The Deer Hunter (1978)

[MovieMogul]

@Old Goat

Old Goat drags out his soap box, squeezes into his jungle fatigues and begins his rant.

The Deer Hunter is the greatest war flick to date because:

The Russian Roulette sequences effectively convey the tension missing from all the other war flicks I have seen (have to admit, I haven’t seen many).

Each time before you go out, you must deal with the question, am I going to come back this time?

I believe it is the tension of wrestling with this question which ultimately alienates you from your close knit community (See wedding sequence).

What does it mean? What do we learn? Hell if I know. Wasted 5 years trying to figure that out myself. I do know, no matter how hard you try, you can’t go back to where you were.

It sounds like you’re talking from personal experience, so I’m certainly glad the film connected with you in such a way.

Personally, I far prefer The Best Years of Our Lives when it comes to readjustment of veterans back home from the front.

And as far as the uncertainty of war and the spectre of death, I think there are many that addresses this in a more organic way (the Russian roulette sequence, in addition to being historically inaccurate by almost all accounts, also seems really contrived).

[russian_heel]

I agree with a lot of the criticisms of the movie. It does have enough intense scenes to keep one engaged, but the directing, sound, and quality control is awful. To film the movie in the 10,000+ high Washington Cascades when its supposed to take place in Pennsylvania is inexcusable. The hunting scenes make a mockery of the sport. The superb acting by an all-star cast is the only thing that justifies this movie as great only because of the acting.
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[russian_heel]

Olympic Mountains, not the Cascades—— the Olympics are up to 7000 feet, highest mountain in PA is 3500. My mistake!
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[Asuka]

From what I understand if you know what you’re doing you can significantly increase your odds of winning Russian Roulette by being in control of the cylinder when it spins. Since a round in the chamber is heavier it will naturally want to sit at the bottom and if you spin the cylinder and snap it back right as it begins to slow down spinning you can get the round to land near the bottom almost every time. Right after watching the movie about a decade ago I did an experiment using an empty case (but weighted down with a flathead screw to mimic the weight of a real shell) and my own revolver and spun the cylinder a number of times, 9 times out of 10 I could get it to land at exactly the bottom every single time while the other 10% it landed in the very top position which still wouldn’t kill you (it has to land on either the top right or top left most chamber to kill you depending on the gun) If you made sure to be in charge of your own spinning (or paid-off the guy responsible for spinning it) you could in theory play Russian Roulette indefinitely (though realistically eventually you’ll mess up and wind up killing yourself)

[Ellis_Aponte_Jr]

@Wendell_Wagner

I thought The Deer Hunter was a mess on many levels. Even when it came out, a lot of the reviews noted that the Vietnam scenes weren’t very realistic. I didn’t think the scenes set in the Pennsylvania hometown were realistic either. It’s just barely possible that a gang of friends just out of high school in the early 1970’s might all join the Army together. It’s harder to believe that it might happen if they were in their mid-twenties. The actors playing the soldiers were in their thirties, though. Deniro’s goatee didn’t fit the time or place. Their attitude toward Vietnam didn’t fit the time and the era either. I grew up in small-town Ohio and in the early 1970’s was in college. It’s possible that someone from a town like the one in the movie might still be gung ho about joining the Army, but they wouldn’t be as blind to protest against the war as these guys were. They didn’t ever seem to even imagine that the war was going to be anything but a chance for them to display their heroism. It’s conceivable to that a group of friends joining the Army in 1942 might have such pure, unadulterated enthusiasm about war as these guys did. But it would never have happened in the early 1970’s.

The Pennsylvania scenes in the first part of the film are set in 1967. (Though there are still some stylistic anachronisms, to be sure).

[Darren_Garrison]

@Asuka

9 times out of 10 I could get it to land at exactly the bottom every single time

That’s an impressive record.

[Lucas_Jackson]

I’m in the minority of this zombie. I loved the film and thought it was great.

I’d be curious to know how many people who leveled the criticism of “unrealistic” at this movie liked Star Wars.

[RealityChuck]

@Lucas_Jackson

I’m in the minority of this zombie. I loved the film and thought it was great.

I’d be curious to know how many people who leveled the criticism of “unrealistic” at this movie liked Star Wars.

Unfair comparison, but Star War had realistic characters and motivations. The Deer Hunter did not.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

I found Star Wars more realistic. While I have never been to Tatooine, I have been to Pennsylvania, and it doesn’t look like Washington state. I’ve never seen a real life Darth maul, but I do know special forces don’t wear goatees.

Considering the already slow pacing, I was bothered that the story jumped from PA to the tail end of a battle. There’s no introductory Viet Nam scenes. It seemed like in this case, there should have been more setting up the story. To me, the movie would have been improved by showing how the group became changed by the realities of war, rather than jump right into the unrealistic roulette scenes.

One thing about this movie - it was one of the earliest post-war films about View Nam. At the time, it was still a big gaping wound in the country’s psyche. No one knew how to make a movie that wasn’t seen as glorifying the war, ala The Green Berets. So the earliest post-war films were all dark metaphors. They were really about dealing with the war, rather than being about the war. Every film had to make a Big Statement. Coming Home, Apocalypse Now, and the subject of this thread.

Rambo (not First Blood) would have to wait until the mood changed. You couldn’t have even made the TV show Tour of Duty in the 70s. Viet Nam vets in the 70s movies and TV were all maladjusted. Homeless dudes in green combat jackets, hallucinating, shooting people, still fighting the war, drug addicted. It was notable when TJ Hooker* became the first well-adjusted VN vet on TV. It was a slow process to acceptance.

*ETA I forgot Magnum came first. But he was special, and I’m not sure he was all that well adjusted, sometimes.

[msmith537]

@Wendell_Wagner

So instead of conveying the tension of war by real battle scenes, The Deer Hunter conveys the tension by Russian Roulette scenes, which either never happened or were very rare? You know, the more I think about it, the more I think that The Deer Hunter is a great film . . . from another planet. Cimino was a great director of scenes that were impressive but which made me wonder if he had any acquaintance with the human race or the planet Earth.

Firstly, I agree with what a lot of people here have said. The Deer Hunter is a bit of a “tough hang”. And the 'Nam scenes didn’t feel authentic. They did feel like a made for TV movie that didn’t have the budget to fill in whatever action was supposed to happen during the commercial break.
But I think the genius of the Russian Roulette scene was that it conveyed that tension the way most war movies can’t with their battle scenes. The reason is that I find any tension is often drowned out by the spectacle of battle. Choppering into a hot LZ in a squadron of Hueys looks awesome on screen. In real life, I’m sure it’s terrifying.