When the Deer Hunter came out, my friend and I walked into the theater after work happy as two idiots. When we came out we walked three blocks back to our cars without a word. We just nodded to each other and left. I was in a funk for two weeks. It was like one of those guys was a family member. This is one hell of an under rated masterpiece. Thank you, thank you, thank you for understanding the importance of the wedding, the drop on the gown that foreshadows the unhappiness to come and the deep life long comradery the characters had. Nicely done gents, you gave this work it's due.
Great review/reaction. Coming from a Ukrainian ethnic background this film always had a certain resonance with me. I’ve been to countless Orthodox weddings and funerals. They all looked and felt like the wedding in this film. It’s definitely not something you see depicted very often in North American movies. I recall seeing this in the theatre and just not knowing what to expect. It really subverts expectations. This film came out not long after the end of Americas involvement in Vietnam. Apocalypse now was to follow. Definitely not the kind of movies which followed Ww2 or Korea. As always thanks for the content. I really appreciate you two and your insights.
At this time , Meryl Streep was living in Manhattan with John Cazale, who was about 12-13 years older than her and was considered a master actor by those in the trade, but without that je ne sais quoi to make him a male celebrity or" leading man"...De Niro allegedly said he learned most of what he knew of acting from Cazale. I believe DeNiro insisted on both Streep and Cazale being in the movie as condition for his acting in it.
Man, Major's reaction to the roulette sequences was all of ours the first time we saw it, you really brought back the memory of just excruciating tension. There's only, like, fifteen minutes in Vietnam, and that's enough for me, lol.
The beginning is essentially a carbon copy of the beginning of The Godfather. It allows you to meet all the characters in one "granted" very long scene. It's no coincidence that this and the Godfather are up there as the best movies of all time. It's a shame that the big movie companies just will not risk forking out on a 3 hour movie these days. In fact most, if not all my favorite movies are 3 hours long, so me thinks they are missing the trick. Great reaction guys.
This movie was the VERY first Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep. Another Vietnam war film that year Coming Home also was big in awards season as both Jane Fonda and Jon Voigt won Oscars for actor and actress.
I remember when this was filming at various locations near where I lived, as a junior in high school. There were occasional news articles about it, and one that was a bit humorous was that although some filming occurred in Clairton and around Pittsburgh, most of the urban outdoor scenes were filmed in Ohio or West Virginia: Cleveland, Youngstown, Steubenville, Weirton, e. g. Because after the Clean Air Act reduced pollution, the areas closer to Pittsburgh had put more effort into cleaning up and cleaning off buildings, so they weren't grimy enough to play themselves a decade or so earlier on screen. The mountains are all wrong for the area, though; the hunting scenes were shot in the Pacific Northwest
I was born in Youngstown, grew up near Warren, and got my degree from Youngstown State just a few years after this movie came out. Regardless of where it was filmed, it perfectly captures that culture, that melting pot of steelworkers, more perfectly than any other.
The wedding scene---going on for so long-- the 70s everyday life was much less distracted. Social events were not distracted and they went on. Almost no tv even. People's pace in the us and their attention span were attuned to the real world in a different way than now. There was no sense of "lets get past this onto something else entirely." Mainly because probably everyone you wanted to be with was at the event.
9 unshot bucks indeed. If you haven't already seen it, there is a war movie with a character named Major Major Major, whom the U.S. military in its infinite wisdom and obviously perverse sense of humor, rapidly promotes to the rank of major. Catch-22. I read it when I was 10 years old and it made a very profound impression on my views about war, the military and bureaucracies in general. The movie does a pretty good job at adapting it to screen. Nasdrovya!
I was selling vacuum cleaners door to door in that very same Rust Belt town the year after this movie came out. The big plant closures were in 1977, so the shock was just setting in. I had to go pick up a lot of vacuum cleaners that I sold to people whose credit approval fell through.
When this movie came out I was in the Army in the Military Police Corps stationed in Panama. There was a lot of buzz about this movie even in Panama, and new movies didn't come to military bases outside of the US quickly, usually on their 2nd run. But a young soldier, a fellow MP ended up playing Russian Roulette and shot himself in the head. He wasn't in my Platoon or squad so I only knew him by sight so I wasn't close to him, but we all felt bad that someone that young would do such a thing. No one in command really talked about it, I think they just chalked it up to a suicide. I didn't watch this movie till years later sometime in the 80's. After this soldier killed himself I just wasn't interested in it after that. But it is a pretty intense movies. I knew a lot of folks who served in Viet Nam.
