The Deer Hunter (1978) First Time Watching! Movie Reaction!!
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- Опубликовано: 7 дек 2021
- The Deer Hunter (1978)
Nicky, do you remember the trees? Remember all the different ways of the trees? Remember that? Remember?
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John Cazale was literally dying from lung cancer during filming of "The Deer Hunter". In fact, he passed away before the film was finished. They shot all his scenes first, so his role in the film is complete.
He was romantically involved with Meryl Streep at the time, and she took the role to be with him in his final days.
exactly!
Thank you for the information. He was 42 years old when he passed away...😟
Yes, he was a great great actor. One of the truly great ones .. gone too soon.
I came on here to tell them this, but you hit the nail on the head. Couldn't have told it better.
He would have went on to be a legend. He still had a huge impact but I think he would have done great things if he hadn’t died.
Nick's arm was full of track marks, he was mentally scarred by the war and was using heroin to numb the pain. When Nick realizes Mike and the trees and mentions "one shot" it is a call back to Mike saying it was the most humane way to take a deer, so it doesn't suffer. Nick knew he was dead inside and knew the only way out of the pain he was in, to end his suffering was one shot.
Bro, that makes a lot of sense.
True from Nick's motivation, but Nick's entanglement with the "businessmen" who exploit him also has a symbolic meaning. The "Russian roulette" theme as a profitable enterprise run by unscrupulous organizers and captors throughoutis a metaphor for the way men (and now women) are manipulated in war. At the root of every war are profiteers with dubious motives--from political power to corporate profiteering. Young soldiers are exploited by these politicians and profiteers, drafted or manipulated through "patriotism" and "machismo" to put their lives on the line. The politicians and profiteers who saber rattle are seldom the ones whose lives are at risk, but they prolonged the fighting in Vietnam, ostensibly negotiating for "peace with honor" with disregard to the cost in military lives and the suffering of the Vietnamese people who just wanted the fighting to stop after over 20 years of first "colonial" fighting of the French and then the "democratic" item of the US.
Robert De Niros character didn’t want Nicky to die. He wanted to bring Nicky home to the people that used to know him, and at least try to see if he could be saved or get better
Saw this Christmas Eve, 44 years ago tonight. The war had only been over a few years and families like mine were still dealing with it. The final scene when they were singing, the entire standing room only movie audience began crying even loud sobbing. Never forget it. It was a different time.
Al Pacino has said he learnt more about acting by watching and acting with John Cazale above anybody else, he played Stan in this movie, his last roll. Great actor that died way to young.
Did you know that Cazale was sick, dying from cancer during the shoot? Cimino was going to replace him, but DeNiro, or Walken threatened to walk out, so he kept his last role. Also, Cazale and Streep were a couple at the time..
Cazale was in five films before he passed and all five were up for Best Picture. He's a great.
I hope they react to Dog Day Afternoon - you would almost never know that Cazale and Pacino had just been in Godfather II. Such great actors.
Didn't know that. He was a great actor and always had memorable parts.
Yeah, but Cazale was much more in the background in Part I. (He was also in The Conversation - only five films to his credit but every one a stone cold classic.)
Not many people talk about George Dzundza's performance who played John the bar owner. I thought he added a lot to the impact of loss.
It was pretty sad to see him cry making the eggs and mask it with singing
I'll go out on a limb and say that this is what a "horror" movie really is. Not the fun kind with ghosts and monsters, but true horror in its purest sense. Such a moving film about what war does not just to people, but to families and even entire small towns.
Man's inhumanity to man.
@@Buskieboy exactly
War is horror when depicted for what it is. That's why I won't support and won't watch bullshit movies like "American Sniper" that glorifies war and especially sociopaths like Chris Kyle.
The truth is a lot scarier than fiction.
@@happyapple4269 Amen to that
It was about how Deniro "the deer hunter" is changed by the war. He was a hunter but a skilled and respectful hunter, "one shot" to kill a deer so it doesn't suffer. At the end he appreciated the beauty of the buck and couldn't kill it.
This movie is so deep you could talk about its theme's and meanings all day.
Your next DeNiro movie should be "Taxi Driver". Pure and raw. DeNiro at his finest.
