If only this wasn't so long....

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2012)

I saw The Deer Hunter for three reasons
1. It was on IMDb Top 250 List 2. It is a 70s film starring De Niro when he was at his absolute best in every role he played 3. It had 5 Oscars including the Best Picture
4 Oscar nominations thrown in for good measure too.
It was a good film but I was not totally satisfied with it to be very honest. It had no business being so long for starters. The first act and the third act could have been trimmed for about an hour more in the former than the later(40 in the first 20 in the third I guess would have made the film a world of good). Especially the first act was not doing much and in its entirety it shows the bonding between the friends amidst of a overtly long wedding scene at the church. True, the camaraderie and their relationship needed to be established, but an hour devoted only for that aspect of the film is a little demanding on the patience all the time promising of better things to come.
The second act was brilliant and is dearly and deservedly remembered by everyone who saw it. The acting, direction, cinematography were absolutely top notch and everyone was in command of their craft. This segment itself might have won this film all its Oscars. It culminates at a point where the three friends at different stages of exhaustion, escape from the prison camp and were rescued.
The third act traces their life back to their home town in Penssylvania where Mike who survived the war is welcomed enthusiastically back into his friends' lives but he has no idea of his other two buddies. He learns of their survival ,meets one of them(Stevie) who got his legs amputated and brings him back to his family. He finds his other friend Nick (Christopher Walken in an Oscar winning role) to be somewhere in Saigon and leaves to rescue him true to his word. The ending shows the survivors and friends singing God Bless America. Somewhere among this, there was Linda (Meryl Streep), Nick's fiancÃ©e with whom Mike seems to develop a relationship.
The direction and acting are quite flawless and deserve all the accolades. There were some real poignant moments in the film but they were not few but certainly far between. Also, the film occasionally seems to spell out the emotions for its viewers specially towards the end of the first act. The film has a large heart and important things to say, and I wanted to like it better than I had but sadly it did not have the kind of brilliance, intrigue and drama that I was expecting out of a film that has achieved what it had. A 6 out of 10