It took me a lot of viewings to put my finger on what the Russian roulette was all about. To me it represents the events and extreme pain that stays in the minds of those who suffer trauma in the firm of PTSD. It may be buried in their subconscious but it stays there. Its too painful to fully confront and purge. They want to get away from it but they cannot help visiting it over and over. There are new therapies using drugs that dissociate fear from memories and allow a psychotherapist to take a patient there and deal with the pain. In the sense of this movie, it might allow Michael to finally take that gun away from Nicky.
45 minutes in: how long does this wedding last??? 65 minutes in: I would like to go back to the wedding now, please. Offhand, I can't think of a sadder movie. It's not without hope. But gosh, it's... sad. Please tell me it will soon be time to look at some Arthur Penn movies. Bonnie and Clyde and/or Little Big Man, please...? B&C re-envisioned the gangster movie and LBM is the quintessential revisionist Western. Both are entertaining as all get out.
What a difference 10mins can make. oofff! So necessary to tell a great story, but please can we go back to the wedding! Yes, Penn is on the way after ward and October when we visit horror films. I hate horror films so the reactions will be great as I will be misearable.
Yeah man, Arthur Penn is criminally overlooked. He made a lot of great films, Miracle Worker, Night Moves, Missouri Breaks, Mickey One and even his first film, The Left Handed Gun, broke the western mould before Peckinpah and others did, and it’s a cool film. It kinda seems he got lost in the shuffle during the Rafelson/Ashby/Hopper revolution. Little Big Man might be my favourite western.
Great reaction to a classic that tends to get overlooked. Love Christopher Walken. Would love your reaction to The French Connection and the loose sequel The Seven Ups. Both have legendary car chases in them. Both Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are great.
I KNEW you would get to the Vietnam sequence.....and immediately wish you were back at the reception! 🤣 I've never seen you guys react to a movie like this.....but then again, there aren't a lot of movies like this one! I remember being in a depressed funk for about a week, I could not shake this movie. It's definitely gone down in history as one of the most depressing movies ever, lol. And also, it's in the trio of 70s Vietnam movies : Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now and Coming Home, and it's in the quartet of most classic Vietnam movies when you add in Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Haven't seen you guys in forever, just been working, sorry it's been so long! HAD to see you react to this most fundamental of 70's movies, most fundamental of war movies and most fundamental of De Niro (and Walken/Streep/Savage...) performances. (A few years ago, De NIro said the most difficult scene he's ever had to film is when he goes and visits John Savage in the hospital. The filming of the helicopter stunt was pretty hairy, that's really them.
The movie says so much and it affected me for at least two weeks after. It made me reconsider what types of movies I wanna make and what stories I wanna tell. How can I make them personal, feel alive, and lived in? Stories about all types of war, all types of fights: physical war, mental war, and/or emotional war. Just how far do we sometimes understand how far we can be pushed and when we hit our breaking point. It's just a brilliant film. Wait, NO! the helicopter scene was them doing their own stunts... looking this up now that is crazy! But I also have a love of respect for it. When he goes to visit him and his sole mission is to give his friend a comforting hug and to move him out of there and back into humanity. Absolutely amazing.
@@MajorProgress I totally relate, I'm blown away it affected you to the point where you were re-evaluating your own work! That's incredible! But I understand, I was the same way (most people were) after I saw it, I couldn't shake it. That's the power of cinema, right there. Look no further! And man oh man, you see this movie you can't believe anyone would have the balls ever to put down Robert De Niro as an actor! (which is apparently a thing over the last few years, bizarrely). He did this, then he did "Raging Bull" right after. Then "The King Of Comedy". Amazing.
Love your reactiobs/analysis, and live the war film genre (as well as the Westerns). For what it's worth, and perhaps with October coming up, I'd love to get your thoughts on the groundbreaking Fritz Lang's M, with a very young Peter Lorre, if you're so inclined. Either way, I'm looking forward to your next viewing, as always. Thank you!
Ever since seeing this movie in my youth. I have driven through and flown to PA many times. I think this movie left such an impact that I disliked the state as it was ALWAYS raining or cloudy or…and I’ve driven on freeways where you could see an Eastern European looking small town with the Russian Orthodox churches off in the distance and it was foreboding and depressing. I think the movie hunting scenes were actually filmed in WA (I could be wrong), but this movie made me hyper-aware of the state. Only twice (in many trips) have I been in Pennsylvania where it wasn’t gloomy. Williamsport around 2016 and Philadelphia in 2002. Every other time and every city I ever visited it was miserable (Allentown, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre), specific cities I remember where I would think it was either raining, gloomy/overcast and literally thinking of Deer Hunter and how the state always had a negative vibe to me. This movie damaged my sense of the place.
