The Deer Hunter (review)

[TMA_1]

Whoa, it is one dman good movie.

I guess you can sum it up in a few ideas. Growing up, testing of faith and strength, changing one's ways.

The main character played by Robert De Niro (my favorite actor) experianced all of these things and more. From a guy growing up in a small steel town, to a "war hero". He and his friends grew up together in a small-townish somewhat normal fashion.

He and his friends decided that on one of their friend's wedding day that they would go to Viet Nam. It shows the days right before they left, and finally when they got there. To me, these little moments in Viet Nam are some of the most intense in any movies I have ever seen. Especially when they are in a small compound holding pow's, including they major characters. This is where the famous russian roulette scene plays, and it is so gut wrentching that it is hard to describe. Somehow they are able to escape but the deamons left inside them never do. Especially for Nick, one of the friends of michael (robert de niro). He goes insane and joins an illegal gambling ring centered around russian roulette, where people gamble for their lives.

The most redeeming part is when De Niro comes home, a more mature and more emotionally scarred man. It is how he grows up that is neat, and how he faces what has happened to him. I love how he goes up with his friends in the mountain to hunt deer, he is in his element, and before the war ti was always "one shot one kill". De Niro always killed his game with one shot. When hunting afterwords though, he cant bring himself to kill any deer. Finally in the night when they rest in the lodge in the mountains, he confronts one of his hunting buddies who never went to nam. He foolishly plays with a pistol, pointing it at a friend who makes fun of him. He threatens to shoot him (obviously not meaning any harm because he thinks the gun is unloaded). THe friend was going to shoot the supposedly unarmed gun, but robert de niro takes the gun from him and shows that it was loaded, he gets so angry that he takes all bullets out of the gun but one, and spins the cylander, points it at his head and fires, scaring the crap out of him. Stupid, but understandable from what horrers he has seen.

In the end De Niro comes to terms with everything, but there is still sadness, as he see's flashbacks of how nick dies in the gambling ring. In the end the whole family finds out, de niro never tells any of them what happened, just waited for them to find out by the government. They bury him and have a wake of sorts. This is where it ends, with them singing a somewhat forced and uneasy "god bless america". It means a lot though.

THis was a wonderful movie and I suggest it for anybody who hasent seen it. I warn you that it is intense, and deserves seriousness. As most of what you see in the Viet Nam scenes are realistic to the extreme. Many people will tell you it is dramatized. I know one POW though who actually saw something identical to this happen, and says it is no matter to speculate on. That it really did happen.

TO you guys who have seen it, tell me what you think of the movie.

I know I loved it, and it effected me.

[Anathema]

I saw it years ago, and I know I thought it was very good but I've forgotten most of it :-