The Deer Hunter remains one of the landmark films of the 1970’s and a triumph of American cinema as well as one of the most gut-wrenching films ever made about male friendship and the lingering after-effects of war on the human soul. Unfortunately, the 2 disc Legacy Series DVD version of the film released by Universal is an embarrassment and an insult.
The Deer Hunter, winner of Best Picture in 1978, was the first film to deal head-on with the Vietnam War. The film is not necessarily about Vietnam, however, and does not try to take a stance on the subject much to its credit. Much like another Best Picture Winner, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Deer Hunter deals with the personal aftereffects of war. It is a grand, epic film told in three acts about how the war affects a group of blue- collar, Pennsylvania friends. The first act begins with men working in the furnace of a steel mill. Afterwards, they begin a celebration. There are dual reasons for joy. One of the men, Steven (John Savage), is getting married later that day and it is the last day that will belong to the group of friends before three of them (Steven , Michael (Robert DeNiro), and Nick (Christopher Walken) are to leave for Vietnam. We see these men in the local bar shooting pool as Frankie Valli plays on the jukebox and at the beautiful wedding ceremony.
Much like Coppola’s wedding to open The Godfather, the director of The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino, uses it to draw us into the central characters and to what their personalities and quirks are. We learn that DeNiro and Walken are the leaders of this group of friends and that DeNiro is secretly in love with Walken’s girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep.) Most importantly, Cimino uses it as a celebration of life, which makes it all the more moving after the film ends, for this will be the last time they will all be together. After the wedding, Michael takes the rest of the crew up to the mountains to hunt deer. We hear how the deer can only be taken with one shot and how it is a point of pride with Michael. The theme of one shot will manifest itself in the later acts as well.
Immediately following the hunt, we are introduced to the second act in Vietnam and the experiences of the three friends there. It is here where the film gained an unfair and negative notoriety; that being the infamous Russian roulette scenes. The three friends are captured by the Vietcong and, along with other captives, are forced to play Russian roulette against each other while their captors gamble on who will or won’t be lucky. Here again the theme of one shot is emphasized. The film was heavily attacked by left-wingers saying that Cimino was making the ultimate right-wing statement about Vietnam and that the roulette scenes never happened and were without merit and racist. Even “Hanoi” Jane Fonda got in on the action, criticizing the film the night that it beat out her own Vietnam aftereffects film, Coming Home, for Best Picture at the Oscars. After calling out the film as political propaganda, she admitted she hadn’t even seen the film. Cimino has said in many interviews that the film was never intended to be historically accurate and that the roulette scenes were not based on any first-hand accounts.
Where the film really gained an unfair reputation was when years later the film was blamed for inspiring a number of Russian roulette suicides by American teenagers. It is undeniable that these central scenes leave a mark on the viewer that lasts long after the film ends. But to blame a film for “inspiring” others to commit a crime is asinine.
Nevertheless, Michael is able to summon up the mental and physical strength, and help his friends escape from the POW camp. After drifting down a river together, the three are again separated. The third act follows Michael as he returns home and we see the awkward hero’s reception he receives. He is clearly not comfortable with it and feels a great deal of distance. We see he still cares for Linda but he can’t bring himself to do anything decisive with her as they are both wounded. His wounds are from the war, her wounds are from not knowing what has happened to Nick. Michael finally makes a visit to the VA hospital where Stephen is. It is there that we learn that Nick is still in Cambodia. Michael recalls the promise he made to Nick the night of the wedding where he said that he would not leave him over there. He returns to Vietnam to find Nick is still playing Russian roulette and for a lot of money. The theme of one shot is again revisited with a shattering finality.
For director Michael Cimino, the film was a personal triumph as he won Best Director and Best Picture at the Oscars in 1978. His only previous film, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), an underrated buddy picture with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, also dealt with the importance of the male bonding process which he would use fully in The Deer Hunter. Unfortunately, that triumph turned to disaster as his follow-up film, the notorious stinker Heaven’s Gate(1980) was such an expensive failure that it bankrupted United Artists, ended the era of maverick 70’s directors, and practically destroyed his career. The once-in-a-lifetime cast is superior with DeNiro, Walken (who won Best Supporting Actor for his role), and Streep (in her breakout film role) delivering some of their finest work. John Savage gives his best-ever performance as Stephen and the great John Cazale (Fredo from Godfather 1 and 2) delivers his final standout role as the obnoxious and jerky Stan. Cazale died from cancer before the film was released. Stanley Myers’s beautiful, heartfelt music will linger in your mind after the final credits. Deric Washburn’s screenplay and Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography beautifully and realistically give us our sense of where we are and what these people are really thinking.
One would have thought that with an important film such as this one that this so called special edition DVD would have pulled out all the stops. Not even close. Director and actors commentary you ask? None. Just a boring, overly technical commentary by the great director of photography Vilmos Zsigmond and some film critic named Bob Fisher. There are some moments worth listening to but you can only hear so much about lighting techniques and location scouting. For a film like this, one would expect to hear from Cimino and some of the actors.
I was hoping that some of the films’ ambiguities and less plausible story lines such as Walken’s staying in Vietnam and being an AWOL zombie yet still having the mental capacity and knowledge of where to send money to Savage in the States would be explained. They are nowhere to be found. Any retrospective documentaries about the film itself or its legacy? None whatsoever. The so-called deleted scenes are really alternate takes and angles from the Vietnam sequences. There is not one second of newly discovered, never-before-seen footage. There is 15 minutes or so of these alternate takes, one trailer, and the ever popular production notes. And for this Universal thought it necessary to include it on an unnecessary second disc? There is no justification for the second disc except a higher price tag. No wait, there’s more. The interactive menus have a bloated, overly dramatic score playing that isn’t even from the movie. I guess the Universal brass thought we Americans are just too dumb since there exists a real special edition of The Deer Hunter on DVD that has a commentary track by Cimino and interviews by the cast. The problem is that is only available oversees in England and plays only on international players.
The film itself is the sole reason for buying this edition. It is a glorious, beautifully saturated widescreen transfer that is a marked improvement from the other DVD that existed. The new audio mix is an improvement as well. Any real fans like myself of the film dying for a real special edition will have to wait for Universal to try and bend us over with another edition of this classic or find the European special edition and buy a special player. The people at Universal who put this crap together should burn for this insult and waste of money. Legacy Series my ass.
The film itself gets 5 stars. The extras get 1 star.
'The Deer Hunter (The Legacy Series)' is available now via Amazon , and for the better Region 2 edition, this is available via Amazon UK .
You can read more about the DVD in our database .
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