***Contains Spoilers if you have never seen the Deer Hunter***
It’s interesting when you watch a film when you’re young and then you grow older and you are able to analyze more of the socio-political themes in it.
the Deer Hunter was a film that came out when America felt it was finally healed from the Vietnam War yet i think it opened up wounds again. the director was accused of fabricating events for Vietnam vets claimed the Russian roulette games with the viet cong never happened. Cimino’s defense was that it was only for the sake of the film’s story.
now that i’m a young man i feel i can say i still love the Deer Hunter as a well made hollywood film however -- i hate the ending. on the most recent version’s DVD commentary Vilmos Zsigmond (the cinematographer for the film) discusses the controversy about the ending. also, when the film came out it was accused of being “Jingoistic,†as in to what extent did their friends death matter? for the sake of patriotism?
while i still love the Deer Hunter i think there are some things to it’s story that are severely socio-politically flawed. but in the end it is a hollywood film and Cimino always said that.
anyone else have any thoughts on this?
It hat been many years since I seen Deer Hunter, but from what I remember it was a pretty twisted flic. My Pops was in the war, and he said stuff like that happened, and worse. He won't say much more than that though. I am going to have to watch it again.
am i the only one who has ever seen the deer hunter? you all know i rarely do this, but pardon me while i...BUMP!
Don't have much to add but my father-in-law was over there and he has some stories to tell that make these movies look tame. It was a rotten "war" that screwed up alot of otherwise normal people.
I was mesmerized by The Deer Hunter when I watched it, but it weirded me out.
I believe that the sociopolitical aspects of the film that you mention lie mostly in too many people thinking of too many films as documentaries. The film was a work of fiction and was, in my view, more of a character exploration than a 'war film.' Heck, I never even really thought of it as a war film, at least in the same vein as say Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc. The war is the setting, but not (or less so) the actual TOPIC of the film. In other words, I think of the war in a 'war film' as being like a character; I did not get that sense from The Deer Hunter, but it has been years since I have seen it.
Another film I think is set in a war but is not really (to me) a war film is Windtalkers. It is more the story of the code talkers and their mission than a story of the war in a larger sense. Maybe I'm splitting hairs.
But people sure do freak out about what they see in movies, don't they? They must REALLY have a hard time with Poe or Lovecraft or even Steven King. "What, you mean that car really CANNOT drive all by itself?" You know, fantasy and reality and all that.