The Deer Hunter

This dvd arrived through Netflix at a very stressful moment in my life. I was really hating my job and about two months away from getting married, and needless to say I just wasn't in the mood for a 3 hour Vietnam drama.

I've since quit the job and have been happily married for 4 months. Even then, I had to pump myself up a full 24 hours in advance in order to watch this thing.

The films entire first hour is spent with a group of 6 factory workers working, hunting, giving each other shit and going to/being in their friends wedding. Basically, we get to know the characters. It sounds simple enough, but its so rare nowadays for a film to take such time and care to allow an audience to truly become connected to the people on screen.

For me, that was one of the main reasons why I was so moved by The Deer Hunter, and honestly, I can't remember the last time I was affected by a movie this much. In fact, it's difficult for me to put into words how I feel about it.

I think this also might be my favorite De Niro performace. In a scene where De Niro and his two friends are prisoners and being forced to play Russian Roulette by their captors, there's a moment where he becomes angry and actually pushes and slaps one of the guards. Without spoiling the entire scene, all I can say is that in that one moment, De Niro is so utterly real and believable its remarkable, and it proves why he is a screen legend.


I'm not sure I'll be able to watch The Deer Hunter again, although obviously not because I didn't like it. It is just a film so amazingly realized, with characters that I truly cared about, that I found it almost too hard to watch what they had to go through.

If you havn't seen it, please don't let what I say discourage you. While it is a difficult film, it's also an incredible and rewarding experience, one that i won't forget anytime soon. And for me, that's what watching movies is all about.