Missed going to Viet Nam by two years. Lucky me. I feel very bad for those who did go, Fuckin' A. Such a depressing movie, only ever watched it once, until now.
That first Russian Roulette scene after their captured ranks right up there next to 1983's Scarface chainsaw/bathroom scene as probably some of the most intense I've ever seen in a movie. I saw these back in the 1980's as a teenager and had to pick my chin up off the floor... like holy f*ck, after I crawled out from under the covers though, ;) Great movies!
There were some dumb aspects to this movie that didn't bother me till years later. For one, the notion that Nicky's luck could hold out that long playing Russian Roulette. Ludicrous to imagine he'd survive more than a few games, let alone weeks.
The four movies form a set, all from different directors, each a classic in its own way: The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket.
I saw this when it came out. My uncle, a Vietnam combat vet, went to see it with a friend. When he came home, I asked him what he thought. What I remember him saying immediately was, "They were all too old."
The roulette scenes aren't the heaviest when watched back over the years.The beauty of the movie is outside of that. Movies are filmed and reacted to rather than watched nowadays
When the Deer Hunter came out, my friend and I walked into the theater after work happy as two idiots. When we came out we walked three blocks back to our cars without a word. We just nodded to each other and left. I was in a funk for two weeks. It was like one of those guys was a family member. This is one hell of an under rated masterpiece. Thank you, thank you, thank you for understanding the importance of the wedding, the drop on the gown that foreshadows the unhappiness to come and the deep life long comradery the characters had. Nicely done gents, you gave this work it's due.
The acting in this film is on another level by everyone, always enjoy watching John Savage, just brilliant, thanks again!
Yes, some real heavy actors and acting in this movie. Even the minor supporting actors were phenomenal.
Great review/reaction. Coming from a Ukrainian ethnic background this film always had a certain resonance with me. I’ve been to countless Orthodox weddings and funerals. They all looked and felt like the wedding in this film. It’s definitely not something you see depicted very often in North American movies. I recall seeing this in the theatre and just not knowing what to expect. It really subverts expectations. This film came out not long after the end of Americas involvement in Vietnam. Apocalypse now was to follow. Definitely not the kind of movies which followed Ww2 or Korea. As always thanks for the content. I really appreciate you two and your insights.
At this time , Meryl Streep was living in Manhattan with John Cazale, who was about 12-13 years older than her and was considered a master actor by those in the trade, but without that je ne sais quoi to make him a male celebrity or" leading man"...De Niro allegedly said he learned most of what he knew of acting from Cazale. I believe DeNiro insisted on both Streep and Cazale being in the movie as condition for his acting in it.
I've watched this film many times, and the ending still makes me cry. What a powerful film. 10/10 for me.
Man, Major's reaction to the roulette sequences was all of ours the first time we saw it, you really brought back the memory of just excruciating tension. There's only, like, fifteen minutes in Vietnam, and that's enough for me, lol.
Thanks for the reaction . The acting in this film is as good as it gets.
The best bit is De Nero on the mountain and not shooting the deer.
The beginning is essentially a carbon copy of the beginning of The Godfather. It allows you to meet all the characters in one "granted" very long scene. It's no coincidence that this and the Godfather are up there as the best movies of all time. It's a shame that the big movie companies just will not risk forking out on a 3 hour movie these days. In fact most, if not all my favorite movies are 3 hours long, so me thinks they are missing the trick. Great reaction guys.
I think the beginning of The Deer Hunter was more helpful with character development than The Godfather.
I say this is one of the best War movies - it portrays the real effects of war, all 3 survived the war, but did any of them survive intact ?
This movie was the VERY first Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep. Another Vietnam war film that year Coming Home also was big in awards season as both Jane Fonda and Jon Voigt won Oscars for actor and actress.
