Almost...

Rating: 7/10 (7 September 2003)

Possible spoiler.
This movie has all the ingredients to become a masterpiece yet it somewhat fails. De Niro is my favorite actor and I have seen him in many pictures, but in this film he is not close to his best performances; still ok but nothing special. Meryl Streep impresses me the more. Overall the acting is pretty good.
I have seen more beautiful films but there are some really spectacular scenes in the mountains. The movie benefits strongly of Myers' beautiful Cavatina score. Like I said in the beginning, this could have been a really masterpiece of a movie. De Niro comes back from Vietnam, remembers the past, sees the woman he loves, he has changed, the music plays...etc. The most disturbing thing I think that spoils this is the Russian-roulette gambling scenes. I liked the part in the Vietnamese prison, that was exciting. But again, and again, and the absolute worst is when De Niro goes back to Vietnam once again...there we have the roulette again. The whole movie gets more centered around the roulette than the deer hunting. I would have preferred an ending half an hour earlier; before De Niro goes back for Nick. But obviously Cimino really really wanted to show the audience what happened to Nick, or he was obsessed with the roulette game himself. Not much happens between Niro and Streep in the end either...
On the whole I liked the movie, a lot due to the score and the story, but I am also very disappointed; it could have been so much better.
7.5