A metaphor and a riddle

Rating: Null/10 (3 June 2003)

The Deer Hunter was the very first of the Viet Nam movies and that might be the reason it works in riddles as opposed to openly.
First we have a working class Russian community living in Pennsylvania as our protagonists. Russia (at the time belonging to the Soviet Union) represents communism, which the erratic Viet Nam war was officially all about (or was it?).
Then we have parallels and analogies of ceremonies. Shooting to kill a deer is O.K. because it's a sport but shooting at the enemy is wrong because it's cruel. And there is the "Russian" (!!!) roulette, which of course is just another metaphor.
This film is filled with riddles which we have to decyphered with successive viewings.
That still doesn't make it a masterpiece but it's a very intense and brutal movie.
I am not 100% unbiased since I first saw it in the theater with my father on my 18th birthday. Yet I consider it one of the all time greats.
The russian orthodox church choir in the excellent sound track accompanying the coming home of Christopher Walken in a coffin is wonderful. John Williams' (not Steve Spielberg's favorite composer of the same name) guitar playing during the "longing for tenderness and understanding" scene between Maryl Streep and Robert DeNiro is outstanding.
This is true art: it's meaning is open, it just asks questions and puts the viewer in a certain mood. It's up to us to find out what it really means.
One thing is for sure: it's about friendship. Check the scene where Robert DeNiro calls his war buddy John Savage.
Again: the whole movie is a metaphor and a riddle. It is up to us to find it out. Even the last scene when all sing "God bless America, My home, sweet home." has many meanings.
10 out of 10