The 3 friends represent all the ways that veterans are affected by war. Steve is crippled in body, Nick is crippled in mind, and Michael is apparently unscathed but carries the weight of everything he and his friends went through.
@@paulp9274 So true. You could say they are the "Mind, body & soul" of a solder. Like you said Steve is the body, Nick is the mind and Mike is the soul. His soul changed, he appreciated life, he understood and rose above the others of their town.
De Niro's character arc reminded my of my dad who was with the 4th Infantry Division on D-Day. His unit fought its way all the way to Berlin, but he was wounded in action near St. Lo, France. The bullet lodged near his spine and couldn't be removed without doing further damage. He survived the wound and went on to re-enlist to serve as an MP in Japan afterwards. But the injury plagued him for the rest of his life with recurrent pain in his back. Although he went through hell in the war, he was reluctant to talk about it afterwards. I think it was the loss of so many close comrades-in-arms that troubled him most. His best friend was killed right next to him in a foxhole. Although he owned a few shotguns and hunting rifles, he wouldn't go out with his buddies to hunt dear, rabbits, or other such animals when they asked him to go along. I think it was because he saw so much bloodshed in battle that he couldn't bring himself to shoot another living thing.
Niki too tho.
When he's in the hospital and old mate asks him his mother's maiden name and he looks at him with such disbelief and breaks down.. hectic
I think who this movie he didn't know anyone about Vietnam or he hate Vietnam.
One of the best American films ever. Unconventional, organic, real-life story telling.
i guess opinions vary.
@@hoopsmccann639
Well, what's your opinion?
They aren’t made anymore like this, like true to life and matter of fact
Visceral...
This is still the Golden Age of Hollywood...possibly it's Highest Level !!
Rip Michael Cimino....Genius !!
One of the subtle things that's set up early in the movie is that Nick is a compulsive gambler. Combined with the trauma of what he went through, he can't stop playing.
Had not noticed that.
When this movie came out in 1978 I was 21 years old! Very last troops were taken out of Vietnam in 1975 which was the year that I graduated high school!! All throughout High School the only thought that most boys had was "are we going to go to college or we going to go to the military?" I saw this film in the theater and literally walked out shaking because it affected me to such a deep degree!!
You nailed it Pal! I was deployed to Japan in 78 when I first seen this. It left me frozen long after the credits started to roll. The Soundtrack was special as well. Top 10 for me. And you're right out the "going to college or Vietnam".
I was born in November 1963 and remember watching TV shows during the 1960s and 1970s. Then there would suddenly be ABC News breaking reports from Vietnam. It mainly focused on reports about body counts, military personnel missing in action and developments in the war. You don't easily forget traumatic things like that. I was twelve years old in 1975, the year that Saigon fell and the US military left southeast Asia.
I can relate to that statement. I was a junior in H.S. when the war ended. I am the oldest of three boys. I knew I was going unless it came to an end before I graduated.
The year my number came up they abolished the draft.
@@pkunberger9287 That was crazy lucky for you.
A very dark film but undeniably important. That Russian roulette scene is, by far, one of the most intense, suspenseful and well acted scenes ever put into a film.
Sadly, our intrepid reactors, glossed over that part. I think it is the most pivotal moment in the movie. They all are changed by it mentally, emotionally and physically. The tension is palpable and gripping. It sets up the third act and all that comes next.
One of the most memorable scenes in cinema.
1000000% agree
@@Buskieboy I don't think they skimmed over the scene or glossed over it. I made a vid on just that one scene and it got stuck with a copyright claim by the film. They did well without putting the reaction in jeopardy for being claimed (imo)
@@KurticeYZ Fair enough. It is a shame it happens to be at the most important moment in the movie.
@@Buskieboy its possible they were not as phased by it as much as others will be but I have been waiting for a deer hunter reaction for so long now. I felt the tension. I think it hit me harder cause I went into this movie based off that scene I saw it on yt and I was drawn to the movie. Idk it's incredible action & incredibly well done filming. And acting. Everything I love rolled into 1 by the best of the best. So I went into the movie not blind. For me that was the first thing I saw and it still gives me chills and teary and scared and trapped. Idk where I was going with all that but. Oh yeah, this is the very 1st deer hunter reaction I believe. Nvr mind I have been so busy I forgot someone did do a reaction to this. And others too! Lol yes!
