Another legacy of Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather movies was that, for a while at least, sprawling epics about American identity and deep explorations of character were hot commodities. The Deer Hunter is fascinating because it simultaneously demonstrates precisely what people love so much about 1970s movies, their complexity, their deliberateness, their distinct aesthetics, while the story of director Michael Cimino and his disastrous followup, Heaven’s Gate, may explain precisely why studios rarely took a chance on projects like this ever again.
The Deer Hunter itself is a wonderfully complex portrait of a group of Pennsylvanian steelworkers who serve in the Vietnam War. But unlike other Vietnam War movies, this one is less focused on the national implications of the war and more on the personal and relational impact that spring out from traumatic experiences. It’s not always intellectually accessible but the emotional tone of the movie is undeniable, and devastating.
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Published: Jul 30, 2013 03:41 pm