by Chris Marshall:
I’m glad last year’s winner was a comedy, because Michael
Cimino forgot to put any jokes in The
Deer Hunter. Rarely will you ever see a more depressing film, which is
quite a statement, considering that this decade alone we have seen or will see
a man lobotomized, a bitter custody battle, and several dozen murders.
Released just a few years after the end of the Vietnam War,
this movie tells the story of three friends who enlist in the military and how
that choice affects not only their own lives but the lives of everybody they
know. It’s similar in many ways to The Best Years of Our Lives, except that it shows more than just the aftermath of
the war. You see it all, from a wedding right before they ship out to the most
horrible moments of their war experiences.
The Best Years of Our
Lives is a better movie overall, but I think that seeing exactly what the
guys in The Deer Hunter went through
makes it easier to understand why they’re so irreparably damaged when it’s
over. Even Mike (Robert De Niro), who escapes more or less unscathed
physically, will never be the same.
