The Deer Hunter

1978

Action / Drama / History / War

148
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 91% · 129 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 91% · 100K ratings
IMDb Rating 8.1/10 10 384142 384.1K

vietnam war vietnam veteran small town post traumatic stress disorder post-traumatic stress disorder suicide

Plot summary

Three steelworkers enlist in the army and are sent to Vietnam, one leaving behind a rushed marriage, the others a shared love. What they encounter during the war changes their lives forever.

Director

Michael Cimino Photo
Michael Cimino

Top cast

Robert De Niro Photo
Robert De Niro as Michael
Meryl Streep Photo
Meryl Streep as Linda
Joe Grifasi Photo
Joe Grifasi as Bandleader
Shirley Stoler Photo
Shirley Stoler as Steven's Mother
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay 2160p.BluRay
690.97 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
3 hr 3 min
Seeds 34
2.92 GB
1904*816
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
3 hr 3 min
Seeds 100
8.21 GB
3840*2160
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
3 hr 3 min
Seeds 47

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by pauleskridge 8 / 10

Sowing the seeds of his own disaster

Eight stars. The seeds of Cimino's downfall were sown in his greatest triumph.His Heaven's Gate was the disaster that ended the Hollywood auteur era of the 60s and 70s. And one needs look no further than the first act of The Deer Hunter to see why. Maybe Cimino thought he really needed three one-hour acts for some sort of symmetry. I don't know. What I do know is that act one was about twice as long as it had any business being. It dragged. Painfully so.Now, once we leave Clairton for Vietnam, the film elevates to brilliance. Acts two and three are masterful. Cimino's work here is glorious. And the acting is splendid from the first scene onward. DeNiro and Walken get most of the cred, but Streep and Cazale are both monumental here. Savage and Dzundza also turn in splendid performances. Dzundza's is the easiest to overlook, just as Savage's is the easiest to discount. But his work is needed for the whole tragic tale to hang together. Nick and Steve are both shattered by their experiences. And, for all his love and effort, Mike really can't save them.This is a great film. If Cimino had cut half an hour from act one, it would be a transcendant one. 14 August 2023.
Reviewed by Danherb 9 / 10

Touching drama about the ruin of a group of men's friendship by war

"The Deer Hunter" is not a film about the Vietnam war, as it is wrongly said in many cases."The Deer Hunter" is a film tells the story of 3 friends within about 5-6 years, during which their friendship is repeatedly put to the test.It is primarily a picture of the contemporary life of a group of people around 30 living in a small American town during the Vietnam war.The first hour of the film portrays the every day life of three friends Mike (De Niro), Steven (Savage) and Nick (Walken), who look forward to Steve's wedding but at the same time have to prepare for their commitment in Vietnam. The main actors (above all De Niro and Walken) perfectly picture the character's inner conflict between their easygoing home town life and the forthcoming assignment in Vietnam. Despite this conflict the characters don't show their concerns to their environment.Particularly Nick is worried about him and his friends leaving his home town and perhaps never coming back, but he only tells his best friend Mike of his thoughts, who is much more resolute and sees their engagement as a strong masculine act.Cimino manages to show the simple irrationality of young men, going to a senseless war from which they might never return for the only purpose of glory and approval, and abandoning their settled and happy life for it. The spectator just can't understand why those young men voluntarily sign for the army and give up everything they have. The passage from the small-town-idyll to the war cruelty is greatly pictured. Cimino does not show the three friends' way to Vietnam or the training, he immediately switches from a happy get-together to the cruel war captivity of the Vietcong. This passage perfectly underlines the contrast and the inexplicability of the three men's actions.Although the passage that is set in Vietnam is only about one third of the whole film long, the war is omnipresent at any time, which is probably the best benefit of the whole film, Cimino does not need to bomb the spectator with pictures of crying children, mutilated soldiers or desert battlefields in order to illustrate the cruelty of war. Far from it! The changed behavior of all characters after the friends' returns tell more about wars' capability of changing someone's life, than anything else.And the fact that the many dreams that these three friends had before they went to Vietnam didn't come true, because of their longing for recognition by becoming an acclaimed veteran can even pluck your heartstrings.Cimino's great directing and the cast's awesome acting provide for a touching and honest drama about the friendship of a group of young men, that is destroyed by the Vietnam war.
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