A lot of this movie was filmed in my home town of Weirton WV. It was home to Weirton Steel and a very diverse community - Irish, Italian, Russian, Czech. Polish, Serb, Greek, many others.
There were seven or eight filming locations for the town if I remember, Weirton was one of them, a few around Pittsburgh, also Cleveland if I'm remembering properly. The 'town' is not of a single town it is scenes from various towns and cities.
I'm from Beaver County. Howdy neighbor! Small world. :)
All this time, I never knew it was filmed in WV. I always thought it was filmed somewhere in PN. Thank you for informing us!
@@citypopFM You are correct as well. I think they used multiple towns in Ohio, WV, PA for the Clairton shots. I'm pretty sure the hunting scenes in the mountains were in PA. I remember for the scenes shot in Weirton is was supposed to be in the fall but it was actually mid summer. The production company brought in flatbeds of dead trees to spread around their scenes to look like fall.
@@t0dd000 Howdy. I don't live in Weirton anymore but I have great memories from growing up in that area. Particularly at Christmas. It was a big treat to drive into Pittsburgh and Christmas shop at the downtown Gimbels, Kaumanns, and Joseph Horne. Wow, that was a long time ago. Have you seen the movie Super 8 ? A large part of that movie was shot in Weirton.
This movie and "Come and See" are probably the two most unsettling war movies I've ever seen. Both are masterpieces.
Eh, Come and See is kinda excessively propagandistic, being a Soviet film and all.
Deer Hunter is kinda similar at times, but far more subtle.
@@no-xr8wv totally absurd. It’s no more “propagandistc” than the average american war film. And “propagandistic” in what sense? It is too “critical” of the Nazis??? 20 million russians died in WW2, far more than any other nation. It does a splendid job portraying the horrors of that war. There is nothing “subtle” about genocide and the art that responds to it not required to be subtle either. You don’t have to like the soviet government of that era to appreciate the film.
@@Chris-jp2qf Okay, but the 'average american war film' is EXTREMELY propagandistic, so what're you talking about? As for in what sense? Yes, it reeks of a Soviet demonization proaganda piece aimed at portraying the enemy - in this case, the Nazis - as monstrous. The only reason you're on board and seemingly cant acknowledge this facet of it as a piece of artwork, is because you're also subject to the same indoctrinatory propaganda of the ilk espoused by Come And See - and you already admitted it, in not realizing that damn near EVERY American war movie is one giant propagandistic pile "we were the good guys!" (unless its one of the "we were the bad guys!" pieces of equally propagandistic bent), despite tons of evidence to the contrary in a variety of contexts.
I dont like the Soviet government of that era, I'll admit that openly, but nor do I delude myself into thinking Come And See wasn't strongly propagandistic from a Soviet/Russian PoV. You dont have to hate the Soviet government to understand that Come And See was, and is, propaganda.
The winners write the history books my guy, and they pretty much never portray themselves as in the wrong, nor their enemies in the right. If you think that thusly represents the truth of history, well, then Im wasting my time talking to you.
@@Chris-jp2qf hitler was up to his knees in blood because he was standing on Stalin's shoulders how many of those Russian casualties were from things like the no step back policy or the killing of hunger just the fear the Germans had to not be brutally killed or sent to a gulag no doubt motivated their brutality just look at what Russia did to Berlin
@@GrosvnerMcaffrey ruclips.net/video/JOKAIDpOY80/видео.html
my family were extras in the church scene. my grandfather had to leave because he looked so much like Al Pacino and the director didn't want anyone to think he was in it 😂
Yeah, it definitely did not happen 😂
One of the very best war movies ever made.
Writing, directing, acting, photography, pacing, everything is on point. A hard to watch masterpiece.
I don't know if you guys have ever watched "Heat" but I highly recommend it and I'm sure others can agree that it would be a great movie to react to!
💯
Yeah! Heat! Great movie!
I went into the theater to watch this when it first came out thinking I was going to see a film about wildlife. It certainly ended up a different experience. With the war only having been over for a few years at the time the atmosphere in the theater was very raw feeling. How many friend/family groups went through similar changes.. Five Academy Awards went to this film. Well deserved IMHO.
It definitely portrayed how wild life can get.
This is one of the best movies I never want to see again. If that makes sense.
