Three small town friends, Mike (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steve (John Savage) are excited and happy to serve their country in Vietnam. One comes back with a chest full of medals, one comes back with one working limb, and one comes back in a metal box.
So here's what we're not going to do: we're not going to do a think piece about the horrors of war, the particular willful blindness of patriotic jingoism, or PTSD. This movie has been out for over 40 years and smarter, better people than I have written those pieces.
What we are going to talk about is Christopher Walken. He won an Oscar for this and it was probably the most well-deserved Oscar for a film role in history. He out-acted Meryl fucking Streep. Do you know how hard that is? Now, if you're like me and you've mostly ever seen him as the villain or as a dancer or comedian in silly, supporting roles, this movie may well come as a shock to you. (I mean, most of the movie is designed to shock and appall you. Look at those content tags.) Walken is the beating heart of this film.
We can also talk about Michael Cimino's direction here. The symmetry, the foreshadowing, the nature-as-religion overtones of Heaven and Hell. Beautiful. He also won an Oscar.
Is this, as the original film poster says, "one of the most important and powerful films of all time"? Mmmm. Powerful, certainly. Important? Ehhhhh. I think the documentaries of the time, the news footage, and the historical background and global context are probably more important. But this is an incredibly well-made, harrowing film that I personally will never watch again. Images from this film are seared into my brain now. I can't fix that.
But you can join me in viewing those images! The Deer Hunter is currently streaming on Peacock, but only at their Premium level.
No comments:
Post a Comment