The Deer Hunter
1 9 7 8 (USA)
 One
of America's first attempts to deal with the Vietnam War on film,
Michael Cimino's masterpiece is long and richly rewarding. It seemed
America was finally ready for a film about the horrors of the Vietnam
War, aimed squarely at the heart of blue collar middle American
values. Everyone remembers the iconic shot of Robert De Niro,
pistol to head, playing Russian Roulette for the pleasure of his cruel
captors. Charges of racism miss the point: This is a powerful metaphor
for the madness of war (and an edge-of-the-seat cinematic experience
to boot).
Michael (Robert DeNiro), Stevie (John Savage) and Nick
(Christopher Walken) are three Pennsylvanian steelworkers about to
fight for their country. We discover their friendship before,
during and after the taste of war has soured each of their individual
psyches.
It is through Michael, the unequivocal leader of the group, that
the film plumbs the depths of friendship and the sacrifices people
will make. Through day-to-day pettiness and watershed events, we
see Michael's devotion to two things - his comrades and his approach
to deer hunting - and his struggle to be as faithful and true to the
former as he is to his one shot hunting coda.
The three friends are reunited under the cruelest of circumstances
when Michael, Nick and Stevie are taken prisoner. The physical and
psychological horror endured by the trio is made all the more
shattering by Michael's strength and his barely controlled
determination to will his friends out of the nightmare.
 Yet
even after he reaches the safety of home the ties to his comrades are
unyielding. Michael can barely bring himself to face Nick's girl Linda
(Meryl Streep), whom he has painfully adored from afar, let alone
consider usurping his friend's place in her bed. Nick is his
conscience and it is only after he has met his obligations to his
friends that he can consider reclaiming his own life.
Walken's tortured performance of a man giving up on his own soul
won him a well-deserved Oscar as Supporting Actor. The film also
picked up Oscars for Best Picture and Director, yet it's the
haunting title theme by John Williamson that clinches the whole deal.
The movie had its detractors who complained it was
self-indulgent, too long, and as subtle as a brick, but many
found its exploration of the effects of the war a cathartic
experience. It's only when you have sat through the leisurely-paced
wedding and elegiac hunting sequences that the final third - and the
true impact of the war on small communities - hits home. God
Bless America indeed!
HISTORICAL NOTE
John Cazale (Stan) would die of cancer only weeks after shooting The
Deer Hunter. He was engaged to co-star Meryl Streep at the
time. |