Definitely a film that needs to be seen once (Deliverance is another)
This movie is a masterpiece by Michael Cimino. Shows how the horror of war take a toll of the human soul. The cast is fantastic, what a bunch of young gifted actors to portrait such dark theme.
That beautiful guitar piece "Cavatina" is a jarring contrast to 'man's inhumanity to his fellow man' theme. It reminds us that there is still beauty and hope in this world of ours🥲
The location is the area of Ohio River valley around West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania - where my dad grew up. There were a lot of Polish and Russian immigrants there who worked in industry. My dad was from a Polish family from that area.
just like Charles Bronson
Mingo junction ohio, I’m from here. It’s almost completely gone
“One shot...”
For anyone who knows the meaning of this line... it will break your heart.
One shot, one kill.
Love this movie. When my brother came back from Afghanistan he never truly came back
An underrated scene is when Mike, refuses to lend his boots to Stan on the hunt. It was for me foreshadowing, that he was the one who would survive, due to his principles and being the organized level headed one of the gang.
A lot of Russian immigrants post WW2 were very familiar with steel work. Russia had a massive call for building tanks and weapons during the war...So they often ended up in towns with big steel mills, like western/central PA in this movie. I'm a PA native, my dad is Russian, and his parents were WW2 refugees. His father was a welder and metalworker.
I've lived in Pittsburgh for the past 20 years and it's interesting that we still get new immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus... but these days they are drawn by the IT industry. As a Ukrainian friend told me they have strong educations, particularly in math and physics but may not have good English skills but they can still do coding. Plus they're is an attractive culture base for them here. In the East End of Pittsburgh there is a community theater that puts on plays in Russian and there's a big audience for that.
Don’t forget that the mass numbers of Russians typically immigrated to New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia as well. ‘Definitely sure that they also immigrated to some New England cities and towns like Boston. And plenty of Midwest cities and towns, like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, etcetera. And few western places like Los Angeles, maybe Seattle and Portland as well. But not as big compare the Northern cities.
@@BmorePatriot For sure. They went all over. My father's family ended up in Illinois.
@@mantism.d.8363 That’s my father’s state too. My ancestors were Bavarians. Basically the Russians and other Eastern Slavic people immigrated to the same places where the Germans settled, too.
Deniro didnt fall he jumped back in in the most heroic moment ever caught on film....also walken crying and laughing in the roulette game is the greatest piece of acting of all time .
Great reaction. A great deal of this film was shot in my hometown of Mingo Junction, Ohio when I was just a boy. I remember going downtown with my grandfather to watch them film the sene where Deniro and Streep walk down the street after he gets back from the war. It’s one of my earliest memories. The mill shown throughout the film is the one my father and grandfather worked their whole lives in. The film does an amazing job of capturing that place and that time. For me, it’s strange, because the film is absolutely thick with meaning, but when I watch it all I see is a love letter not just to my hometown, but my hometown when I was a boy. It’s surreal.
Michael wasn't "gambling" on the game; he just was so traumatized, although he controlled it, that he was drawn to looking at it. One thing people may not know is that Meryl Streep was in a relationship with John Cazale, who was dying of lung cancer while this movie was being shot, and in fact he died before it was finished. There's a clip on you tube about how she was with him every moment of his illness, in the hospital and at his death. This is a movie often analyzed in film classes back in the day; it's a masterpiece.
The Deer Hunter is actually a movie about a Russian wedding that gets out of hand. Actually, every Russian wedding gets out of hand.
It's probably the most dangerous party in the world after the running of the bulls in Pamplona.
It's not just Russian, broader, Slavic thing :)
A Dorthaci wedding without out 2 deaths is considered a dull affair.
I love the story that the Russian American extras got so into the dancing that when the director called "Cut" they actually booed.
One little Russian/Slavic weddings in Pennslyvania and look what happens; a guy gets killed, another loses his legs, a major conflict in SE Asia, Stan forgets his boots...devasting film about Russian weddings. Makes you really think about what the marriage will be like.
John Cazale, who played Freddy in GODFATHER & GODFATHER PART 2, was his last film on DEER HUNTER. He was sick (cancer), Meryl Streep was this fiancée and that's why she is in the movie to take care of him. He died after the shooting..
