THE DEER HUNTER SPECIAL EDITION (18)
Director: Michael Cimino, 1978
Stars: Robert De Niro, John Savage, Christopher Walken
Out to buy on DVD
UNLIKE SUBSEQUENT combat-heavy efforts, Cimino’s beautifully photographed Vietnam War epic focuses on a group of Polish-American steelworkers in Pennsylvania. They toil in the furnaces, stalk stags in the mountains and raucously celebrate the marriage of Steve (Savage).
The briefer detours to the battlefields of South-East Asia are more controversial. The director was accused of racism in his depiction of the Viet Cong, and the fervent sadists who force Mike (De Niro) and Nick (Walken) into a round of Russian Roulette are certainly one-dimensional.
Still, there is no denying the potency of the scene as a symbol for the randomness of death in wartime, and as a tragic echo of Nick’s “one shot” hunting philosophy. And real dramatic fruit is borne in the final reel, when the severity of the friends’ physical and mental scars becomes apparent.
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Unfortunately Cimino’s career, too, was destined for decline. The film’s five Oscars secured him a blank cheque for Heaven’s Gate — the most infamous disaster in movie history.
DVD Extras: Commentary, interviews, trailer, gallery
Ed Potton (Rating: 4/5)