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The Deer Hunter (1978)

Director: Michael Cimino

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3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This is probably one of the few great films of the decade. It's the tale of three Pennsylvanian steelworkers, their life at work, at play (deer-hunting), at war (as volunteers in Vietnam). Running against the grain of liberal guilt and substituting Fordian patriotism, it proposes De Niro as a Ulyssean hero tested to the limit by war. Moral imperatives replace historical analysis, social rituals become religious sacraments, and the sado-masochism of the central (male) love affair is icing on a Nietzschean cake. Ideally, though, it should prove as gruelling a test of its audience's moral and political conscience as it seems to have been for its makers.

Author: CA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

ray said...

Posted on Aug 01 2009 08:46 Not only one of the great films of the decade, but easily one of the best films ever. Anyone who disagrees should go back to their comic books.

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David Van Taylor said...

Posted on Jul 23 2009 21:12 "One of the few great films of the decade"--???? This is the golden age of American film. Just naming the other movies featuring John Cazale belies that: Dog Day Afternoon, Godfather I, Godfather II. Or how about other Vietnam films: Apocalypse Now, Coming Home, Hearts and Minds ... Or other deNiro films directed by that slouch named Scorsese: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull (OK, 1980 but still) ... Or you might remember another actor named Jack Nicholson, whose work in the '70's included, let's see: Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, The Last Detail, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining ... oh yeah, who directed The Shining? Stanley Kubrick: A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon ... And of course we've barely left the US here ...
Time Out--hello??

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Ray Brown said...

Posted on Dec 13 2008 13:20 From heaven in the mountains of Pennsylvania to the hell of the war in Vietnam and beyond we follow the lives of three friends and their love for each other and their country.

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