That's terrible.
He was shot??? (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
In college we would play: “Beer Hunter.” Shake a beer, in with ones that weren’t and take turns opening one after another by your head.
that's funny!
@@nightmaster5593 Messy.
🤣
It's crazy, Deer Hunter's 15 minutes in Vietnam sticks in your head more than the whole second half of "Full Metal Jacket". (and I'm usually on Team Kubrick!) Super sad movie. De Niro said in an interview that the scene where he has to go visit Steven in the hospital was one of the most difficult scenes he ever had to shoot. I found that interesting, I would never have thought that unless he had said it in the interview, he even chokes up just talking about it, years after the fact. (Also, that's really him and John Savage hanging from the helicopter, he talked about how dangerous those stunts were. ) A sad movie, but a great reaction to it! And now you've got full bragging rights: you've seen "The Deer Hunter"! :D
The real life footage mixed in with the movie when DeNiro goes back to find Walken is from the Last Helicopter leaving the US Embassy during the Fall of Saigon, telling us that DeNiro went back INTO Saigon when America left the place for good...
Epic but really dark. The scene in the motel room when he returns from Vietnam was both beautiful but incredibly sad.
I think their love story was sad...but..tender...and hopeful.
Christopher Walken started his career as a back-up dancer on Broadway. After years of being a dancer, he slowly began to have lines in plays, and then became a movie actor. Thus, Chris shows his dance moves here. Some people become addicted to adrenalin and being in danger - you never feel as alive as when you are facing death and cheat death. There was a dark time in my life when I was depressed and traumatized and didn’t really feel anything - I took stupid physical safety chances in order to feel something ( and I was probably a bit suicidal). I got better, but I can relate how a traumatized person can go back to danger.
Glad you pulled through and feel strong enough to share.
A dancer ? No wonder he was in the Weapon Of Choice MV.
Depression can be very "numbing". Part of you is searching for something to hold onto, get you through the next day, and maybe help you find some meaning in living. I can see how this makes some people reckless, when it is hard to value your own life, it could be easy to become an adrenaline addict.
There is a section in this recent podcast Q&A that talks about risk taking behaviour that you may find interesting: ruclips.net/video/eKEfpDs_EbY/видео.html
I like my rambles stirred, not shaken.
The Green Beret isn’t at the wedding, he’s just having a beer at the local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Hall bar. It’s just that the VFW Hall banquet room immediately next door has been rented out for the Russian wedding on the same day.
Those eyes
Fuck it!
The Green Beret was at the wedding cause the wedding was held at the VFW. And that's where Vets hang out to drink. It's like a bar for Veterans.
They spend so much time with the friends, just getting to know them, living with them. When all the shit goes down, it has real impact.
That's what's so great about this film
That was a steel mill in Pennsylvania (Actually nearby Ohio, but it's Pennsylvania in the movie). The first part of "The Deer Hunter" depicts the now extinct working class American culture, when America had it's own steel industry.
Yes Clairton, PA
West of Pittsburgh
There's a lot of this movie that I really appreciate and like. The acting of the mains, including Cazale (dying of cancer), Walken, and Meryl Streep.
But my dad was a Vietnam War vet, and the first time I watched this movie was a scheduled screening, and before I went to it I told him what I'd be watching. And he told me "just watch how that movie portrays the Vietnamese whose country we were in." My father, who'd seen Vietnam and what the War did to the civilians, was *offended* by this film which, frankly, doesn't do much other than show them as either monsters (in the Russian Roulette underworld) or as faceless adversaries gunned down by Bobby DeNiro.
This movie is about the experience of poor Americans that got shipped off to 'Nam, and it's got a lot of sympathy for them. Rightly so. But I wish, as my Vietnam Vet dad did, that it spared some more sympathy for the Vietnamese themselves.
Given the level of horror that didn't just affect the Vietnamese but the entire region. And when you consider just how utterly WRONG they were about everything! After all the war ended in the worst case scenario that justified the whole thing and nothing happened.
Thank you for your personal input here. It always has more truth when you know somebody that's lived this experience.
