In a “Michael Cimino Retrospective” cycle, the Cinémathèque of Nice is screening some of his greatest films, including the masterpiece “The Deer Hunter,” to (re)discover on Friday, February 25 at 4 p.m.
Pennsylvania, 1968. In a small town, Clairton, steel mill workers celebrate the wedding of Steven and Angela where joy, innocence, intoxication, and elation seem to dominate. They are celebrating a future that, at first glance, was not meant to be marred, except for a few drops of wine that fell on the bride’s dress—and which only the audience manages to see—as a prelude to the tragic fate awaiting Steven (John Savage), Michael (Robert De Niro), and Nick (Christopher Walken) in Vietnam.
The narrative follows in a very straightforward chronological order the path of these three workers sent off to war: from euphoria to the journey into hell and then, finally, returning to peace. Alternating between a wedding, deer hunts in Pennsylvania, and Russian roulette scenes in Vietnam, this film is a true epic depicting the end of the American dream.
It’s a war film, although there are actually very few scenes set in Vietnam. It’s also a violent film, although the violence is more rooted in the psychological aspect and in the inevitable descent into hell that leads to war-induced neuroses.
Though imbued with a somewhat too Manichean vision, to the point of never showing the atrocities committed by the American army, “The Deer Hunter” manages to denounce the blunders and absurdity of this war as well as the traumas it caused.
How can a fate be shattered by a war one never wanted? How does one find one’s place in reality after having witnessed horror? How to readapt and act as if nothing happened even when all innocence has been lost? These are some of the questions Michael Cimino attempts to answer in his “The Deer Hunter.”
In a few words, it’s a film whose strength and tension are extraordinary—particularly in the Russian roulette scenes—it captivates with both imagery, from the sweeping landscapes in Pennsylvania to Vietnam, and the impressive performance of its actors.
– “The Deer Hunter” (original title—”The Deer Hunter”) by Michael Cimino, (United States, 1978, 3h03), screened at the Cinémathèque de Nice on Friday, February 25 at 4 p.m.
