Emotionally stunning film, I don't think it's meant to be realistic.

I saw this movie a long time ago, and I guess I wasn't prepared for it. But this time, Wow!!!

I am surprised at the posters who criticize for the film because it's unrealistic. Not all films about war need to convey the "realness" of war itself.


"The Deer Hunter" is a metaphor. "One shot."

The long wedding sequence, which a lot of posters seem to find boring, is a joyous celebration of life and love. I loved the dancing and the music. The wedding sequence was necessarily long in order to give love and happiness and celebration its due weight. The only character who can't join in and have a good time is John Cazale's, and if you think about it, he was the one who didn't go off to war and face the darkest realities of the human soul. He had the least in him to give and so therefore, he had the least in him to lose. (He was also the least sensitive, asking Michael so casually "So how does it feel to get shot?")

Whereas Nicky's character is the polar opposite. He is the sweetest, most sensitive and luminous soul in the movie and so when he goes off to war and is forced to play that dehumanizing game of RR, he is the one whose loss of innocence is most deeply felt. His point of view, his attitude towards life is the most precious (it is so touching when Nicky tells Michael how much he loves his hometown and his favorite part about deer hunting are "the trees") And that is what we bear witness to. Having to experience this senseless game where life and death carry the same value as a poker chip, his spirit is extinguished. What he thought and felt about life can no longer ever be there for him. And that's probably really why Michael went back to get Nicky. Because he knew that Nicky was special.

"The Deer Hunter" is without a doubt the most powerful movie about war that I have ever seen and one of the most emotionally devastating movies ever made. The director's vision is genuinely epic. ("Paths of Glory" would definitely be my 2nd favorite movie about war. And I have yet to see "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "Apocalypse Now".)

The acting is absolutely top notch. I love Jon Voight in "Coming Home", but I would have given the Oscar to Robert De Niro whose quiet strength is magnetic. His ability to meet the hell of war on its own terms is something to behold. (I also preferred this performance to his Jake Lamotta so, so much. I did not care for that movie or his performance in it a bit.)

John Savage was very good and probably deserved an Oscar nomination. The man has given so many good performances (I especially was impressed by Savage in "Inside Moves") and has consistently been overlooked. A shame.

But rarely has an Oscar been so well-deserved as for Christopher Walken's performance here. He goes from good-natured and loving and sensitive to intensely watchful (during the famous RR sequence, where John Savage is visibly falling apart - which is the more obvious reaction - Walken is almost completely still, and I just wonder what exactly those large, seemingly haunted eyes are taking in. Christopher Walken is also amazingly right for this role physically.) I would have probably been the John Savage character. The stages of his breakdown are more clear cut and very emotional. But what happens to Nicky's soul is devastating. I think that in that one moment where he pulls the trigger in the Vietnam swamp, life can never have meaning for him again. The intensity of his experience in Vietnam is such that it crushed all those notions he'd had - sweet, lovely and quite innocent - about what life was supposed to be. Because of the way the war has impacted his psyche, Nicky is unable to make the kind of resolutions that the fundamentally tougher Michael can make, and the unforgiving nature of his experience has completely overcome Nicky to such a degree that he feels betrayed by the life he has led up until now. And the only thing he can do when Michael says at the end: "Nicky, you're my friend. I love you." is reject Michael's love and friendship, completely and cruelly, and he spits in his eye. To accept Michael's love - or anybody else's, for that matter - would be too much to bear. And Nicky ultimately avenges his life with one shot.

And after having just watched this, I feel absolutely confident in saying this is the best performance Meryl Streep has ever given in her long, award bound career. Not only is her character warm and sweet and vulnerable (so was Sophie Zowistowska), but Streep herself is warm and sweet and vulnerable, which I really don't think she has ever been since. Not only that, but Streep seems just ever so slightly unformed. There is an eagerness in her performance here that is very touching. And she's fresh and there is a genuine spontaneity in her emotions and reactions. And often there seems to be a look of actual surprise in her face. And she was never to have that look again. She was excellent in next year's "Kramer vs Kramer" and deserved every award she got. But I think she's even better here. Too bad it wasn't to last...