Good but overlong

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2003)

The Deer Hunter - which the people on the Deer Hunter message board will happily tell you is not about war, in case you hadn't noticed - is in parts a very moving film. But at other times it tends to outstay its welcome by a long stretch. Particularly responsible of this is the opening wedding scene, which sets the scene, introduces the characters, tells us that they're going to Vietnam, shows us how mentally unprepared they are for the horrors of war - and then carries on doing so for what seems like an infinite amount of time. Scenes like this will doubtless put many off the film, and that's certainly a shame.
Another possible problem is that Robert De Niro actually doesn't appear to have been changed by the war to any great extent, bar the odd meaningful look of sorrow. While Christopher Walken stays in Vietnam, and the other guy ends up in a veterans hospital, scared to come back out, Bob still seems like he did before. This, along with their incredible length, somewhat dilutes the power of the non-Vietnam scenes, which is a problem when they're supposed to illustrate the main point of the movie. Nevertheless, The Deer Hunter is both an emotional and iconic movie which will be remembered for some time to come if only for the numerous Russian Roulette scenes and the chilling ending of Walken's character. If you can ignore the long running time then you should definitely give it a shot.