A "One Good Scene" Type of Movie

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2017)

Just got finished watching this movie for the first time ever. For years, I had heard nothing but great things about "The Deer Hunter", such as it's a masterpiece, a classic, etc. Because of this, I went into this film with high expectations and was sorely disappointed with what I had seen.
"The Deer Hunter" is one of those films that has one (maybe two) fantastic scenes and the rest of the picture is complete rubbish. A similar film is Inglorious Basterds (another war epic) with the opening scene at the farm being terrific but the rest of the film is just awful. In this sense, The Deer Hunter reminded me a lot of Inglorious Basterds. The Russian Roulette sequence in the Vietcong hut is absolutely breathtaking- the acting is high caliber, the tension is through the roof, the cinematography perfect. This scene is one of the best in film history. However, this one scene cannot cover the other, various issues that plague the film such as meandering plot, useless and overlong (way overlong) wedding scene, annoying characters, unsatisfying ending, choppy editing (Oscar for Best Film Editing, seriously?), and unwarranted three hour run-time. The entire first hour is a poor and overlong build up to the fantastic Russian Roulette scene in Vietcong hut. After this scene, movie goes nowhere for another 2 hours.
I understand this was the first Vietnam movie to come out in the wake of the Vietnam war. As such, it struck a chord and was a big deal in 1978. However, outside of one scene I cannot say that I really found this to be an enjoyable or even a thought-provoking war movie like Platoon (1986) or Full Metal Jacket (1987). Ironically enough, the first Vietnam movie to be made is the one that had the least impact, at least for me.
5/10 stars for the Russian Roulette scene only.