The Deer Hunter (1978)

Reel rating: 5/5

Reel commentary: ... More than just a multi-award winning movie, this is one of De Niro’s and Walken’s building blocks to their currently much deserved status as Hollywood veterans.

By Lloyd Bayer

The Vietnam War which lasted 15 years and ended in 1975, proved to be one of the costliest wars of our time considering more than five million lives were lost, including those of over 60,000 US soldiers. Who won that war is no longer important, but the effect that war has to this day is beyond devastating. In what is easily the best and last significant film of his career, director Michael Cimino delivers a film with a prophetic vision just three years after the war ended, and is the first in a string of Vietnam war movies that is still attempted over three decades on.

Having also co-written the screenplay, Cimino’s story does not entirely focus on battle scenes or the war itself, but in essence it’s aftermath on the lives of ordinary people. For this, his narrative spans three hours, of which the first hour is spent in impeccable character development formally introducing his Russian-American characters in a small Pennsylvanian steel-mill suburb.

All images copyright © 1978 MCA.

Mike, Nick, Steven, Stanley and John are five buddies in a typical frat-pack where after work hours are spent in male bonding activities of deer hunting and beer lounging. Their last gathering as a group is at Steven’s Russian orthodox wedding reception pending Mike, Nick and Steven’s enlistment in the Vietnam War. The wedding is a fun filled extravaganza where everyone has more than a good share of the festivities. Yet tell-tale signs of a devastating future are cleverly manifested through the reception, foretelling that things would never be the same again. Cut to war-torn Vietnam, Mike, Nick and Steven are POWs after a short battle sequence succumbing to North Vietnamese guerrilla tactics. Taking advantage over their captor’s sadistic torture methods of Russian roulette and rat infested imprisonment, the trio makes for a daring escape little knowing their physical and mental scars would haunt them for life. In a botched rescue attempt, their party is split and they never really regroup as before the war. Although welcomed back a hero, Mike finds it hard to adjust to his once perky lifestyle. Steven is partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair living in total refusal of his family and friends. The crux of the plot surfaces when Mike goes all the way back to hellish Saigon in keeping his earlier promise where he would never leave Nick behind. What he finds is a ghastly excuse for a life long friend who has no recollection of their history. Worse, Nick is involved in a major gambling syndicate the likes of which still disturbs Mike: Russian roulette.

Interestingly enough, Francis Ford Coppola brought out the critically acclaimed Apocalypse Now just a year after this film, winning two Oscars in the process for his version of the horrifying atrocities during the war in Vietnam. Though Coppola focused mainly on the war, Cimino’s film, metaphorically speaking, is an integration of three acts where graphic scenes in Vietnam form the repugnant sausage in an otherwise edible hotdog. And to think, this film was made thirty years before Stop-Loss and Home of the Brave, similar films about war veterans incapable of reverting to ordinary life. But Cimino had already set the tone to come, bagging five Academy Awards including “Best Picture” and “Best Director” out of nine nominated categories. The Oscar for “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” also went to Christopher Walken for his outstanding role as Nick. Incidentally, this is Walken’s first and only Oscar till date. Having secured an Oscar for his supporting role as the young Vito Corleone in Coppola’s The Godfather II and nominated for best supporting actor in the Martin Scorsese 1976 cult classic Taxi Driver, it isn’t surprising that Robert De Niro was also nominated again for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” as Mike. Perhaps playing a mentally unstable Vietnam Veteran in Taxi Driver was all the training he required in adapting a similar themed role as the titled deer hunter. Also worth mentioning is a stunning Meryl Streep in her first ever Oscar nominated role as Linda, a passive women caught between Nick’s proposal for marriage and Mike’s shy charm. Also embedded in the support line up are John Savage as Steven, George Dzundza as the over eccentric John and John Cazale who passed away shortly after his role as Stanley.

More than just a multi-award winning movie, this is one of De Niro’s and Walken’s building blocks to their currently much deserved status as Hollywood veterans. But wrapping up the perfect package goes to Cimino’s credit in consideration of the lack of eye-popping special effects of Hollywood yester years. His reliance on stellar acting, perfectly timed suspense in a visionary plot and the birth of a sub-genre ahead of its time justifies why this film is still within the “100 Greatest American Movies of all time” as rated by the American Film Institute.

Lloyd Bayer



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