One of the greatest war films ever; stellar cast - hauntingly humane

Rating: 10/10 (12 June 2008)

THE DEER HUNTER (1978) **** Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, George Dzundza, Chuck Aspegren, Rutanya Alda. One of the best films ever about The Vietnam War, or any war for that matter, about three close-knit steel workers from Pennsylvania who lose their care-free lifestyle/innocence when they go to war and sustain unspeakable horrors that ultimately seal their fates upon their return home. Absorbing, profoundly human and excellently acted by all  Walken deservedly won Best Supporting Actor  and steadfastly directed by Michael Cimino who garnered a Best Director statuette too (the film won 5 of 9 nods including Best Picture). The Russian Roulette sequence is now a dark chapter of pop culture short-hand for the Vietnam War as an apt metaphor. Grippingly elegiac; beautiful.