Day #10 - The Deer Hunter

OK - change of plans again! Funny Face didn't come in the mail so it's on to The Deer Hunter :)

Let's see - The Deer Hunter came out in 1978 and won itself 5 Oscars out of 9 nominations. Wins were for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Christopher Walken. Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep were both nominated for Best Actor in Leading Role and Actress in a Supporting Role but lost to Jon Voigt in Coming Home and Maggie Smith in California State. I have to say I am really curious about watching Christopher Walken in a serious role - I've only ever seen him do comedy. By this time DeNiro had done Taxi Driver and The Godfather II but not yet Raging Bull

Going in, I had heard that this movie was about Vietnam and was one of the more accurate portrayals out there of the effects war had on soldiers. Wow - it was really intense. First of all, let me say that I thought the movie was too long and piecy, just meaning that I wish there had been more transition between the men being home vs. going to Vietnam vs. going home again, etc. That was the only problem I had with the movie because otherwise I thought it was fantastic, albeit depressing and dark.

As a quick synopsis without giving too much away, The Deer Hunter is about 3 friends from a small town in Pennsylvania who enlist in the army and head off to Vietnam. While they are there, they see many horrific things and get involved with a game of Russian Roulette when they are captured by the Vietcong. They become separated again and eventually - they each have to deal with their individual residual effects of the horrors of war. I was absolutely thrilled to see true, raw acting out of DeNiro and Walken and was impressed with John Savage, who played one of the friends, Stevie. The Russian Roulette scene especially was extremely intense. Having no first hand knowledge of war, I would imagine this movie hit pretty close to what men dealt with when returning from war - isolation especially, no one understanding them.

Here is the Russian Roulette scene - don't watch it if you don't want spoilers :) For a bit of trivia - DeNiro and Walken were actually slapped while filming this scene, which added to their agitation, culminating in one of the most intense scenes I've ever seen.



Finally...a few quotes from Roger Ebert:

"It is not an anti-war film. It is not a pro-war film. It is one of the most emotionally shattering films ever made."

"At the film's center comes one of the most horrifying sequences ever created in fiction, as the three are taken prisoner and forced to play Russian roulette while their captors gamble on who will, or will not, blow out his brains."