The Deer Hunter (1978) **

 

Writing about “The Deer Hunter” is an intimidating prospect. The movie is, by consensus, a Work of Art, and criticizing it is like criticizing the Mona Lisa. Anything you write about this film says as much about you as it does about the film (but isn't that always the case?). With that preface, here goes:

Michael Cimino wrote and directed this three hour epic about a group of Pennsylvania steelworkers. These guys work hard, drink hard, and go on hunting trips together. Michael (Robert De Niro), the quiet, serious one, is the best hunter of the group. He ranges far into the hills with his rifle, and his ethos is to kill a deer with “1 shot.” Back in town, Michael is socially a bit awkward when it comes to dancing at weddings and such, and he is secretly in love with his best friend Nick's (Christopher Walken) girlfriend, Linda (Meryl Streep).

Three of the group, Mike, Nick, and Steven have volunteered to fight in Vietnam. There they find the hell-on-earth that we are all familiar with from Vietnam War movies. They are taken prisoner, and their Vietcong captors force them to play Russian Roulette. Without giving away more than I already have, suffice it to say that the men come away from their service with serious scars, physical and mental.

“The Deer Hunter” is, in many ways, an amazing film. The cinematography is beautiful. The scenes in the steel mill and in the mountains are just stunning. The scene at Steven's wedding is like its own little short film. In the un-rushed way the scenes are allowed to develop, the movie feels very much like a novel, which is ironic because it was written as a screenplay from the beginning.

The film is also REALLY long, at just over 3 hours. In my opinion, it is longer than it needs to be. Many scenes are longer than necessary, and some of them, the bowling alley scene, for example, could have been cut entirely.

Cimino has been criticized for failing to do any actual research on POWs or to interview any Vietnam vets when writing the film. This is reflected in the Russian Roulette motif. While Vietnam was likely a miserable experience for most veterans, especially POWs, there is no evidence that Russian Roulette was part of the torture. I'm inclined to give Cimino a pass on this point, however, as the game is such an apt metaphor for the experience of the war itself. The randomness of death, the dread with each risky pull of the trigger, and the sheer pointlessness of the game would probably feel familiar to many Vets.

What I'm not prepared to give the director a pass on is the ridiculousness of the deer hunting scenes. You might say “The Deer Hunter” is NEITHER. The “deer” in the footage is not a North American deer at all. It's a European red stagg, a very different-looking animal. The “hunting” is also ridiculous, with Michael chasing on foot after his deer, running up and down ridges after a stagg that keeps stopping and offering him broadside shots. Anyone who has hunted knows that it is a much slower, methodical process. Once a real deer sees you, it will head straight for the next county. For anyone who thinks I am being nitpicky, I will point out that the movie is named “The Deer Hunter.”

The film is not only made by and for people who know nothing about deer or hunting, but people who know nothing about American geography. Watching the movie, I was distracted by how rugged and high the mountains looked for a story that was set in Pennsylvania. Sure enough, the hunting scenes were filmed in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. It's just another example of how Cimino's lack of verisimilitude really reflects a lack of respect for his audience.

That lack of respect culminates in the nihilistic ending of the film. Despite its flaws, I actually enjoyed the greater part of the movie, impressed by the novelistic character development and storytelling. By hour 3, however, I was expecting some kind of payoff. The ending here just makes a person ask, “What's the point?” - of life in general, and specifically of this film.

2 stars out of 5