deer Hunter.It is also about friendship, the bond of which is continiously tested, yet survives the most 'testing' hardships.
Friends from a small steel town in Pennsylvania, live a normal peaceful life, they marry, hunt deers together, and basically get on with their lives, then Vietnam happens, and they are drafted, and their whole lives irreversibaly change forever. The before and after of war/Vietnam is what the Deer Hunter is all about.The scenes in the actual war are only a very small part of the whole story, the highlight of which is probably the most legendary scene in movie history, The Russian Roulette, a nerve racking and very violent scene that cleverly reflects the insanity of war.
There are so many other memorable scenes,(the wedding scene is the best wedding put on celluloid!) but there is one scene that affected me as much:
Coming back from a hunting trip on the eve of their departure to Vietnam, the six friends finish their day in an empty bar, still on a high, until John (George Dzundza)plays a beautiful ballad on the piano, and suddenly they become silent, and when the last note fades, they all look at each other without saying a word, realizing the fate that awaits them, a change so perfectly captured on camera!
This is all the work of a genuis of a director, Michael Cimino, whose self indulgence in his underrated masterpiece Heaven's Gate that bankrupted Universal Studios, and an unforgiving Hollywood, curtailed a true talent.But on The Deer Hunter he was the 'King of the World' and helped create an original cinematic masterpiece. All the actors give their best for him, Deniro, Walken, Savage, a still unknown Meryl Streep, and a dying John Cazale (With his untimely death, American cinema lost one of its treasures!).
So..my friend was convinced and he promised to watch it, most probably because he wanted to avoid listening again to my diatribe about the film!!
But he did and he called me the following day with only one word: WOW!
Not only that, but he went straight and bought the film on DVD.
The Deer Hunter is what the term 'my movie library' was made for!! If you have not bought it yet, you should immediately do so, and it is guaranteed you will be in awe, totally captivated by sheer genuis! WOW indeed!
Rating:
Summary: 5 star.....easily
Review: This movie is awesome. You can complain all you want about the drag openings of the first hour including that boring wedding scene, but it was all necessary to make this great movie what it is. The purpose of all that was to who what a normal life these guys had before this war totally [messed] up their lives. De Niro, my favorite actor, plays the leader of the pack of friends and does a great job of portraying his role. Chris Walken was outstanding in his transformation from a regular type guy into a walking zombie who lives off of russian roulette. I bought this movie on DVD before even watching and I definately wasn't dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best movie in the world
Review: I cannot say how great the deer hunter is- it is an ineffably tragic and bittersweet account of the Vietnam War and its effect upon the men we sent over. Christopher Walken plays a wonderful Nicky, and portrays him with vulnerability and a certain frailty that makes the movie hypnotizing. The man is a genius. Robert De Niro isn't the same- he's not some rare and beautiful butterfly, but he has a warrior's spirit, and is a natural leader, and is a great actor. And the deer hunter's themes about fate and free will (in my opinion, at least) and the price of innocence are great, graphic and lucid. WATCH THIS MOVIE NOW! Please!
Rating:
Summary: I was Forced to Watch it
Review: I was forced to watch Deer Hunter because of a paper I had to write in history recently. The first time I saw it, I had a hard time hearing it because of the audio (Production of audio must of been that good in 1978), and also because it was soooo s-l-o-w.
Still, it bugged me. It was one of those movies that didn't leave your head anytime soon.
I watched it a second time, this time to find quotes I could add in my paper. There weren't any really, because I was writing an anti-Vietnam paper. I enjoyed it ALOT more once I knew exactly what was going on, and I grew to enjoy the characters more. I cried the second time, wheras the first I was bored.
This movie is a great movie, and is definetly one of my all time favorite war movies for not being based on a true story.
Rating:
Summary: definitely not an anti war movie
Review: I don`t regard this film as anti-war at all. Its the charachters that are the key here not some overiding message. I don`t buy that for a second and the people who accuse the director of lacking in vision are being unnecessarily critical in my opinion. The Deer Hunter may appear slow paced at first and one might ask why the first half of the film wasn`t condensed into 30 minutes. This is done deliberately and once the film reaches its conclusion, it becomes clear that the director was more concerned with the charachters and how their personalities were altered by their harrowing experiences. It was necessary to prolong the first half of the film to enable the viewer to fully appreciate the emotional ties, that were about to be put on the line by the war, and to create a sense of realism that would only increase the level of tension in the second half of the film.
Rating:
Summary: what a waste of time
Review: This is one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. I can't believe I wasted three hours watching it. This is one of those idiotic movies that gives you no set-up whatsoever, so it just launches into the story without any kind of introduction to the characters, who they are, their relationship to each other, where the story takes place, etc. The only time the pace of the movie picks up a little bit is during some of the Vietnam scenes. Other than that, the movie moves at a snails pace. And it has one of the worst endings every. Completely pointless. What was the message of this movie? Russian Roulette is bad? I don't know. I hated this movie.
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