Cimino has the incredibly bad judgement
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BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone — 11 years ago(September 06, 2014 08:40 PM)
"Why make a movie about Vietnam and then have the Vietnam section be about something that didn't even happen over there?"
The Deer Hunter is not "about" Vietnam. It is merely a backdrop. And the fact that there are no documented cases of prisoners being forced to play Russian roulette doesn't make the movie's dramatic premise any less so. It's not a documentary and has no desire to educate the viewer on the Vietnam war and no responsibility to be historically accurate. -
BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone — 11 years ago(September 11, 2014 08:27 PM)
Because the story requires that the characters go off to fight in a war. It could just have easily been World War II or the Korean War since the movie doesn't examine the politics of any specific war. But placing the events of the film during the 40s or 50s would make the movie more of a period film. The movie, made in the late 70s (to be released in 1980), is able to stay contemporary (at that time) by setting the events around the most recent war (at that time).
It's no different than Courage Under Fire being set during the Gulf War. Was there anything about that story that required it to be set during the Gulf War? Not that I can think of, but it made it contemporary and (arguably) more relevant at the time. -
allenrogerj — 11 years ago(September 12, 2014 11:12 AM)
Sorry.
I meant that there were specific aspects of
The Deer Hunter
that required it
not
to be set in the Vietnam war. Cimino should either have fitted his story to what actually happened in Vietnam or used an imaginary war. To add more lies- or fiction, if you prefer- about a war still fresh in the memory, which was begun and sustained on lies and fiction in the USA was dishonest of Cimino. -
BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone — 11 years ago(September 12, 2014 12:42 PM)
Which brings me back to what I originally said, and you quoted - it's not a documentary, nor does it even remotely imply that it is. It is not "about" the Vietnam war anymore than Apocalypse Now is or than Courage Under Fire is "about" the Gulf War.
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col_rutherford — 11 years ago(September 15, 2014 09:32 AM)
The Deer Hunter
began as a screenplay called
The Man Who Came to Play
by Quinn K. Redeker and Louis Garfinkle. It was about men playing Russian roulette and other locations were considered before the Vietnam War setting was chosen. Michael Cimino and Deric Washburn were hired to rewrite the script, changing the characters to a group of friends from a Pennsylvania steel town and adding the deer hunting sequences. Cimino reportedly didn't want to include the Russian roulette scenes but the studio insisted that he did as they were the basis for the original story. -
CaZal — 11 years ago(January 18, 2015 09:56 PM)
Heaven's Gate is about Kris Kristofferson coming from the wealthiest tiny percentage of Americans who control nearly all the wealth of the U.S. The first scene ist there to let us know his and John Hurts background and the youthful idealism declaring old institutions as obsolete. 20 Years later. Hurt has settled into an existence among his class but he can't stand himself for that an has become an alcoholic. Kristofferson on the other hand tries to help the underprivileged but he never really commits to them. Amazing the first scene in the train. The train is totally overcrowded but he's a lone passanger in the first class coach.
His is a life of half measures, because in the end he will never marry the underclass girl he loves. He may run 20 years from his predicted future: The fotograph with the women from the dance, but will end excatly where he's supposed to be.
Ending on the boat. He ended up with the upper class girl. She seems to have found happyness in laudanum or opium the way she looks. Another character who can't stand the life she chose. So in the end: She, John Hurt, Kris Kristofferson have followed what was expected of them and nothing from their youthful spirit is left. Society is still the same and will still be ruled by the richest 1 percent of the country. -
chuckyhacks2 — 9 years ago(September 04, 2016 04:29 PM)
For all the supposed realness of west this movie represents, I don't think any of them contemplated the amount of dust from the people, horses, and the trains.
That's why half the scenes are filled with it.
Messing with the color didn't help. Everything seems to be in soft focus too. Not sure if that was deliberate.
Deer Hunter is grossly overrated, and this one is worse. Sad this was the end of UA.