Thursday, June 20, 2002

The Deer Hunter (1978)

I find myself conflicted on this film and standing outside of it. It's a very good, extremely well-made and occasionally quite harrowing 'Nam flick. Very well-acted, too -- Walken EARNED that Oscar. Problem is, it's also made from the vantage point of the shell-shocked and the damaged, which leaves the film feeling somewhat remote. Thus, when near the end of the film, Robert De Niro says "I'm feeling distant", I can believe that -- not because of what he's been through, but because the whole film has been that way. Hindsight also lets us see the nascent traces of the tendencies towards the self-indulgent and the extravagent that would eventually wreck director Michael Cimino's career. (Did the wedding scene really need to be forty minutes long?) It's a hell of an accomplishment, and I admire and respect the film. I just don't like it that much.

Grade: B