The Deer Hunter (1978)

I am not a fan of bloated, over long, indulgent movies. This one is the epitome of bloated, over long, indulgent movies.

The story was basically interesting: working class guys who like to deer hunt are sent to Vietnam, experience all of the horrors of that war, and most of them come home to a place they don't fit anymore. But, my god, what it took to get that basic story was sooooooo long. I didn't need that much of the wedding. I didn't need the virtually pornographic landscape ode to deer hunting. I didn't need to see so much of the Russian Roulette game (I understand this impact this was supposed to have but it really just made me almost immune to it's effects--I knew the outcome of the film the longer it lingered with that gun game). I didn't need any of the drawn out parts of the film. And I certainly didn't need the cast singing "God Bless America" at the end.

It seems the film took what was an interesting poignant storyline and proceeded to get too ambitious with the scope but instead of making the narrative too big they made the story too small for the movie. There wasn't enough character development or information to compete with the amount of screen time the deer got. And, while I was saddened by the events and appropriately horrified at the disaster Vietnam was, I was not sympathetic to any of the characters--I just didn't connect. And, I was a little confused by the few news reel shots included--the color schemes didn't flow with the film so they were kind of obvious.

I can sort of see why people like it and I understand watching it because of the way it shows Vietnam but I was not impressed.