The Deer Hunter Blu-ray Review
God Bless America.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, February 29, 2012
It's somehow fitting that
The Deer Hunter should be coming out on Blu-ray at around the same time that Meryl
Streep is getting a whole new round of accolades concurrent with her at least somewhat unexpected Best Actress
Academy Award win for
The Iron Lady. For it was, as incredible as it may seem (at least to those of us who are
loathe to admit how shockingly old we've become)
The Deer Hunter that first introduced film audiences to the
amazing talent of Streep, who prior to this film had just had a bit role in Fred Zinneman's
Julia as well as the
miniseries
Holocaust. Who would have predicted that this young ingénue would go on to tower over every
other actress of her generation, with one iconic performance after another, a record setting number of Oscar
nominations (including her first for
The Deer Hunter) and (as of 2012 anyway) three wins to her credit. But
Streep's contributions, as awesome as they are, to
The Deer Hunter are still relatively minor to what is one of
the most impressive ensemble pieces of the seventies. A large cast including Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John
Cazale, George Dzundza and John Savage help bring to life Michael Cimino's sprawling opus of Pennsylvania steel
workers who end up being traumatized by their experiences in Vietnam.
It's rather interesting to contrast the quick depictions Hollywood offered of World War II once that conflict started with
their somewhat more reticent response to Vietnam. While some lesser known films like
The Boys in Company C
(also recently out on Blu-ray) may have predated
The Deer Hunter, it was really Michael Cimino's film that put
the Vietnam War squarely on the cinematic map. What's so fascinating about this is the fact that so much of the film
takes place outside of the war torn jungles of that far off Asian land. But that's also what lends
The Deer
Hunter its inescapable emotional fury. This is a film about
context, one that contrasts home life with the
turmoil of being in a war, which doesn't necessarily mean being in battle.
Michael Cimino crafts
The Deer Hunter as something akin to the trifold religious murals of yore, triptychs that
offered three distinct yet interrelated panels. It's worth noting that
The Deer Hunter is well into its second hour
before Vietnam really rears its ugly head, though the conflict is certainly part and parcel of the subtext of the first
section
of the film, which develops the relationships between Michael (De Niro), Nick (Walken), and Steven (Savage). There is
also
a handful of other characters that are introduced in this opening gambit, including Nick's girlfriend (and soon fiancée),
Linda (Streep). Cimino admirably sets up a very real feeling blue collar community here, with some telling little moments
that instantly convey the environment of these characters, moments like Linda's father slapping her into submission in
an
early scene, or the bantering interplay between the guys when they go deer hunting one last time before Nick, Steven
and Michael head over for their tour of duty in Vietnam. The opening third of the film is in some ways the slowest
aspect
of
The Deer Hunter, but patience is more than repaid when the second two acts revisit many of the character
beats introduced in this segment.
The film takes a sudden and violent turn as we move into Vietnam, with a devastating set of scenes that instantly let us
know we're in a strange new world where any semblance of morality has fallen by the wayside. The feeling of moral
turpitude increases exponentially when the three buddies end up as prisoners of the Vietcong, which is when the
central emotional impact of
The Deer Hunter is probably most deeply felt. The captors make the prisoners play
Russian Roulette for their entertainment, and while Michael and Nick seem more able to handle the stress (at least
relatively speaking), Steven begins to crumble under the pressure, leading to some devastating results. Michael's quick
thinking ultimately leads to the trio being able to finagle an escape in one of the film's most visceral sequences, but the
emotional trauma that Nick and Steven have been through end up coloring the rest of the film in unexpected ways.
The third act returns stateside, focusing mainly on Michael, whose long unrequited love for Linda begins to push once
more to the surface. Without spoiling any major plot points for those who haven't seen the film, both Steven and Nick
have to confront various calamities, either physical or emotional (or indeed both), and those efforts provide forward
momentum to the film, which ends up teetering toward a climactic scene between Michael and Nick which remains one
of the most gut wrenching moments in the entire history of film. A coda of sorts (literally and figuratively, since it's
sung) finds several key characters gathered at a local pub in the wake of a devastating tragedy, where they sing a
rather morose verse of "God Bless America". It's a moment completely devoid of irony and it remains a scene of
incredible emotional impact.
