The Deer Hunter (1978) * * *

Directed by:  Michael Cimino

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, John Savage, George Dzundza, John Cazale

The Deer Hunter overcomes a shaky first half and works much better in the second half, which is actually a lot better than what I thought on my initial viewing some years back.     Some of my original issues with the film remain intact (it easily could've been a half-hour shorter if Cimino didn't decide to show us practically the entire wedding reception), but I found quiet power in other scenes.    Most of these scenes involved DeNiro, who gives one of the best performances of his career here.    He goes to Vietnam gung-ho about serving his country, almost obnoxiously so.    After being captured by the Viet Cong, he is forced to play Russian roulette along with his fellow prisoners and lifelong friends Nick (Walken) and Steve (Savage).   

All three are damaged either physically or mentally by the horrors of the war.    Steve loses his legs, Nick stays in Vietnam and takes up Russian roulette professionally, certainly with the realization that he won't live long.     DeNiro's Mike returns home and retreats into awkward silence.     He can not properly verbalize his emotions and his attempted affair with Nick's fiancee Linda (Streep) proceeds awkwardly, mostly because Vietnam has left him emotionally barren.     Also bothering him is his promise he made to Nick to never leave him in Vietnam, which was made on the night of the wedding reception and done so as a form of drunken idealism.   

Unlike DeNiro's Travis Bickle, Mike is not a repressed loony or a ticking time bomb.     He is quiet and finds comfort in solitude, maybe because the people he left behind couldn't possibly understand the horrors he survived.    Will he ever find a way to move on and rebuild himself?    The final scenes hint at the possibilities for him and for others like him.  

Originally, I felt that the relationship between the friends wasn't very strong, but I realized that their friendships are so long and familiar that they act towards and love each other like fighting brothers.   There may be arguments, but they love each other in the end.     This is likely what forces Mike to take action and go back to Vietnam to return his friend, who managed to stay alive.     Is Mike doing this for himself, Nick, or Linda?  Or a combination of the three?   What he's likely looking for is closure to wounds left gaping by his experience in the war.  

The Deer Hunter is far from perfect, but it played a lot better for me the second time than the first.    The wounds our nation suffered from the war had only just begun to heal back in 1978 and The Deer Hunter reflects that more than anything else.