From our 21st century standpoint we can appreciate the novelty of Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep giving subdued, almost anonymous performances. Derivative as this opening section is (it’s easy to see the influence of Coppola and Visconti.
Although cosmopolitan values were actually the ones that got us into Vietnam (the government planners weren’t small-town American Legionnaires; they were Harvard men), it has become the custom to pin the guilt on the military “hawks.” Michael is not a liberal hero, like the Jon Voight character of Coming Home; we can feel (without being told) that he’s grounded in the rigid values of people who are suspicious of science and world affairs and anything foreign. The cinematography is breathtaking, the characters are tangible, and the narrative, which is broken into three distinct acts, deftly captures what it’s like to uproot your life in America to fight an unpopular war in a foreign land and then return. The three may be the only ones to help the other(s) who didn't come out the other end in one piece, either physically or emotionally. The Deer Hunter is a 1978 American epic war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of steelworkers whose lives were changed forever after fighting in the Vietnam War.The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, with John Cazale (in his final role), Meryl Streep, and George Dzundza playing supporting roles. The steel mills are always in the background, towering above the people, towering above the houses, towering above the town. “I have found that enthusiasts are genuinely hurt when I tell them that while Vietnam had all manners of violence, including self-immolating Buddhist monks, fire-bombings, rape, deception, and massacres like My Lai in its 20 years of war,” Arnett wrote, “there was not a single recorded case of Russian roulette, not in the voluminous files of the Associated Press anyway, or in my experience either. “I used to watch him between takes in the scenes where the boys are having a bit of fun, throwing food at each other in the Cadillac. And that’s because there wasn’t much of a plan to begin with. Aside from the prison-camp scene this movie isn’t exactly great, but it’s good. Cimino had joined the Army in 1962, had served for only six months and was never attached to Special Forces. His major characters don’t articulate their feelings; they’re floating in a wordless, almost plotless atmosphere, and their relations aren’t sharp enough for us to feel the full range of the film’s themes. I say “pulp” because the Vietcong are treated in the standard inscrutable-evil-Oriental style of the Japanese in Second World War movies and because Russian roulette takes over as the ruling metaphor for all the action scenes in the rest of the movie, even in the later episodes in Saigon and back home. Also Read: All 7 Michael Cimino Movies, From 'The Deer Hunter' to 'The Sunchaser' (Photos). Although Michael, the superman who forces his friends to develop the will to survive, belongs to the boys’-book world of grit and sacrifice, the sheer force of these pulp atrocity scenes takes over one’s consciousness. Because of the length of this introductory section, and because it isn’t dramatically focussed, we feel an anticipatory ominousness. Steven is not the only one who will leave behind a girl, Nick in a serious relationship with Linda, she wanting to escape the abuse inflicted on her by her alcoholic father. Savage says: “We knew we were in trouble when the cables got cut. I just saw The Deer Hunter for the first time this week and I can't believe I've lived through my of my twenties never having seen this movie.
In the days before they leave, they will attend to a few items, Steven who will marry Angela in a lavish event for the entire community, and the male friends, without Steven, who will go deer hunting the following morning, a highly ritualized activity especially for Michael. Don’t call me by my character name. He says: “Bob, Chris and I are lucky to be alive.
Should we drop – there’s rocks and sh** down there.’, “I was calling Bobby by his character name, yelling ‘Michael, Michael, I’m not sure we should drop in the water there.’ Bobby yells at me: ‘Jesus Christ, John. “We both stared at one another on deck. “That was obviously an accident, but that’s what he was looking for.”. I love the cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond’s slow, curious zooms into scenes of people socialising, or doggedly working, or going about the kind of humdrum activities not normally considered worthy of the camera’s attention. The Deer Hunter is Beau Geste-goes-to-Vietnam, all right, but with a difference: when Michael returns to his home and goes up to the mountain peaks again, and the male choir chants, he has the deer in front of him but he doesn’t kill it. And this is true of De Niro. I got pushed down in shallow water, trapping my legs in the wet sand. enjoyed it. (There’s no clue to why he would think Nick was dead.) It’s their last day on the job before they report for active duty, and the other workers say goodbye to them. At one point, Michael and Nick ponder whether they will make it back from Vietnam and Nick implores Michael not to leave him over there. Pilger’s anger was not misplaced. “None of us realised how much danger we were in – it felt like we were going to war just to make this movie.
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