A shocking portrayal of the horrors that war inflicts on real people.

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2003)

The Deer Hunter is a true masterpiece. It shows the horrors of war and how they affect real people. It primarily focuses on three young men preparing to go to Vietnam, and a number of their extended friends. De Niro plays the introspective and spiritual natural leader of the group, Michael. For Michael life is about the wilderness, and the hunt. The three young men eventually go off to Vietnam and end up in a POW camp where they are subjected to the torturous will of their captors. The Viet-Kong force the prisoners to play Russian roulette with each other until the only three left alive are Michael and his friends. When they finally escape they become separated before they make it home.
The guilt of the separation and not knowing whether the others made it home drives the three in separate directions. Walkins character, Nick, ends up falling out of site into the underworld of Vietnam, voluntarily participating in Russian roulette for money. Michael goes home and tries to resume life as usual, however the pain and guilt makes him feel distant from everyone he knew. When he goes back to the mountains he still doesn't feel at home, and even chooses not to drop a buck when he has the chance for the `one shot.' Steven, played by John Savage, is the most seriously physically injured of the three, losing both legs and the use of one arm. Steven refuses to go home to his family, preferring to stay in the VA. When Michael visits Steven he finds evidence that Nick is still alive, and goes back to 'Nam to bring him home. The reunion does not go well, however, and culminates in the performance that won Walkin the Oscar that year.
The pain in this film is so real it elevates it from its celluloid medium to a true work of art, it is a modern masterpiece.