Katherine and I are watching the Academy Award-winning movies in chronological order, starting in 1969 with Midnight Cowboy. Yesterday evening, we watched The Deer Hunter (1978). Both of us had seen parts of it (long ago), but neither of us remembers watching it straight through. It's long (three hours, three minutes), but well done.
The movie has three sections. The first shows the main characters as hard-working, fun-loving (and, I must say, annoying) friends. The second shows them deer hunting in the mountains (the Alleghenies?). The third shows them as soldiers in Vietnam. I was close to falling asleep during the first part, but perked up immediately when the scene shifted to Vietnam. Katherine and I were going to watch half the film yesterday and half this evening, because of its length, but we ended up watching it straight through (with one or two brief interruptions).
I'm no film critic, but the plot seemed reasonably clear to me. The characters were well-developed, the dialogue realistic and (for the most part) intelligible, and the acting (especially by Robert De Niro) excellent. My only criticism is the length. Some of the scenes were drawn out and could have been cut by half or a quarter. The entire film should have lasted 2:15, or 2:30 at the most. I have no idea why it was so drawn out.
The ending can be interpreted in at least two ways. The characters, you may recall, sang "God Bless America" at the dinner table after attending the funeral of one of the friends, who died in Vietnam (by his own hand). The interpretation I favor is this. The characters genuinely love their country, in spite of the personal tragedies they have suffered in defending it. The filmmaker invites the audience to think them stupid for not realizing that they had been used as pawns in a chess game played by government officials. Another interpretation is that the singing itself is sarcastic. The characters realize that they have been used and are mocking the country they once loved. I haven't read the Wikipedia page about this film, although Katherine has. I wanted to get my impressions in "print" before doing so.
If you've seen the film, what did you think?
Addendum: Here is the trailer.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 