The deer hunter

[myron21]

Watched the deer hunter last night. Is there any sort of factual basis for all that russian roulette nonsense or is it just pure fantasy, personally I found the film to be a self aggrandising jingoistic piece of american crap.

[andy hughes]

i don't know about the 'russian roulette' scene, but i have to argue vehemently with your assessment of this movie. It's acknowledged as one of the greatest anti-war films ever made. I know I'm not alone when i say that when I saw the film at the cinema, when all thos physically, emotionally and mentally damaged individuals sang 'Gold Bless America' in the final scene, I cried like a girl! Still, I guess we each saw different things when we watched.

[rja211077]

each to their own and all that crap, but of all the adjectives for this film, 'self-aggrandising' and 'jingoistic' are just about the two least suitable. do you actually know what they mean?

[myron21]

The film portrays the Vietnamese as monsters wheras in reality they were the ones that suffered by far the cruelest blow. Two and a half million fatalities at the hands of the americans, I am sick to death of seeing so many films that have glorified american involvement in that war, its gauling to see that angst ridden stare out the window kind of angst regurgitated ad nauseum.

[coyn]

I saw half of it at the cinema around 1977 and walked out half way through.

It is high in my list of worst, most pointless films of all time.

[coyn]

Forgot to add I saw the back end of it at another time a few years later.

[Drusilla]

The Americans have never recovered emotionally from their defeat in Vietnam and seem to grasp desperately for moments of individual honour in the fantasy of movies, because there was none to be found as a nation in the reality of that war.

[jno]

from www.imdb.com: Various critics objected to the Russian roulette sequences, suggesting that such activity never took place in the Vietnam War. Director Michael Cimino was planning on the scenes to cause controversy and simply stated that no one could be certain of the accuracy. Robert De Niro and Cimino reportedly argued as to the realism of the scenes.

The film seems intended to show how unpleasant the war was for Americans. The possibility that it might have been worse for the Vietnamese isn't exactly gone into at great length. I think you're right myron.

[OBonio]

Very good film I thought. Self-aggrandising... no, just a lot of character building (though I must admit the first half does drag). Jingoistic... well, it has to be doesn't it?

Can I recommend going to watch it again. And I mean WATCH it. Prepare all refreshments beforehand. Kick everyone out. Lock all the doors. Listen to every word that is said. Then give us your opinion.