The Oscar Project #51: The Deer Hunter (1978)

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.

The Oscar Project #47: The Godfather Part Two (1974)

by Chris Marshall:

Before I get into The Godfather Part Two, a caveat/boast: I passed my thesis defense today. What this means for the blog post is that I am writing it on a very strict deadline. It’s a shame, too, because it probably means the writing won’t be so good, and I really wanted to have something profound to say about this movie.

Ok, so maybe I never have anything profound to say about any movie, but this film is better than most, and it seems like it would lend itself to some kind of Great Writing. As magnificent as it was, though, I still have to argue that the original film was better. This is by no means a slight against the sequel, just an acknowledgment that The Godfather was one of the greatest movies ever made, and it’d be hard to top.

The Godfather Part Two is in some sense a continuation of The Godfather, in that it spends most of its time focusing on Michael’s ascent to absolute power over the family. In addition, though, there are multiple flashbacks to the life of young Vito Corleone, this time played by Robert De Niro. Some have described the stories of Vito and Michael as being parallel; there is some truth to this, but I would argue that their timelines are going in opposite directions.