Has the Deer Hunter Become Outdated?

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2009)

The Deer Hunter is a post-Vietnam war movie, one of many of its kind, although this one is a bit different, in that it doesn't focus on Vietnam at all. People laud it as a great anti-war movie, but it most certainly is not. If anything it could be called an anti-torture movie, because the only scene that drives the movie in the war zone, was in a POW "camp" I suppose is the word, inadequate as it is. But much of the movie falls short of the "classic" status it has today.
It's about a group of coal miners who go off to war. The leader is Robert De Niro's character, accompanied mainly by John Cazale, John Savage, and of course, Christopher Walken. The characters are greeted at home by Meryl Streep's character. It's a very realistic film. Long shots are taken from their lives, all part of character development, sure, but it just goes on, and after a while goes from joyous to tedious. There is one brief battle scene that could have been focused on more to show the horrible war that was Vietnam, and though the editors think that less is more with the war, they don't take that opinion with the horrible torture scene, upon which the whole move rests. It's a brilliant scene, and perhaps would have brought the movie to a higher rating if it weren't for the following scenes. They're long and meandering, and while Robert De Niro's character is believable, none of the others really are. The awkwardness of adjusting back is shown brilliantly in him, but less so in the others, and very much less so in Nick, Christopher Walken's character, the one that so took the original audience by storm, an iconic character.
But to me, it just all falls short. Especially the editing. It is a long movie, with long shots and long scenes, lifelike, but not cutting enough for a movie. It's less like a knife and more like a blunt hammer. The editing is simply bad. It cuts from one part to another haphazardly, most likely trying to juxtapose the two lives, show the impossibility of adjusting between them, but only serves to be jerky. And the fate of Nick is just improbable, they don't even try to make it make sense. It's not like Apocalypse Now, a genius post-Vietnam film, one that again, doesn't focus on the actual war, but another story. It was edited amazingly, it was improbable and yet realistic, and it showed a truth greater than the actual period in which it was made. It was universal. The Deer Hunter doesn't quite have that effect.
It's not a terrible movie, though. It's good. That's all I would call it. It's a movie that tries very hard for greatness, but fumbles along the way, at least in my head. It doesn't live up to its original glory for new viewers unlike other similar films. I'm in a very small group on this though, so judge for yourself. I'm not always partial to war movies anyway.