I put this in again last night because I had an urge after seeing "Rescue Dawn" earlier in the day. I put it in at 11:30pm and just about finished it, and we are talking a 3 hour epic. I was just so engrossed as I had been many times before.

The performances are so fluid and real you just can't believe this is a fictional, theatrical presentation with genuine actors and not real life people. It's 3 hrs, but you'd think it was 1 as it goes so effervescently.

I just laid there amazed at such cinemtatic achievement. I mean I love Robert DeNiro and Chris Walken, but never more so than in this master stroke by Michael Cimino.

Also, I love war movies (mostly Vietnam) and this is such a different, fresh take on the typical grunts in the field war epic. This was all about character and friendship and the devastating toll war takes on the "walking wounded". Emotionally and physically ravaged, Robert, Christopher, and John Savage just embodied these characters and brought them to a very elevated, heart-felt, and crushing level.

Then I wanted to see where it ranked in the AFI's "100" list and to my shock and awe it was 79th!!! Are you kidding me? 79th seemed so squalid for such a classic. I know there was some controversy that originally surrounded this movie, but there is no way this opus ranks at 79.

Thoughts??

The Russian roulette scene always makes my (Vietnam vet) father jump up and cheer when DeNiro and Walken clear the hut. It's a powerful film, even if it is slow at times.

See that's the thing...I don't think it is slow at all. The length lends itself to that but every single scene is so entrancing and great.

I enjoyed it alot, but they could've had a better ending than everybody sitting around a table singing. Sure you can argue with me that it was "powerful", but I thought it could've went out a little better.

that ending was the entire point of the movie. it was all about that and utterly poignant.

The wedding scenes were excrutiatingly long and I have to fast forward through it every time. The pacing is slow, but its still a great movie.

I loved the ending. I usually FF through a lot of this movie. There is a lot of great scenes in the film, but I think they could have trimmed a lot of the movie.

Does anybody else think that The Deer Hunter and Seven Samurai are more-or-less the same film, just set in different eras?

Not the first time this has been said about a Cimino film.

It definitely could have been shorter but I see where Scott is coming from. A lot of people love the length and I ususally here the same comments about how it's all done to pull you into their lives further so when the shock finally does come you're not just looking at these guys as people in war, you actually feel connected to them. It does work (it did for me the first time around) but not for mulitple viewings...for me anyway.

I personally really like the ending - thought it was perfect.

I've seen this only once, when I was a pre-teen. No movie had ever made me feel so depressed.

I agree with you Scott1598, as this is one of my favorite films of all time. Saw it 3 times theatrically. It's been years since I've seen it, but many scenes still stick in my mind. Made me a Christopher Walken fan, and he certainly deserved his Oscar.

I remember networks wouldn't air it uncut so it was syndicated. A local independent here in KC aired it complete and uncut in prime time. Completely uncut.

they are not even close in similarity.

Been a long time since I watched either movie, forgive me if my memory's faltering... But they're both three hours in length, spend a long/slow first hour introducing you and attaching you to all of the characters in a non-war setting, the characters go to war during the second hour, there's about an hour-and-a-half of intermittent action scenes, and then both movies come to their really poignant and devastating endings, leaving you to wonder about how pointless war really is.

no, very huge stretch. i think you are equating length to similarity. nothing about these two are remotely similar. you don't see the characters in TDH actually fighting a war, it really only depicts their capture and the toll it takes and then how they deal and integrate back into society thereafter.

SS is essentially about elder samurai and them regaining their spirituality and traditions by defending a lowly village from the ravages of a devastating horde.

and TDH really isn't about the pointlessness of war either. the "war/action" scenes maybe total 30 minutes, maybe slightly more and they are anything but typical war scenes. the entire story is about the bonds of friendship, war is kink that hinders their lives but the "pointlessness" of it is not made to be the focus of this particular movie.

see SS again and you'll understand the err of your memory.

Exactly.

one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Not as great as Apocalypse Now

The Deer Hunter is one of the most amazing movies ive ever seen in my life. Ive never gotten so tense while watching a movie. The Russian Roullette scene in the camp is just insanity.

It is so good its ridiculous.

I like Cimino. I think "Year of the Dragon" is sorely underrated, even if it does have some pretty bad dialogue. And "Heaven's Gate" is actually pretty good in its full length director's cut.

The long wedding scene intro is crucial to the story. It makes the juxtaposition to the war scenes much more jarring. IMHO it's perfect.