The Deer Hunter. This is a movie whose title I'd first heard when I was a primary school kid. How? My mum was telling me about how dad took her to see it when it came out, probably 1979 in our part of the World. Yeah, the year I was born. Must've been fate. Anyway, she said it was the single reason why she hadn't voluntarily gone to the movies ever since. And kinda still hasn't. Because it was so horrific. And was proof that all American movies were brutal and senseless and a waste of life. While the latter is debatable, the former definitely holds true.
What is it about?
Well, the Deer Hunter, to my mind, is one of the four great (Anti-)Vietnam War movies of the late 70s to mid 80s, the others being Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Stone's Platoon and Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Those are the ones always quoted. Though I certainly think that de Palma's Casualties of War was also a heck of an effort, though dating slightly later. In my opinion, it is by far the most worthwhile effort. Coppola's movie feels like a drug-induced nightmare (the making of - "Hearts of Darkness: a filmmaker's Apocalypse" - is much more entertaining), Platoon is truly great but very one-dimensional and Kubrick's movie.... well, I for one am definitely not a Kubrick fan, and then considering how brutal and horrifying it is, it is way too close to comedy at times.
Whoa, I'm drifting. Michael Cimino's Deer Hunter. With a collection of great actors. Robert de Niro. Nuff said. John Cazale - one of the greatest cinematic weasels ever (followed by Buscemi in recent years), he was one of that Italo-American clique. Unfortunately he died shortly after finishing his work on this movie. He was Meryl Streep's fiance. His work on this as well as Godfather I & II and Dog Day Afternoon will not be forgotten. George Dzundza - I heard the anecdote that he was discovered in the steel mill in this movie and then became an actor since. Most of you will know him as Michael Douglas' pal in Basic Instinct. Great guy. Meryl Streep, actually looking quite pretty. John Savage, an up-and-coming star of the time, whom I don't know much. And then, billed in 4th place, Bobby de Niro's main co-star - the great Christopher Walken, taking an Oscar-awarded turn.
The movie is about three friends, Michael (de Niro), Nicky (Walken) and Steven (Savage). They are steel workers in a small town in Pennsylvania, populated mostly by Russian exiles. We see them at work, we see them at Steven's wedding. Nicky proposes to Linda (Streep). We see them go deerhunting with their other friends. Then, the three go to Vietnam.
5 minutes later, they are in a POW camp. Here the shit hits the fan. Their captors have a penchant for sadistic russian-roulette-type games. They get pitched against each other. Michael initiates an escape, in the course of which Nicky gets separated from the two others, being flown out, while the others have to foot-slog it back. We see Nicky being really broken up about everything. He wanders around Saigon and discovers that the same shit which happens in the POW camps is treated like a betting game in the slums. With a human life as the debt for a potential win.... After a break-down, he gets scooped up by a sleazy French type.
We are back with Michael who has delivered the gravely wounded Steven to a hospital. He goes on to a career in Nam and then returns to America. Here, they kinda know that Nicky's got to be dead. Linda and Michael get together, in a natural, not sleazy way, since they were the two closest human beings to Nicky.
Michael goes deerhunting with the same old gang, but all the meaning has been sucked out of it without Nicky.
He visits Steven who is now a legless cripple. The fresh marriage is in ruins before it had even started. But while talking to Steven, he realises that Nicky must still be alive. With the next plane, he is back in Saigon which is being evacuated by the Americans.
After searching the slums, he finds Nicky. At the Russian Roulette table. And in order to get to him, he has to face him just like in that POW camp... I'll stop here, I don't want to spoil it.
So, what is special about this film? Well, for one, it runs almost three hours, yet has less than five minutes of active 'Nam fighting scenes. Yet at the same time, just like those other three movies, if not more so, it totally shows the horror of that conflict. So, it is an excercise in subtlety. There are quite a few layers here:
The three friends who go to serve. All three will suffer different physical fates. Yet each of them will have left the carefree life he led before the war forever. Which is really what the impact is about, because we can so clearly view that.
It takes concentration and willingness to really get the most out of this film. The pace is very sedate, very calm, it takes its time to view the ordinary lifes of the protagonists. To me, the movie is really defined through the two hunting scenes. The first ist about serenity. Nature, the two best friends (who leave the rest of the group for their outing), their common goal, their shared respect of the nature that they're battling. Then the second scene. The one friend who has to make do with the others - they don't understand him, do not share a common goal. There is no serenity, no purpose. Effectively, it is ultimate lonesomeness in the middle of a group of friendly people. Extremely moving.
And really, that is why this movie hits me so much. The intended impact from the War is definitely there. But it is also one of the best depictions of friendship ever put on the big screen. Only Nicky would understand Michael when he tells another pal in anger: "This is this. This ain't something else. This is this." He is there to translate to the others, to be the mediator. And then, he's not there for the next trip.
There has been a debate about the very last scene of this film. Many people take it as a turn of faith, almost in a patriotic way. The spirit of life returns through a new sense of resolve, or something. Which kinda doesn't settle too well with the mainland-European crowd. I, on the other hand, see it as the ultimate moment of carthasis - it ends with really not an ounce of hope for the screen protagonists. All that is left is an act of vocal defiance, when really they are utterly defeated and crushed by this world.
The movie went on to be nominated for 9 Oscars (including nominatinons for de Niro and Streep), winning 5 of them, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Walken. To me it really is one of the greatest work of art ever put onto celluloid. Michael Cimino went on to direct Heaven's Gate, one of the biggest flops of all time which ruined the UA studios. After directing another flop, Year of the Dragon, his career had ended rather spectacularly. And Christopher Walken? He went on to become my favourite actor. And that is quite something.
(c) Johannes Heidler, September 12th 2005
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