The Deer Hunter (1998, DVD)

NOTE - Dr. Freudine is a fictitious psychiatrist and my alter ego who sometimes helps me to review books, movies and music. Last time she was blown away by the documentary Occupation 101.
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After pushing through the auditorium s nearest, jam-packed exit, I become aware that the crowd isn t moving, but milling excitedly around the lobby. Soon I hear loud, but not angry, voices in its midst.

Leo, are you a peace activist? and Leo, are you a paid movie star? and the inevitable Leo, are you married? I gather that there are reporters in for the kill.

No, no, not yet, I hear the American Indian reply in a startled voice, slightly annoyed.

Then are you a deer hunter? asks someone from the crowd not far from me and I frown as he ribs his guy friend with a smile. Everyone is silent. Jostling my way closer to see Leo, I suddenly find my boyfriend still beside me as if protecting me.

Excuse me? Leo returns. I m not sure I understand the question.

Well, you know that 70s anti-war movie with Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken and a bunch of sadistic gooks forcing them to play Russian Roulette while they were prisoners in the Vietnam war? Our heroes were deer hunters, right? Before they left for the war they shot a deer with one shot, but afterwards DeNiro couldn t bear to kill a deer.

Leo hesitates. Are you asking if I ve been to war, become a POW, and, therefore, cannot hunt anymore?

Well, yeah!

I ve never liked to hunt or been to war, but I would like to say something about that overrated, pretentious movie. We will never know an end to war if we allow ourselves to be taken in by such criminally-inept, lie-filled films as The Deer Hunter rather than responsible, anti-war documentaries like Occupation 101. I ominously expect a rash of movies after the war in Iraq to do what The Deer Hunter did after America s great, similar failure in Vietnam. They will cover up our national feelings of inadequacy, humiliation and guilt and make us look and feel good by punishing the savagely-portrayed Iraqis. Peace will never be possible if we don t admit our mistakes.

I watch Leo deliver this sharp-edged speech with growing admiration. He is simply amazing. Nobody looks prepared to take him on, indeed a number of people are leaving, but not the reporters and so I speak up.

Leo, could you be more specific in your criticism of The Deer Hunter, please? Some people probably haven t watched it or did, but don t have your perspective. Thanks so much.

He spies me and nods. I will direct you to an essay the British journalist John Pilger wrote in 1979 shortly after the movie came out, which is called Why the Deer Hunter is a lie and in the book Aftermath: The Struggle of Vietnam and Cambodia

You mean you didn t actually watch the movie, Leo? the young guy who asked him if he was a deer hunter finally finds his voice and shakes his head to his friend.

Yes, I did, but I wonder if you did. A three-hour movie that spends the first forty-five minutes on guys singing nostalgic songs and a corny wedding where drops of wine spilling on the bride s dress portend the blood the groom would spill in Vietnam just doesn t seem like your kind of movie. He holds up a hand while the guy is stymied in how to retort. The Deer Hunter is incredibly boring until the DeNiro character streaks at midnight in the street after the wedding and the next moment we re supposedly in Vietnam while our heroes fight to stay alive. Now, instead of simply boring us, the film disorients us like crazy. Suddenly, after some weird stock footage of real Vietnam scenes, the Americans are prisoners of war somehow and we re supposed to feel scared for them

Sure we are, because the gooks got em and just want to torture em! the guys rages.

Leo sighs. In a movie, especially one not based on a true story, there needs to be more plot and character development for it to be believable. The director Michael Cimino throws us into this utterly wild situation he invented where the VietCong are forcing the Americans to play Russian Roulette and we re supposed to buy it after watching the equally forced symbolism of deer hunting, singing pretty songs and a doomed wedding. The writer basically writes in metaphor and clich throughout the whole movie. He continues with the Russian Roulette theme by having one of our escaped heroes return to playing the game as if everybody in Vietnam is doing the newest craze

I ve heard enough, redskin, the guy interrupts and I cringe for Leo who chuckles.

Spoken like a man without anything intelligent to say, he observes. I m surprised you didn t heckle me inside.

I gasp at this turn of events and have to say something before there s a fist flying. Thanks, Leo, for answering my question so well, I say loudly and everyone gawks at me, including Irish beside me. Leo is amused, though, scratching behind his ear.

Well, I didn t quite finish my thoughts, kind lady. I meant to note that the writer bounces us back to Pennsylvania where the boys are from and when that bores him enough like the rest of us, he jerks us back to Vietnam where the Russian Roulette champion await s the DeNiro character. It s all for sensation and makes no sense and leaves a trail of questions about their motivations for doing what they do, including the so poignant ending that we could see coming from the beginning and just drags it on in its self-importance.

Thank you again. Excellent observations, I say and applaud. With a little hesitation, the remaining crowd joins in until the would-be heckler and his friend huffily storm outside.

I say, Irish hisses in my ear, have you watched The Deer Hunter?

Of course! One of the worst movies I ve seen.

Could I mention something else about the film? Leo speaks up before the applause is over. In Pilger s book I mentioned he explained that the director was never, as he claimed, a medic attached to the Green Berets, nor missed Vietnam because he was involved in defense, a classified job. Instead, according to Pentagon records, he was pursuing a career in advertising at the time of the Tet offensive and was only in the army reserve before draftees were sent to Vietnam. It s a fascinating book that shows how Cimino and Hollywood were remaking history.

I smile, nodding. Surely he convinced people how bad Cimino s direction and the writing are. Maybe the film came in a pretty package because of the cinematographer s use of light in a dark background and the acting could be intense, especially Christopher Walken who won an Oscar, but you can watch them in much more engaging and interesting movies than Best Picture The Deer Hunter. I hope he s wrong in predicting movies like it coming out after the Iraq war, but I doubt it.