It's a fair point, the film is unfairly biased against the Vietnamese. That specific trauma is not in any way historically verifiable, but is used as a stand-in for other more personal trauma of indiscriminate killing in a foreign land. That being stated, I think it took a step in the right direction showing a sympathetic view of the soldiers and their suffering from war. A fairly standard war is hell narrative, now applied to Vietnam. I don't know if America was mature enough at the time (nor is it probably now) to accept the idea that, even as we care about these guys, good guys... that the American military in that country were not necessarily the good guys.
20:11, now we can all breathe a huge sigh of relief. They are going home.
To quote a review I once saw "the wedding scene was so long I started to feel guilty that I hadn't brought a gift".
I love the way you guys discuss the film afterwards, like you're debriefing. I feel you especially need to do this with this kind of film otherwise it'll haunt you🙂 I saw this with my parents as a kid. They're not big talkers😲
Great movie and great acting writing directing soundtrack etc , John Savage one of my all time favorite actors thanks y’all
The most impactful part of this movie for me personally is when Mike stops his friend from pointing the handgun at his friend. Anybody that thinks playing with guns is fun should watch this movie. You cannot explain it. You have to feel it.
That’s the most impactful scene to u dude 🤦♂️
"That's one of the craziest wedding I've ever seen"
Well, apparently you've never been to an Irish wedding then... 😅
love this film, it shows all the transitions people go through and the impact on lives from a war. there is an adjustment veterans halve to make when returning from a deployment, which is the timeline gap in re-entering people lives back at home. people at home are living their lives while vets are deployed and upon return there is difference in the timeline of the vet's memories and the people at home in their daily lives. even further, saying what a vet remembers as yesterday happen months or years in the past for the people at home, vets get tripped up by that becuase in their mind this is a fresh memory.
You wondered where it takes place. The hometown scenes are set in the rust belt. If I recall correctly, they were filmed in Pennsylvania. The hunting scene that Samantha said was so pretty was filmed about 50 miles from my home in Montana. Director Michael Cimino also filmed Heaven's Gate nearby. The area is probably most know to filmgoers for The opening scene in Kubrick's The Shining. Love to have you see it sometime.
I remember driving on the old US 40 "National Road" thru PA and coming across a town on the Monongahela River, with abandoned steel mills on the riverside and an old bridge with metal support beams spanning across it. It reminded me of the town in the movie. You could see "Russian" church steeples poking up around the town. Brownsville was the town name. The movie filmed in different locations but used Clairton, PA as the main location. The town is on the same river further upstream from Brownsville. The Eastern European Orthodox influence in this area of PA is all over these small towns. The movie does a good job of grounding you in that culture and lifestyle of 2nd or 3rd generation immigrant families.
I first saw this on late night tv when I was still living at home. It didn’t start until 11.00pm and as I watched it I couldn’t not watch it. I finally got to bed at 3.00am.
I loved the locations and the realism. I’ve never forgotten that final game of Russian Roulette either. At the wedding the soldier at the bar was a look into the future at what would become of Robert DeNiro’s character.
The town was set in one of the many Pennsylvanian steel towns. Ultimately it’s about how the Vietnam war ripped the town and the characters lives apart.
This is one of those films that I’ve watched multiple times. I’ve never grown tired of it.
One shot…
Such a great, and disturbing, movie. It scarred me as a kid (they used to show it on TV).
Shame more people don't react to it.
The performances in this movie are remarkable and this script is one of the most gutting to have ever seen its way through production.
I have been waiting so long for someone to react to this movie. It is in my top 5 favorite movies of all time.
The scene in the POW camp where they're forced to play the Russian roulette is one of the most powerful scene in cinema.
Much imitated and homaged, especially in Meet the Feebles by Peter Jackson and Bullet in the Head by John Woo.
Great acting by Walken but De Niro in it is simply phenomenal.
Mike, Steven and Nick were all of Russian ethnicity forced to play Russian roulette.
Glad you noticed Fredo from The Godfather = John Cazale only ever starred in 5 films, all nominated for Best Picture Oscars: Godfather 1 & 2, Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation and The Deer Hunter. He was, unfortunately, terminally ill during filming of Deer Hunter, and asked De Niro to use a live round in the gun pointing confrontation scene to help him. Great, great actor.
It was De Niro who insisted on using a live round for that scene. Cazale was understandably against that idea. Cimino, as the director, put a stop to that (no real bullets were used).
