Horrifyingly boring

Rating: 8/10 (17 September 2000)

For a film that was made twenty two years ago(1978) you'd think that with the growing graphic intensity of films this would be a lame, weak film. If I take an example of a recent war movie, say Saving Private Ryan, yes it is more gory (much, much more gory : think the D-Day Landing scenes) but is it more horrifying and unsettling for it? No. Simple as that : no. The Russian roulette scenes although they take up quite a major part of the story and are shown frequently still shock, horrify and with the voluntary 'RR' scenes dismay. Russian roulette is a 'game' in which a six-shooter is loaded with one bullet and then the chamber is spun and slammed in, so you don't know where the bullet is. You then hold the gun up to your head, pull the trigger and hope. In the Vietcong concentration camps where they are being held captive they are made to play this for the purpose of amusement and for gambling purposes. The sight of grown men being reduced to crying and shaking is simply terrible especially when you know that if you don't do it you are put in the 'cage' (a bamboo cage held in water with about two inches of breathing space left, which presumably when the waters rise, drowns you). It is the concentration camp scenes where one of the films almost fatal flaws comes to light. How did they get there? How did De Niro get from deer hunting to Vietnam on his own? How did his friends in a helicopter find him? How did they then get from there to a concentration camp? How did De Niro find his way through the forest, with a disabled man on his back, to a main road? How did Walken remember his disabled friend enough to send him money yet couldn't recognise De Niro? What were they saying at the beginning? Why does the film have to be so long? The film is an epic at around about three hours but you get the feeling with all of these gaping plot holes it was cut down from five hours! The wedding scenes, which took up an enormous chunk of the movie, bored and didn't seem to get anywhere in terms of anything. The Godfather's wedding scenes were great - there was enough going on to keep you attention, some of the films greatest moments occurred there (the 'My Father made him an offer he couldn't refuse' speech deserves to go down in film's history), the scene was set beautifully and the characters were introduced brilliantly like you knew them personally. The Deer Hunter's wedding scenes did none of this, bar a quite good pre-wedding bar scene involving the song 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You', the characters developed slightly but couldn't they do this in ten minutes and then jump to the deer hunting scenes? The dialogue may have left a bit to be desired as well. I put 'may' though as I couldn't hear it most of the time as what is supposed to be background music was made foreground music with the speaking taking a back seat. I appreciate that it was loud there and it was hard to make yourself heard but the person that they were speaking was right next to them and I don't make a habit of standing next to my telly so I couldn't hear what they were talking about! Turning the volume didn't help as that just made the music louder! I have knocked this quite a bit haven't I? So I wouldn't give it a good mark, right? Wrong. I think this is a brilliant film although it has shortcomings I forgive them all for Walken and De Niro's last frenzied scene, which is perhaps the most powerful, brilliant and shocking scene ever! If you are prepared to spend three hours, some of which tedious, you will come out of the cinema or living room feeling like you have just seen a very, very good film in spite of everything.