The Most Shakespearean of All Films

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 2007)

I won't spend time comparing Michael Cimino to William Shakespeare, but I do think that, as dramatic writers, they worked in the same vein. The overwhelming beauty and power of "The Deer Hunter" is its humanity. The film stays with us, as Shakespeare's plays do, because humanity is forever, and little changed over the centuries. "The Deer Hunter" represents real life for us, and it also shows us war as it really is, and the ways in which war actually affects the everyday people called to fight.
This film (and screenplay) takes its place alongside the most important and valuable literature we have, from Shakespeare to Dickens to William Faulkner. "The Deer Hunter" is what the greatest literature always is: a precious revelation of human life, and of the human condition. It shows us vitally important things that we need to know about ourselves. It is a universally applicable and a timeless work.
It is important to note the genius of the central metaphor in "The Deer Hunter," the scenes in the POW camp in Vietnam. Michael Cimino found a way to show all of us real war, and real war at its worst. For this reason, and others, as I've said for a long time, I believe William Shakespeare himself would admire "The Deer Hunter."