The Deer Hunter (1978)

Director: Michael Cimino
Writers: Michael Cimino, Deric Washburn, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn K. Redeker
Genre: War Drama
Duration: 3 hours, 2 minutes
Other Actors: Robert Deniro, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale
MPAA Rating: This film is rated 'R' for Really-graphic-violence. F-bombs and shi-nanigans abound as well, but who gives a rat's abs about swears when the things you're seeing on the screen are so very disturbing. Enjoy!
My Score: 8 out of 10
Available to Own: DVD and Blu-Ray
Similar Films: CASUALTIES OF WAR, PLATOON, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, FULL METAL JACKET

Russian Footsie?

Movie in a Sentence: The Vietnam conflict affects the lives of a small tight-knit group of young Pennsylvania steel-workers, focusing mainly on the friendship of Michael (Deniro), Stevie (Savage), and Nick (Walken) as they survive the horrors of POW torture, and struggle with returning to the small-town lives they had before the war.  
Should You Watch This? Yes. This is a heavy, bloody, emotional film. Admittedly, it is over-long, and it does take a while to build up steam, but... wait a minute, what do you mean you haven't seen this?! Just watch it already. Really.
Walken Content: 65%.
Walken Quote: I wanted to find one isolated line from Walken that could stand on its own, but nothing seemed like a good fit. So I decided to go with a quiet conversation that Nick (Walken) and Mike (Deniro) share near the beginning, before their upcoming hunting trip and, of course, the war.

       Michael: I'll tell you one thing, if I found out my life had to end up
                        in the mountains I'd be alright, but it has to be in your
                        mind.
       Nick: What? One Shot?
       Michael: Two is pussy.
       Nick: I don't think about one shot anymore, Mike.
       Michael: You have to think about one shot. On shot is what it's all
                        about. The deer has to be taken with one shot. I try to tell
                        people that; they don't listen. Do you ever think about
                        Vietnam?
       Nick: Yeah. I don't know. I guess I'm thinking about the deer - going to
                    'Nam. I like the trees, y'know? I like the way the trees are, on
                    the mountain, all different. The way the trees are. (beat) I sound
                    like some asshole, right?

This intimate exchange happens in the few minutes they have away from their loud and overtly boisterous gang of friends."One shot" refers to taking a deer down with only one shot, which is more than just macho posturing. Mike's insistence on one-shot reveals his respect for the animal he kills by inflicting a minimum of pain. There are all kinds of parallels you can draw between his "one-shot" philosophy and his impact on the rest of the film.

Nick doesn't care about any of that though. He likes the trees! We see a glimpse of the sensitive guy that Walken plays, the nature-lover that is irrevocably damaged by the horrors of war.

Pensive Walken

GENERAL: The Deer Hunter is a powerful film. There are numerous iconic moments of genius, like De Niro holding a bullet up to the Stanley-the-whiner and saying, "This is this. This isn't something else. This is this." and the multiple nerve-wracking scenes involving Russian Roulette, and De Niro making a bargain with the deer. This film is beautifully shot, painstakingly textured, and most of the performances are grounded in deliciously gritty realism.

On the other hand, it needs to be edited better. I know, I know: it won an oscar specifically for editing. I don't care. It's about an hour too long, and a lot of that hour is made up of tediously long shots of the local boys working at the steel mill, endless wedding celebration, and many shots that just plain went on too long. It adds up. And it slows it down. Sure, I get it. That's his style. The pace is deliberate. He's showing the community, establishing the norm, their jobs, before taking them to Nam and traumatizing them. I get it. I'm just impatient. And I think there is room in that film for a compromise, something closer to two and a half hours.

The awards and attention that Walken got for this film catapulted him into the realm of superstardom. The year was 1978. He won his first and only Oscar for his role in this film. Up until this moment, he was still unsure of his permanence as a film actor. Can you imagine, young Walken doubting himself, his powers, his place? But that little golden trophy meant steady work for decades to come. It was confirmation of the highest sort.

Mr. Walken had indeed arrived.

