One Of The Best Movies Ever Made!

Rating: 10/10 (10 May 2007)

The Deer Hunter is one of the greatest movies ever made. Ironically when I first saw it I was not overly impressed, but for some reason watched it again. I ended up watching it many in times in a short period as I fell in love with the piece and still view the movie regularly.
The story is about three men from Pennsylvania who go to fight in the Vietnam War and who's lives are forever changed by their experience. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage play the three friends Michael, Nick and Steven respectively. They are brilliantly supported by the likes of Meryl Streep and John Cazale (who was dying from bone cancer during the filming).
The movie is well known for the infamous Russian roulette scenes, in some ways too much as the film is so much more than that. The film is a film of two halves - one pre-Vietnam and one during/after Vietnam. The first half is an almost perfect study of real life, the characters seem so real you can believe it is a real community. This is due to both the excellent work of the actors and fine direction by Michael Cimino.
There are many great scenes of interaction between the characters simply living a "normal" life in their small American town. It is a stark contrast to the Vietnam part of the story and amazing performances by Walken and De Niro especially make you believe the change in them following their ordeal.
It is quite simply a classic and a permanent member of my top three films of all time.