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The Deer Hunter [1979] | ![The Deer Hunter [1979]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GXFC0QDSL._SL160_.jpg)
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| Director: Michael Cimino
Actors: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £13.99
Buy Used: £1.77
You Save: £12.22 (87%)
New (7) Used (17) from £1.77
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 29083
Format: Pal, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Russian (Original Language), Vietnamese (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 182 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 7321900380065
ASIN: B00005V4V4
Theatrical Release Date: February 23, 1979
Release Date: April 18, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, The Deer Hunter is simultaneously an audacious directorial conceit and one of the greatest films ever made about friendship and the personal impact of war. Like Apocalypse Now, it's hardly a conventional battle film--the soldier's experience was handled with greater authenticity in Platoon--but its depiction of war on an intimate scale packs a devastatingly dramatic punch. Director Michael Cimino may be manipulating our emotions with masterful skill, but he does it in a way that stirs the soul and pinches our collective nerves with graphic, high-intensity scenes of men under life-threatening duress. Although Russian-roulette gambling games were not a common occurrence during the Vietnam war, they're used here as a metaphor for the futility of the war itself. To the viewer, they become unforgettably intense rites of passage for the best friends--Pennsylvania steelworkers played by Robert De Niro, John Savage and Oscar winner Christopher Walken--who may survive or perish during their tour through a tropical landscape of hell. Back home, their loved ones must cope with the war's domestic impact, and in doing so they allow The Deer Hunter to achieve a rare combination of epic storytelling and intimate, heart-rending drama.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 God bless America? October 5, 2008
T. A. Underwood
De Nrio (Michael) and Walken (Nick) are absolutely outstanding in this film and their friendship, and similarly love for the same women, grounds the film as one of the best dramas about war/friendship/community ever made. Cimino has produced a film that is so easy to immerse yourself in and get close to the characters, that it at times seems to transcend fiction and present itself as a historical documentary about the impact the Vietnam War had on America. However, war is not the main theme of this film; rather it is used to show the impact it has on friends, loved ones and close-knit communities. By the end of this powerful epic the viewer is left in no doubt that attempting to conquer other countries is a futile and devastatingly pointless act. It is also disappointingly apparent that films simply ain't made like this anymore and it is a true cinematic great that provides an alternative and authentic snapshot of American society in the 1970s.
 Far too long April 23, 2008
Brendan O. Clarke (Edinburgh)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
So, here is the - ahem - classic film that won five - five!!! - Academy awards in 1978. It must have been a bad year for films because this is not a bona fide classic (and it is far too long).
Structured in five sections contrasting home and war, the film opens in PA, as Mike (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Stan (John Cazale, in his last film- dying of cancer) celebrate the wedding of their friend Steve (John Savage) and go on a final deer hunt before the men leave for Vietnam. Mike treats hunting as a test of skill, lecturing Stan about the value of "one shot" deer slaying and brushing off Nick's urgings to appreciate nature's beauty. As Mike ruminates post-hunt, the film cuts to the horror of Vietnam, where the men are captured by Vietcong soldiers who force Mike and Nick to play Russian roulette for the V.C.'s amusement. Mike turns the game to his advantage so they can escape captivity, but the men are permanently scarred by the episode.
Steve loses his legs; Nick vanishes in the Saigon Russian roulette parlors. Mike returns home alone a changed man, as he rejects the killing of the deer hunt and finds solace with Nick's old girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep). Disgusted by the antics of his male cohorts at home, Mike decides to bring Steve back from a veterans' hospital, and he returns to Saigon to find Nick. As Saigon falls, Mike discovers how far gone Nick is; the survivors gather for a funeral breakfast, singing an impromptu rendition of "God Bless America."
One of several 1978 films dealing with the Vietnam War (including Hal Ashby's Oscar-winning Coming Home), Michael Cimino's second feature The Deer Hunter was both renowned for its tough portrayal of the war's effect on American working class steel workers and notorious for its ahistorical use of Russian roulette in the Vietnam sequences. For me cinema is all about mellifluous dialogue, intricate framing, a good soundtrack and good acting on top of a great story. This movie experiment was a sucess on almost all counts apart from its length. Cimino went onto direct the excremental Heavens Gate after this, and he subsequently sank UA studios with its poor bx office performance. Selah.