Walken in The Deer Hunter

Shoot the Sun Down (1978)

Director: David Leeds
Writer: David Leeds and Richard Rothstein
Genre: Western
Duration: One hour, thirty-three minutes
MPAA Rating: Someone gave this movie a PG. But I gotta say this is kind of a dark film for just PG. This is no children/family movie. The language is 'salty'. Margot Kidder competes in a one-woman wet t-shirt contest. And the violence is not muted, cartooney or distanced at all. It's right up in your face, close, jarring and bloody. Also, the main bad guy in this is the charming sociopath mercenary-type, a smiling bastard killing multitudes for profit and a giggle. I would feel more than justified in raising that rating to at least a PG-13.
 Available to Own: Only on VHS. Yup. Outrage. Scandal. I repeat: NOT released on dvd yet. Maybe it'll skip the dvd and jump straight to blu-ray. I'm not saying it's a perfect movie, but since when was that the criteria? C'mon Hollywood, get it digitalized. It's got stars. Thrills. Sex and violence. It's got a friggin' knife-throwing-cowboy Walken in it for crissakes! Put it on DVD. Just do it.

 Other Actors: Margot Kidder, Geoffrey Lewis, Bo Brundin

Lewis, in High Plains Drifter

FUN FACT: You may recognize Geoffrey Lewis from a plethora of other Westerns, as Eastwood's friend in a bunch of his later non-cowboy films, or more recently as one of the victims in Rob Zombie's THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, but what you may not know is that he is Juliette Lewis's father!

Similar Films: Stage Coach, Treasure of Sierra Madre, 3:10 to Yuma, The Dollars Trilogy

Movie In a Sentence: Mr. Rainbow (Walken) is a knife-throwing cowboy-type, wandering around Mexico in 1836 when he becomes intrigued by the plight of a young English lady (Kidder) who, unfortunately, is the indentured slave of an erstwhile navy captain (Brundin) who is now consumed with finding the buried treasure of Montezuma, an act which arouses the interest of the local filthy scoundrel (Lewis) who will stop at nothing to get the gold for himself.

Should You Watch It: Yes. It isn't a perfect film, I know, but (1) Lewis is suuuuuuch a bastard here, ya gotta see it. (2) Margot Kidder was adorable back then. For more convincing, please refer to the gratuitous bath scene. And the clincher (3) Walken is an unstoppable bad-ass. He survives getting tied to the desert floor and attacked by vultures. He brings a knife to a gunfight and wins. And he steals Superman's soon-to-be girlfriend. Boo-ya.

She doesn't believe you for a second. C'mon, don't kid a Kidder.

FUN FACT: Both stars of this film, Walken and Kidder, made their (arguably) biggest movies immediately after this one, Walken of course in The Deer Hunter, and Kidder as Lois Lane in Superman.                   

My Score: 8 out of 10. Geez, ehh I don't know, maybe '8' is too high. The editing is choppy. It's reeeeeeeally slow in parts. I'd be hard-pressed to say it's a "great" movie... But no, enough equivocating! It is good enough. I will stick with the ocho. And eight is great.

Walken thru the desert like the man with no name

Walken Content: High. 80%, an hour, whatever. He's in it. He's all over it. He is the romantic lead and it suits him quite nicely. His character is this great, laconic, troubled, cowboy, loner, anti-hero. He has his own code that he lives by, loves by -- and kills by!

Walken Quote: This is how he haggles a deal with the bad-guy when a four-foot solid-gold wagon wheel is on the line:

      " It's two against one. A three-day ride to Santa Fe. Under those
      circumstances you're dead. I'll even the odds for a quarter-share
      of the wheel."    ~  Rainbow

Walken doesn't need guns, he shoots the sun down with his steely-eyed stare.

FUN FACT: Originally, Walken was supposed to wear a pair of "colored" sunglasses (his character's name is Mr. Rainbow), but the director took one look at Walken in the glasses and said, "Forget it. They just looked weird, not cool or believable at all." But he still kept the name!

GENERAL: This film is an obscure little gem that's been all but swallowed by time. Practically no one's even heard of it, never mind seen it. And that's a shame. This is the kind of movie that doesn't get made anymore. The drawn out, quiet stretches of time that are punctuated with quick, savage bursts of violence.

Actually, no. I exaggerated. They do get made, but just not very often and they tend to fly under the main-stream radar. Two recent examples are Takashi Miike's 13 ASSASSINS and Nicolas Winding Refn's VALHALLA RISING, both are amazing films that share a common pace and tone with this one. Come to think of it, THE AMERICAN fits the bill too. So okay, they're out there, you just have to find them.

All of these films somehow manage to be both brutal and contemplative. Whether about samurai, vikings, contemporary hit-men or knife-throwing cowboys, at heart these are the patient stories of quiet men who possess quick bloody hands and are driven by a peculiar sense of honor that won't let them walk away from the fight.