I remember when this was filming at various locations near where I lived, as a junior in high school. There were occasional news articles about it, and one that was a bit humorous was that although some filming occurred in Clairton and around Pittsburgh, most of the urban outdoor scenes were filmed in Ohio or West Virginia: Cleveland, Youngstown, Steubenville, Weirton, e. g. Because after the Clean Air Act reduced pollution, the areas closer to Pittsburgh had put more effort into cleaning up and cleaning off buildings, so they weren't grimy enough to play themselves a decade or so earlier on screen. The mountains are all wrong for the area, though; the hunting scenes were shot in the Pacific Northwest
I was born in Youngstown, grew up near Warren, and got my degree from Youngstown State just a few years after this movie came out. Regardless of where it was filmed, it perfectly captures that culture, that melting pot of steelworkers, more perfectly than any other.
The wedding scene---going on for so long-- the 70s everyday life was much less distracted. Social events were not distracted and they went on. Almost no tv even. People's pace in the us and their attention span were attuned to the real world in a different way than now. There was no sense of "lets get past this onto something else entirely." Mainly because probably everyone you wanted to be with was at the event.
9 unshot bucks indeed.
If you haven't already seen it, there is a war movie with a character named Major Major Major, whom the U.S. military in its infinite wisdom and obviously perverse sense of humor, rapidly promotes to the rank of major.
Catch-22. I read it when I was 10 years old and it made a very profound impression on my views about war, the military and bureaucracies in general. The movie does a pretty good job at adapting it to screen.
Nasdrovya!
Love seeing you guys occasionally react to things neither of you have seen before. Pls do Once Upon A Time in America eventually♥
Think about where this Rust Belt town was 10 years later. No more goofing around on the mountain, you needed the venison for your freezer.
I was selling vacuum cleaners door to door in that very same Rust Belt town the year after this movie came out. The big plant closures were in 1977, so the shock was just setting in. I had to go pick up a lot of vacuum cleaners that I sold to people whose credit approval fell through.
John Cazale’s last film.
He played the awkward rube in so many movies well.
When this movie came out I was in the Army in the Military Police Corps stationed in Panama. There was a lot of buzz about this movie even in Panama, and new movies didn't come to military bases outside of the US quickly, usually on their 2nd run. But a young soldier, a fellow MP ended up playing Russian Roulette and shot himself in the head. He wasn't in my Platoon or squad so I only knew him by sight so I wasn't close to him, but we all felt bad that someone that young would do such a thing. No one in command really talked about it, I think they just chalked it up to a suicide. I didn't watch this movie till years later sometime in the 80's. After this soldier killed himself I just wasn't interested in it after that. But it is a pretty intense movies. I knew a lot of folks who served in Viet Nam.
It’s my favourite tragedy along with Monsters Ball and Videodrome. Way to go Giggle Boy, u made it. 🦌
long live the new flesh
It took me a lot of viewings to put my finger on what the Russian roulette was all about. To me it represents the events and extreme pain that stays in the minds of those who suffer trauma in the firm of PTSD. It may be buried in their subconscious but it stays there. Its too painful to fully confront and purge. They want to get away from it but they cannot help visiting it over and over.
There are new therapies using drugs that dissociate fear from memories and allow a psychotherapist to take a patient there and deal with the pain. In the sense of this movie, it might allow Michael to finally take that gun away from Nicky.
Still Robert DeNiros BEST performance… now… if this film was green lit today who would you cast in your top 3 leads?? 😅
Have you guys seen Last of the Mohicans ?
I have not. I think Richard probably has.
45 minutes in: how long does this wedding last???
65 minutes in: I would like to go back to the wedding now, please.
Offhand, I can't think of a sadder movie. It's not without hope. But gosh, it's... sad.
Please tell me it will soon be time to look at some Arthur Penn movies. Bonnie and Clyde and/or Little Big Man, please...? B&C re-envisioned the gangster movie and LBM is the quintessential revisionist Western. Both are entertaining as all get out.
What a difference 10mins can make. oofff! So necessary to tell a great story, but please can we go back to the wedding! Yes, Penn is on the way after ward and October when we visit horror films. I hate horror films so the reactions will be great as I will be misearable.
Yeah man, Arthur Penn is criminally overlooked. He made a lot of great films, Miracle Worker, Night Moves, Missouri Breaks, Mickey One and even his first film, The Left Handed Gun, broke the western mould before Peckinpah and others did, and it’s a cool film. It kinda seems he got lost in the shuffle during the Rafelson/Ashby/Hopper revolution. Little Big Man might be my favourite western.
Good job guys
Great reaction to a classic that tends to get overlooked. Love Christopher Walken. Would love your reaction to The French Connection and the loose sequel The Seven Ups. Both have legendary car chases in them. Both Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are great.
