Too long, too choppy, not as good as they lead you to believe.....

Rating: 5/10 (7 April 2009)

The Deer Hunter is one of those revered films out there in critic-land which I have always wanted to see and examine for myself what all the fuss is about. The DVD presentations - Special Edition / Ultimate Edition / Bonus Discs etc. - almost tease you into buying it. Thank God I caught it on TV instead. The winner of the Best Picture Oscar in 1978 is a disappointment to me. I'll try to articulate why:
1. The actors - this is a misnomer - there are no problems here. De Niro is good and Walken too. Both have their own head-jerking, body-twitching thing going on there but they are solid - even if they do look off screen at some non-existent object quite a lot. But I must admit De Niro did start to grate on me as the film wore on - the mono-syllabic grunts, the thousand yards stares all get a little tiresome after 3 hours. But as problems lie - acting was not one of them.
2. The story - For me the story of friends joining the army, fighting in Vietnam and then returning to the world broken men - if they return at all - is interesting and the Russian roulette element adds a definite spice. However - the movie is just way too long, too drawn out and too clippy in the scene cuts. There is lots of time invested in the build up of the characters but wasted in my opinion as it never drives on the narrative. The wedding scenes are a prime example - you can fast-forward these wedding scenes completely and not miss a beat of the story. The fact there was a wedding at all serves the purpose - but to show dancing, drinking for over 20 minutes is lazy.
3. Pacing - so slow it almost stops. And when we do get to some action - Russian roulette scenes - we simply arrive there out of the blue, do the action and get out as quickly as possible. After spending far too much time with a irrelevant wedding - we jump in and out of the torture scenes with incredible speed.
4. Reality. Now I don't know much about war or armies or anything but a few things stand out here. The guys get wasted the night before they fly out to Vietnam? No training? They all end up in the same platoon? With their long hair still intact? De Niro's character in particular seems to be able to do what he wants, when he wants and answers to no-one. He walks around Vietnam alone? Grows a beard in the army? Goes home to the US and then decides to go back to find Nick? How - on Uncle Sam's meal ticket? He arrives in Saigon when every man and his dog are killing each other to get out? He finds Nick in a city of millions without a second thought? He has money to burn - paying 1500 dollars to get into a barn? What? What's going on here? De Niro seems to live in a universe where there are no limitations on travel / money / relationships / pain / injury. Also De Niro was supposed to have humped crippled Stevie through the Jungle to "civilization", only to dump him on the hood of a jeep and walk away ?
5. Coincidences - De Niro seems to be a Green Beret - how did this happen? His buddies look like ordinary grunts yet they all joined together. Nick and Steve just happen along De Niro in the Vietnamese jungle when they jump from a chopper? What's the odds on that? 3 bullets in the gun which never goes off when it is pointed at their own heads - but which fires every time it is pointed at a bad guy? Convenient. Too many things to mention here that just happen for the sake of it.
6. Editing - even at 3+ hours - the finished product looks chopped to pieces in the editing room. Plus the scene that promotes the name of the film - The Deer Hunter - seems tacked on and looks completely out of place. It is almost as if they didn't know what to call the movie - invented this monicker - and filmed a quick couple of scenes to back it up.
I am not sure how this film is in the top 250. Cimino has proved since that he was not up to it as a filmmaker. This is an overlong, slow, muddled movie which does not deserve the glory bestowed upon it.
5/10.