Thought-provoking...

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2001)

Michael Cimino's celebrated film about the horrors of the Vietnam war and the effect it has on the inhabitants of a small American town is perhaps the most intriguing of all the films made about the war. It doesn't have the mystery and the action (or, dare I say, "the horror...") of Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" which was released a year later and it is certainly a lot better than Oliver Stone's 1986 effort "Platoon", which I was more than a little disappointed with.
The main strength of "The Deer Hunter" lies in the ensemble acting. Robert de Niro, hot property after "The Godfather Part II" and Scorcese's "Taxi Driver" takes the lead role of Michael but his performance is bolstered by the support players, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken and John Cazale who sadly died of cancer weeks after the film was released.
The film is perhaps too slow for some people's tastes, there is a drawn out wedding scene at the beginning, which is reminiscent of the opening section of "The Godfather". Michael and his friends are planning to go hunting so as to have lasting memories of one another before they set off for Vietnam.
Once there, they discover just ow awful war really is and there is a truly horrifying and disturbing scene in which Michael and Nick (Walken) are forced to play Russian Roulette. The scene is so brilliantly played that you simply cannot take your eyes off screen.
To be honest there isn't really a solid plot to the film but the message it carries (as so many of these films do) is that war is a terrible thing. The difference with "The Deer Hunter" from many other Vietnam films is that you feel that those involved truly meant it.