There are few in the annals of Hollywood who have risen so quickly and then fallen so disastrously fast as director
Michael Cimino. After having impressed Clint Eastwood with his work on
Magnum Force, Eastwood optioned
Cimino's
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which was successful enough Cimino was able to write his own ticket for his
follow up film. Cimino turned to his
Silent Running co-writer Deric Washburn for
The Deer Hunter (trivia
note: the third writer on
Silent Running was Steven Bochco), and Washburn delivered at the very least an
outline for what ultimately became
The Deer Hunter. As cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond details in the
excellent commentary accompanying this Blu-ray, Cimino favored improvisation and encouraged his actors to stretch out
beyond the bounds of the actual written word, something that helps to give this film such a viscerally real feeling. And
while it can't be denied that there are elements of the excess that would doom Cimino's next film,
Heaven's
Gate (and, as a result, Cimino's career, at least by and large), despite its length and sometimes slow pace,
The
Deer Hunter is carefully structured and brilliantly staged. A young and still relatively inexperienced cast also does
stellar work, with Walken earning a much deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance.
This is not a perfect film by any means, though. A lot has been written about the use of Russian Roulette as a central
metaphor when there is little if any documentary evidence proving that the Vietcong ever engaged in this kind of
emotional (and physical) torture. But that perhaps misses Cimino's larger point that anyone involved in war is in a very
real way playing Russian Roulette, whether or not they want to. It may not be historically accurate (and it may indeed
be too provocative for its own good), but emotionally it seems—well, on target. The film probably could have been
trimmed by at least a half hour or more and felt more to the point, and its discursiveness (a trait that went completely
off the rails in
Heaven's Gate) has led some to feel that there's nothing at the center of the film, which might be
a major mistake. Seen now over thirty years after its release,
The Deer Hunter remains one of the most
emotionally devastating experiences ever caught on film.
The Deer Hunter Blu-ray, Video Quality
The Deer Hunter is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Pictures with an VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in
2.35:1. For the record, this is now the second Universal Blu-ray release in their 100th Anniversary series that does not
have a Main Menu (
All Quiet on the Western Front was the first), so like some of the recent MGM-Fox catalog releases, this film
will start (after previews) and then you must hit the Pop Up Menu button to access Set Up and Extras. Universal catalog
releases always come in for brickbats, though I personally seldom feel they're as hideous as some insist they are. Let's
address the biggest issue that most people have with Universal catalog releases, the often misunderstood or
misattributed DNR. Is there DNR applied to this release? Probably, though certainly not to any problematic degree.
Look at screencap 3 of the Pennsylvania factory for one good example: if egregious DNR had been applied, not only
would
grain be missing (which it isn't), the mist and smoke in this scene would also either be frozen or waxy looking (which it
also isn't). As Vilmos Zsigmond mentions in his fascinating commentary, the film utilizes quite a bit of stock footage
(mostly for establishing shots), and in order to match the overly grainy look of that footage, he and Cimino found that
they had to use copies of copies of prints since the Kodak film was so resilient to attempts to push contrast or exposure.
This is where the DNR is probably most apparent, as the transitions from the stock footage to the actual footage of the
film are somewhat more noticeable now. Even so, this transfer looks wonderfully fluid and natural in motion, without any
plastic smearing quality that would suggest too aggressive DNR.
Putting aside the always contentious issue of DNR, the rest of this transfer is wonderful looking, with nicely saturated
colors, beautiful sharpness and pleasing fine detail, and overall good stability (as my colleague Svet Atanasov mentioned
in his
review of the
StudioCanal release of
The Deer Hunter, there is some occasional very minor shimmer to deal with here and
there). Digital sharpening also adds minimal haloing to a couple of backlit scenes that is noticeable but not overly
distracting. On the other hand, shadow detail is superb, especially in the many dark interior scenes which are quite
frequent throughout the film.