I KNEW you would get to the Vietnam sequence.....and immediately wish you were back at the reception! 🤣 I've never seen you guys react to a movie like this.....but then again, there aren't a lot of movies like this one! I remember being in a depressed funk for about a week, I could not shake this movie. It's definitely gone down in history as one of the most depressing movies ever, lol. And also, it's in the trio of 70s Vietnam movies : Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now and Coming Home, and it's in the quartet of most classic Vietnam movies when you add in Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Haven't seen you guys in forever, just been working, sorry it's been so long! HAD to see you react to this most fundamental of 70's movies, most fundamental of war movies and most fundamental of De Niro (and Walken/Streep/Savage...) performances. (A few years ago, De NIro said the most difficult scene he's ever had to film is when he goes and visits John Savage in the hospital. The filming of the helicopter stunt was pretty hairy, that's really them.
The movie says so much and it affected me for at least two weeks after. It made me reconsider what types of movies I wanna make and what stories I wanna tell. How can I make them personal, feel alive, and lived in? Stories about all types of war, all types of fights: physical war, mental war, and/or emotional war. Just how far do we sometimes understand how far we can be pushed and when we hit our breaking point. It's just a brilliant film.
Wait, NO! the helicopter scene was them doing their own stunts... looking this up now that is crazy! But I also have a love of respect for it.
When he goes to visit him and his sole mission is to give his friend a comforting hug and to move him out of there and back into humanity. Absolutely amazing.
@@MajorProgress I totally relate, I'm blown away it affected you to the point where you were re-evaluating your own work! That's incredible! But I understand, I was the same way (most people were) after I saw it, I couldn't shake it. That's the power of cinema, right there. Look no further! And man oh man, you see this movie you can't believe anyone would have the balls ever to put down Robert De Niro as an actor! (which is apparently a thing over the last few years, bizarrely). He did this, then he did "Raging Bull" right after. Then "The King Of Comedy". Amazing.
Love your reactiobs/analysis, and live the war film genre (as well as the Westerns). For what it's worth, and perhaps with October coming up, I'd love to get your thoughts on the groundbreaking Fritz Lang's M, with a very young Peter Lorre, if you're so inclined.
Either way, I'm looking forward to your next viewing, as always. Thank you!
Ever since seeing this movie in my youth. I have driven through and flown to PA many times. I think this movie left such an impact that I disliked the state as it was ALWAYS raining or cloudy or…and I’ve driven on freeways where you could see an Eastern European looking small town with the Russian Orthodox churches off in the distance and it was foreboding and depressing. I think the movie hunting scenes were actually filmed in WA (I could be wrong), but this movie made me hyper-aware of the state. Only twice (in many trips) have I been in Pennsylvania where it wasn’t gloomy. Williamsport around 2016 and Philadelphia in 2002. Every other time and every city I ever visited it was miserable (Allentown, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre), specific cities I remember where I would think it was either raining, gloomy/overcast and literally thinking of Deer Hunter and how the state always had a negative vibe to me. This movie damaged my sense of the place.
Missed going to Viet Nam by two years. Lucky me. I feel very bad for those who did go, Fuckin' A. Such a depressing movie, only ever watched it once, until now.
For comedy Tropic thunder
That first Russian Roulette scene after their captured ranks right up there next to 1983's Scarface chainsaw/bathroom scene as probably some of the most intense I've ever seen in a movie. I saw these back in the 1980's as a teenager and had to pick my chin up off the floor... like holy f*ck, after I crawled out from under the covers though, ;) Great movies!
🤙
the link to Strangers in the Night doesn't go anywhere
Ok I’ll see what up
ua-cam.com/video/TRL3HuftrDw/v-deo.html
This is a Horror Film!
There were some dumb aspects to this movie that didn't bother me till years later. For one, the notion that Nicky's luck could hold out that long playing Russian Roulette. Ludicrous to imagine he'd survive more than a few games, let alone weeks.
React to Platoon please
The four movies form a set, all from different directors, each a classic in its own way: The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket.
I saw this when it came out. My uncle, a Vietnam combat vet, went to see it with a friend. When he came home, I asked him what he thought. What I remember him saying immediately was, "They were all too old."
I read somewhere the whole russian roulette stuff never actually happened in Vietnam but I don’t know what the truth is.
The roulette scenes aren't the heaviest when watched back over the years.The beauty of the movie is outside of that.
Movies are filmed and reacted to rather than watched nowadays
You're not wrong but they play a big part in the over-all narrative. This movie will definitely stick with me for years to come.
Really u never heard of this movie? Go back to school