Life and War.

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2004)

Possibly my favorite war film, The Deer Hunter is also a movie about life in general, real life. It's not just a war movie and it's not just a film about simple life. It's a balanced story made to compare and contrast the people's lives surrounding the Vietnam War and the consequences of war itself in the eyes and emotions of the people involved.
I simply love De Niro in this film. He displays a range of emotion that his characters usually don't allow for him to portray...yet he remains the tough guy. Any De Niro fan owes it to themselves to watch this heart-wrenching epic. One of my favorite De Niro performances. Christopher Walken and Merryl Streep also create some remarkable performances in their own right.
Some will think this film is slow or is too long. Kill yourself now as you entirely missed the point of this work of art and are of no importance to society. You have no attention span worthy of forming any relevant opinion and all reviews given by you shall be deemed as wasted server space. With that out of the way, I will admit that this movie is long but I feel that it works for the movie and not against it. It's meant to establish the characters and their relations to each other in the beginning and to set up that bond between the main characters before they're off to war, which is complimented in the post-war scenes. To get the true effect of contrast to work properly, you must be able to get used to and care for the characters and their environment before throwing them into battle. I will even go as far to say that I thought the beginning was dragging myself, but then completely reversed that opinion once the post-war scenes came along. It's necessary, and is one of the reasons I like this film so much.
The simple realistic ways that people interact together in the film makes it very believable...it is very much how life would be if these characters existed and were in such a situation. The acting performances are definitely enhanced by the wonderfully written script and dialog. They're all completely realistic and believable as they should be.
For war film buffs, there is a scene in this movie that will blow you away, literally. The whole Vietnam part of the film is completely brutal and harsh, even compared to most war epics. Some of the images are quite disturbing, but it's war, that's life. One scene in particular when they're in Vietnam will stay with me forever as one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen depicted on screen. Watch it and you will know exactly what I'm talking about. Great stuff.
The ending is tragic and sad, but completely suiting to the rest of the film. One of the easiest movies I've ever scored.
10/10