The Deer Hunter: Special Edition (18)

Backstage at the 1979 Academy Awards. Michael Cimino finds himself in a lift with Jane Fonda. She clutches one Oscar (Best Actress, ComingHome), he clutches two (Best Director and Best Film, The DeerHunter). “I offer my congratulations, she turns her back,” recalls Cimino on his candid, loquacious commentary. “She won’t even talk to me...”

“Hanoi Jane” loathed The Deer Hunter: its portrayal of the VC as demonic gooks; the unverified scenes of US troops forced into playing Russian roulette; a refusal to offer historical analysis; and the closing image of a fractured community fumbling for solace by mumbling “God Bless America”. Valid criticisms, all – and all rebuffed in the extras, the arguments and counter-arguments bobbing along amid enough anecdotal flotsam and jetsam to staunch the River Kwai.

There’s nothing on this two-disc Special Edition to tempt you to trade in your single-spinner, but Cimino’s epic drama just gets better with each airing. A tragedy in three acts, it traces Pennsylvanian steelworkers Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken) and Steven (John Savage) to the hell of ‘Nam and back, Cimino finding the political in the personal as an uproarious wedding reception is later mirrored by a fudged homecoming party and a silent funeral. Magisterial and mythic, The Deer Hunter’s lingering images – its space and spectacle – make most modern day films seem rinky-dinky in comparison.

DVD Extras:

Director and critic commentary
Cast and crew interviews

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