the most potent drama I have ever seen

Rating: 10/10 (23 October 2001)

To call Deerhunter harrowing is an understatement. The first time I saw this at university in a large lecture hall I was not prepared for the impact it would have on me. I thought that the Russian Roulette scene between the Vietcong and their prisoners was bad enough, but the climax that had Robert de Niro beseeching his best friend Christopher Walken to come back home was almost unbearable.
Deerhunter is such a deceptive movie and that's what gives it its remarkable emotional punch. The first phase of the movie trundles pleasantly along as we observe a pleasant small town in the backwoods of industrial America. There is a great deal of male bonding and general machismo as we see a close-knit bunch of friends doing what boys do best - hunting, fooling around, drinking at the local bar and playing pool. The wedding just emphasizes the joyous innocence of this backwoods idyll.

The viewer is, as a result, reassuringly relaxed, after the opening section of this movie. However, we hardly pause for breath when we are suddenly plunged into the horrors of the Vietnam war. The psychological anguish of the prisoners forced to play Russian Roulette by their captors certainly takes you aback, wrenching you out of your lethargy and dragging you through this world of squalor and despair. I believe that this movie addresses the ultimate human predicament and that is what gives it such force: committing suicide when you are loathe to be dead. I cannot think of any more appalling confrontation. Moments like that inevitably leave scars and so that is what happened to Christopher Walken.
Robert de Niro's heart-rending scene when he tries to drag his best friend away from his nightmare and ultimately fails made me so emotional. I don't think I have ever wept so much in a movie. Just to exacerbate that misery, when all the friends are back in Pennsylvania and mourn over Walken's death there is such an epic pathos that when you leave the cinema your eyes are hardly dry. The first 10 times I watched this remarkable movie left me blubbing at the end and I still get emotional when I watch it now. I don't think there has ever been a drama with more emotional punch than The Deerhunter. It flings you straight into the maelstrom, taking you completely unawares, and never lets up as it puts you and the characters through torment after torment. There is a dignified beauty about the main protagonists and how they are able to deal with such tragedy. The power, brevity and loyalty of de Niro's character is quite simply majestic. When you come out of this movie you feel as though you have experienced a major slice of life and you feel changed in some ways. That is what great art does.