On a funny note, its hilarious that the Americans made movies like DEER HUNTER. In the same year, us Brits, released THE WILD GEESE - a throwback to the all-star me-on-a-mission genre of the 1960s delivers a silly boy's own adventure thanks mainly to the scenery-muching hambones (Richard Harris, R. Burton, R.Moore and Hardy Kruger) cast as the eponymous squad of cigar chomping, whiskey swilling mercenaries. Long live the British film industry. Ha ha...
Bee Clarke
 Sophisticated April 6, 2008
Mr. Robin Pain (Cambs United Kingdom)
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
From the very first scenes it is artificial; the car scraping by the lorry, the beer sprayed on the pool table - these are trivial things but it is precisely tiny details that make a thing credible or not.
Real men who do real work don't destroy their vehicles or their club, they relax, and have a good time *because* they have been working.
Yobs (or excited actors) who have been lying in bed all day might act this way.
The first rule of war is "Never put a loaded weapon in the hands of the enemy." This film prefers to ignore it - it shows hardened Viet cong doing just that and *that* is how the hero escapes!
But not before trying to shoot himself first with the same weapon (ostensibly to "improve" the odds - it is Russian roulette).
We are expected to believe that Russian roulette is an exciting betting game, many people are shouting, jumping up and down and laying bets. Another of our heroes has actually become very good at it, presumably by playing it more.
The "finale" has both our heros playing each other at Russian roulette, one to save the other from himself?
I found this hilarious but I don't think that was the film's intention; the final scene shows everyone around the family table weeping.
That was the only (unintentional) humour in the film. To try and maintain dramatic effect there is no humour in it.
Here is another example of dumb script writing: the Deer Hunter, back from the war, has a argument with his old friend (who was not in the war) so he grabs a revolver, puts a slug in it, spins the chamber and points it at his old friend's head and pulls the trigger. (all this is done in high rage). If he was really angry (instead of actor-faking it) why not casually, in a dead calm manner, put the gun to his own head instead and unblinkingly squeeze the trigger?
I suffered three boring hours of this film and it seemed like four. It is sophisticated nonsense.
AUDIO DESCRIPTION INCORRECT November 17, 2007
G. P. Green (England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just bought this dvd on the strength of the description on Amazon which is normally very reliable. I was replacing my stereo vhs which I could have transferred to dvd but wanted the improvement of 5.1 audio, hence I bought this particular edition. The Audio is actually STEREO AND NOT 5.1 so unless the 1st reviewer got his versions mixed up the description is wrong.
NOTE TO AMAZON A HUGELY BENIFICIAL IMPROVEMENT TO YOUR SITE WOULD BE TO DISPLAY THE REVERSE OF THE DVD AS WELL AS THE FRONT SO THE DVD SPECIFICATION WOULD BE UNAMBIGOUS.
Beautifully shot, brilliantly directed masterpiece December 8, 2006
D. W. Bissett (Cumbria, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I know THE DEER HUNTER (1978) has been critcised for it's infamous Russian Roulette scene, but this isn't a political movie. The film is far more interested in the lives of the characters, before they went to the Vietnam war, during the war and when they return home.
Undoubtedly my favourite scene in the movie is the wedding party. It's is long, but it really makes you want to join in and it shows the depth of the characters. The cinematography is beautiful and the performances are all excellent. The mournful guitar theme, which plays out during the opening titles will stay with me forever.
It's just a crying shame that the man who directed this Oscar-winning masterpiece, Michael Cimino, has never repeated the same success throughout his career (his next film was the infamous turkey HEAVEN'S GATE [1980]), but THE DEER HUNTER will be remembered as one of the finest films of the 1970's and will also remind us all that Hollywood truly did made some brilliant movies (no Bruckheimer-explosions, no bland CGI and no show-off media celebrities).
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