Movie #154: The Deer Hunter

Movie #: 154
Movie Title: The Deer Hunter
Year Released: 1978

Director: Michael Cimino
Notable Cast: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, George Dzundza, Chuck Aspegren

Short Description: An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam war impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #53
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A



Date Watched: 3/15/2016

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 (Satisfactory)

Rationale: My big issue with The Deer Hunter is many of the actions of the characters are left to interpretation because little was explained in depth, almost like someone was trying to cut down the long runtime and didn’t want to lose other parts they somehow felt were more important than character analysis. It’s not that I need everything spoon fed to me, but it would be nice to know exactly why, for example, Christopher Walken’s character Nick joins a seedy underworld of gambling on Russian roulette considering that’s what partially contributed to him losing his mind after being forced to play it for entertainment by his captors in Vietnam. Overall the basic story was good, it just needed more clarity.