All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Average User Score: 8 (52 sources)

Submit Movie Review

Review this film

Tell the world what you think of The Deer Hunter

Your Score:

reset score

Write Your Review:
When writing your review, remember to keep the language clean.

Submit Review Cancel

BoredMark

-1

Agree (1)

Disagree (0)

Its one of the few films that really gets its point across.

Even if you don't like the movie, you can't deny how gripping certain scenes in this movie are. Unbelievable performances and direction - past that I don't even know where to...
[+] Read Full Review

Its one of the few films that really gets its point across.

Even if you don't like the movie, you can't deny how gripping certain scenes in this movie are. Unbelievable performances and direction - past that I don't even know where to start.

This is must see for anybody and probably something you should see.

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted may 5, 2008 10:21 pm pt

hunterharry2

-1

Agree (5)

Disagree (1)

The Deer Hunter is a stunning feat of film-making. A three-hour, character driven film that doesn't bore. De Niro, Walken and Cazale are brilliant and perfectly cast. The direction is beautiful, also. One of the greatest war films ever made,...
[+] Read Full Review

The Deer Hunter is a stunning feat of film-making. A three-hour, character driven film that doesn't bore. De Niro, Walken and Cazale are brilliant and perfectly cast. The direction is beautiful, also. One of the greatest war films ever made, without a doubt. It also features possibly the most intense scene in cinema history (the russian roulette scene with the vietnamese captors and the excellent "DIDI MOU!" - a phrase which I have started to use nowadays).

If you are prepared to pay attention for 3 hours, this movie should reward you with a great experience.

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted may 19, 2007 5:29 am pt

gr8lyknow

-1

Agree (3)

Disagree (0)

A three hour character driven spectacle would be the sentence that comes to mind when thinking of "The Deer Hunter". Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Cazale all allow us to see inside their characters superbly...
[+] Read Full Review

A three hour character driven spectacle would be the sentence that comes to mind when thinking of "The Deer Hunter". Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and John Cazale all allow us to see inside their characters superbly and the culmantion is a movie that, while easily forgettable if you don't adhere to policy of not allowing your attention to wane and don't understand the complexity of friendships and war, gets you feeling about the characters, and gives a fascinating, albeit chilling, insight into the horrors of guerilla warfare.
The story follows the two steel working Russian Orthodox occupants (Walken and DeNiro) of a Pensylvanina town, and in three acts tells their story from social bliss in America, to the harrowing stage of the Vietnam war, and back to America (one alive one dead) where the remaining friend copes with the mental horrors of the aftermath of the war.
This film is superbly told, and until "Crash (2004)", was the only movie which could pull off a purely character driven script. Buy it, see it, and if you don't like it (which would be a surprising event) Ebay it.

Oscar wins:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walken)
Best Film Editing
Best Sounf

Oscar nominations
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Streep) (deserved a win)
Best Actor (DeNiro)
Best Cinematography
Best Original Screenplay (deserved a win)

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted mar 30, 2007 3:48 am pt

elpaquilloloco

-1

Agree (2)

Disagree (1)

A mesmerizing portrait of the scars that a war can leave.
The Deer Hunter is a masterpiece that deals with the marks that a war, in this case Vietnam, leaves on people, in this case three blue-collar guys from a town near Pittsburgh. The...
[+] Read Full Review

A mesmerizing portrait of the scars that a war can leave.
The Deer Hunter is a masterpiece that deals with the marks that a war, in this case Vietnam, leaves on people, in this case three blue-collar guys from a town near Pittsburgh. The performances are excellent, De Niro is mesmerizing as Mike and Christopher Walken is the perfect Nick. Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. The Russian roulettes scenes are one of the most memorable in filmmaking history and the story is very well developed. This film is powerful statement, one of the best films of the strong decade of the seventies and all time and a real tearjecker.
Watch it with patience and you'll have a magnificent reward.
100/100.

[-] Minimize Review

Report Abuse

Posted jan 14, 2007 1:43 pm pt

• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  100
  What distinguishes The Deer Hunter most is its many rich characters and the size of its vision. This is a big film, dealing with big issues, made on a grand scale. Much of it, including some casting decisions, suggest inspiration by "The Godfather." [9 Mar 1979]

  by Gene Siskel | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  90
  A big, awkward, crazily ambitious, sometimes breathtaking motion picture that comes as close to being a popular epic as any movie about this country since "The Godfather."

  by Vincent Canby | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  90
  Brutally memorable, The Deer Hunter is an emotionally draining production that draws a vivid portrait of its characters and their milieu--and succeeds in showing the devastating effect of the war on their lives, as well as their brave attempts at renewal. Unfortunately, the film falters when it comes to the larger questions of America's involvement in Vietnam.

  by Staff (Not Credited) | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  90
  Among the considerable achievements of Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter is the fact that the film remains intense, powerful and fascinating for more than three hours.

  by Staff (Not Credited) | Read Full Review »
• [+] Dallas Observer
  
  70
  Overlong, but with moments of greatness.

  by Luke Y. Thompson | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Reader
  
  50
  While the results are far from unprofessional--the cast is uniformly good, including a characteristically slapped-around Meryl Streep...The male self-pity is so overwhelming that you'll probably stagger out of this mumbling something about Tolstoy (as many critics did when the film first came out in 1978) if you aren't as nauseated as I was.

  by Jonathan Rosenbaum | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New Yorker
  
  50
  A romantic adolescent boy’s view of friendship.

  by Pauline Kael | Read Full Review »