I've gone back n forth over this movie since my uncle took me to see it on my birthday in 1978 and to be honest, This movie is probably not a very good expose of the Vietnam war per say, but rather an excellent perspective on the plight of the common American soldier and their families and the effects that war has on them. The one thing I really liked about the Deer Hunter was the bond and obligation that soldiers have for one and other and I feel that no other movie has accomplished that quite like Deer Hunter. Go into it with that perspective and it's like no other movie about war that has ever been made.

Its running length may annoy some, and it's criticized for being self-indulgent, and for having a problematic message. And while I can see that it could have been more shorter, I think that it has this great emotional impact because Cimino took his time in a very long first act that made us dive into the characters, and most importantly, their relationship. This first act with all its very very long scenes that feel as they were unedited is what made us care deeply about his characters when they were thrown inside a terrifically tense, gut-wrenching second act. That's how Cimino made us thoroughly disturbed, and have mixed, and vague feelings that result in creating a great catharsis at the third act. Every actor gave a very realistic performance, needless to say that both De Niro and Meryl Streep shine, but Christopher Walken's Oscar-winning performance is the standout here. All the characters are fully-developed, and fleshed out, but they are incredibly realistic and three-dimensional that can be analyzed as they are Shakespearean or Tolstoyan characters.I can't believe or describe how emotionally sweeping and overwhelming this epic is.(9/10)

I suspect many of the people who have a high regard for this movie are of the generation who were old enough to appreciate it when it came out, not only in the effect the Vietnam War had on the people who fought in it and the U.S as a whole, but also in the nature of 1970s art.I had a mixed reaction to the movie. Some people have commented that the first hour dragged on too long, I'm a patient person, but I thought pretty much every scene in the entire movie dragged on too long.In that sense, the best comparison I think with the 1970s isn't even other films but rock music: the songs that had long guitar solos. Like those guitar solos, all of the scenes in this film were ultimately indulgent, but some of them were interesting, some of them were entertaining and some of them were boring.

#2 The three main characters in "The Deer Hunter" have very different personalities which leads to different effects of their time in the war. Mike is a very linear, organized character which serves him well while he is in Vietnam. He manages to stay alive, unharmed physically, and protect the other characters to the best of his ability. When he returns from the war he is changed mentally. Mike had failed to bring Nick back with him as he had promised not to do. Between this broken promise, and the horrors he had to endure himself, Mike goes through minor mental changes when he returns. He holds a gun loaded with one bullet to his friend's head after he had been messing around with the loaded gun. Mike seems to have a minor case of PTSD involving guns. This is also seen when he purposefully misses shooting a deer. Nick was an emotional character from the beginning of the film. This trait served him well at home, but not in the war. Nick lost it when he was forced to play Russian Roulette for his life while he was a prisoner of war. This event had a severe impact on his life because it was his best friend, Mike, who forced him to do it so they could survive. Because he was such an emotional character, Nick was affected by the cruel game more than the others. Nick, unfortunately, did not make it home from the war. He spent his last few months at a Russian Roulette den in Saigon. He experimented with drugs and played the game because he was so far gone. in the end, it was the game that killed him. Steve was the third friend who went to Vietnam. Steve was a childish character before the war. He wasn't extremely mature or even aware of the world around him. This effected him terribly in the war. While playing Russian Roulette, Steve was crying and freaking out because it was so horrific to him. He was corrupted by the war and was forced to see and experience things he wasn't ready to experience. Steve was physically effected as well as mentally. He lost his legs and part of his arm during the war. All of these things that happened to the men because of the war could have been predicted to an extent. Mike is strong emotionally and physically, so he wouldn't be as effected by the war as most. Nick was emotional and therefore would be effected mentally. And Steve was the childish friend, so he would come out of the war different in some way. I don't think it could have happened another way. I wish Nick didn't have to die, but that was critical to the plot and outcome of the war on the men.