what i have seen is pretty good… (the russian roulette scene is pretty intense, still)
but i’ve started watching it about 40 times, but never make it all the way thru.
For the last week they’ve been playing it in the middle of the damn night on AMC all the time, and- it being three and a half hours long- i start watching it at 1:30 in the morning, knowing full well than i neither can nor should make it till 5 am to see how it works out. So i’ve resigned myself to the fact that i’ll never see the end.
Somebody just gimme the goods. please? If it sounds really good i may just go out and rent it, but right now its mostly just sort of toothache annoying, and i need relief.
I really suggest watching it instead get getting it spoiled. It’s one of my favorite movies and the first time you watch the whole thing is not like many other movies. Obviously it’s a very intense movie and the ending doesn’t go Disney on you. And if you’re into it can put you into wierd mood all day. Basically I wouldn’t suggest watching it if I was going to spend the afternoon trying to cheer people up. I would suggest renting it with a planned time to watch it, and get into it.
I come from Clairton, PA, where the Deer Hunter is set. It was filmed there, and also in the towns of Mingo Junction, OH and Duquesne, PA. All of these towns look alike, so it doesn’t matter much. Clairton looks this way today, if not more depressing.
The mountains where they went hunting is a different matter. We don’t have mountains that high anywhere near us.
I realize I am calling a wave of wrath upon myself, but I found it quite boring. Perhaps my sensibilities were spoiled by seeing much more hard-hitting, intense, Vietnam movies first, such as Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. The first third moves at a snail’s pace, with really excessive foreshadowing of disaster, and the second two thirds are very disjointed. Throughout the movie I was like… “yeah, Vietnam sucked… so?” “and I care… why?”
I believe it was one of the very first movies to take on the Vietnam war.
first of all, i think it sucked! BOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG! They waste soooooo much time on the freakin’ wedding, then whiz thru the rest with little to add in terms of building/adding to the charecters.
Whats-him-name ends up in a hospital and doesn’t want to come back to his people. Walken stays in Nam and freaks out on drugs and playing russian roulette. Bobby D comes home and walks around all sullen, goes to fetch Walken, fails, comes back and walks around all sullen some more.
It got so boring, i pretty much had it on as back-ground noise and either i missed it or they never really give any good reason for Walken staying in Nam and eventually waxing himself.
Hey, if you want to waste several hours, yeah, go rent it. Dont say I didn’t warn ya!
(this review is biased. I hate about 98% of all movies i have ever seen.)
I’ve actually tried to watch it twice on AMC - once on Monday afternoon and once on Tuesday night. I really wanted to watch it all the way through, but it was so damn boring! I nodded off both times.
So, I can’t spoil it for you; I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus.
see thats the thing… great talent… and the moments are good, but it is damn long and damn slow…
And this from a guy who has actuallt spent the day watching the Godfather trilogy from start to finish. MORE THAN ONCE…
and the music is so awful, and sleep inducing. I think thats actually the worst part… its liek a really bad made for TV movie score, and has the simplest most repetitive melody, which is one thing for a 1.5 hour MfTV movie, but another thing for nearly FOUR HOURS!!!
no one will spoil it for me though, here or in real life… so i’m off the rent it, whereupon i intend to post a spoiler right here in this very thread. so yall been warned…
Bad Hat you took this whole OP from my head. I’ve been meaning to ask people to tell me the ending for a couple of weeks now–I got to Bobby D going back to get Walken, and it was 1:30 am and I had a morning meeting the next day, so couldn’t just go in to work late. The idea of sitting through the whole thing again is a bit draining, and I hate to rent a movie just to see the last half hour. So spoil it for me baby, spoil it. I’ll be in you’re debt for, well a while at least.
The Wedding scene was originally excised but in tests they found that the rest of the movie didn’t hold without it.
They restored it and the movie became an award winner, go figure.
Yes the movie is long and slow but it is a good movie, there are some fine moments and I think you just have to pick the right time of day to watch it.
AMC has shown it here in widescreen with popup commentary about the movie on the bottom of the screen. It makes for a more palatable viewing experience. I still abandoned it after about 20 minutes.
One of the factoids that impressed me was that the director’s rough cut was over four hours long. Criminey. At first he was obstinate about keeping his original version, and the studio responded by firing him. Later they made up, and the director delivered the current three hour version.
I own the DVD, mostly because I’m a big Meryl Streep fan. She was engaged to John Cazale during the production, who was dying of cancer at the time.
Yeah, The Deer Hunter and also Sophie’s Choice are long, slow, depressing movies that I watch mostly for the wonderful acting, especially that of luminous Ms. Streep, rather than the story.
I shape my beard to match De Niro’s in The Deer Hunter.