But in between each take, Cazale would obsessively check the gun to make sure it wasn't REALLY loaded!
There should be a John Cazale Lifetime Achievement Award.
The most traumatizing and amazing film. I remember seeing this on video in the 80's. The fun and chaos of the opening wedding was so contrasted by the horror and degradation that follows. The cast is just A+ all around. I screamed, I cried, I just felt drained by then end of this film.
Words fail me about this movie. I’ve seen it a dozen times or so. Gets me every time Thank you for giving such a careful and thoughtful review of this unique piece of art.
This and Schindler’s List are both so intense I can never rewatch them. Leaving a war zone, as we recently saw in Afghanistan, is absolute chaos. There are no clear cut solutions.
You ever sern the movie Come And See?
Well, in both Vietnam and Afghanistan, a clear cut solution would have been not to start.
I know I am two years late on my comment. I was several years too young to be drafted to Nam. But I knew a number of older neighbors that were. We grew up in a relatively close knit community than at age 18 after several months of training they were thrown into the nightmare of Nam. The long wedding scene developed the characters and showed a realistic yet imperfect reality of working class life. Everyone I knew came back very changed. Very much an anti-war movie. Yet DeNiro’s Michael is both wonderfully human and incredibly strong - a great characterization of the American hero. This movie is layered with allegory and we all need time to process it.
This is my dad's favorite film of all time and he had me watch this insane shit when I was a little kid. I felt like I went through the war but I appreciated it because this is a masterclass of acting and cinema.
lol You're basically a veteran having watched this as a little kid.
@@LennyCash777 Lol right?
Apparently the spit into Robert's face was not scripted and the reaction was real as Christopher improvised and it took Robert a moment or two to go with it or say cut. What you see is the one take of that scene.
One of the darkest, most relevant war movies of all time.
I grew up going to these weddings and receptions in Pittsburgh at the fire hall, American Legion Hall, or VFW. The steel mill towns in PA, Ohio, and WV were very close knit, but diverse neighborhoods. I think one of the important points that you may have missed is your friends then remain your friends now 50 years later.
The film had a devastating impact at the time. People in America were screaming, crying and fainting. We have to remember the film only came out three years after the Vietnam war ended and the country was still going through a kind of nervous breakdown over the war - from the anti-war protests from the late 60s to the mid 70s to the fallout that families all over America were dealing with, indeed characters like Michael, Nick and Stevie.
Apocalypse Now is probably the most brilliant war film ever made but I would choose The Deer Hunter myself. What it has to say about the effects of war on ordinary people and communities is the ultimate anti-war statement. At the time, Americans still believed (perhaps based on the memory of saving the world in World War 2) that Vietnam was a heroic war for America in the fight against communism and the assertion of America's place in the world. This film beautifully articulates the destruction of that myth.
Proving why it's never a good idea to convince your people that you saved the world.
@@krashd It's kind of the point of the film
This is one of the most structured and thought out movies in american cinematography, following greek tragedies in some way. To call it chaotic is isane. The cinematography by the hungarian refugee Vilmos Zsigmond is simply breathtaking and timeless. It is not about the war but about the heraclician notion that you cannot step into the same river again. Time is flightfull, it passes, it will never come back and things will never be the same. Events shape us and change us forever. It is one of the most melancholich american movies. Both in image and in message. Amazing that it was ever made in hollywood. You concentrate on the plot way too much which is not the most important thing here.
'Time is flightful, it passes, it will never come back and things will never be the same. Events shape us and change us forever.'
Great summation.
The Sgt in uniform wasn't a guest at the wedding, he was just having a beer at the American Legion where the reception was being held
My father always said this captured the whole feel of a working class city and Vietnam. He used to also say, “what’s the difference between a Russian wedding and a Russian wake? One less drinker.”
For me, a flawless movie. Have watched it many times and it touches me with sadness, everytime. Incredible acting ..
Everyone should take a look at John Cazale's IMDB page. He was in five movies and the worst one was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, co-starred Gene Hackman and Harrison Ford, and was nominated for three academy awards. Amazing career, would have loved to see him continue.
yeah pretty insane....The Godfather 1 & 2, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter....ALL Best Picture nominees :)
@@fabianpatrizio2865 As well as the original theatrical cut of "Godfather III," which included archived footage of him from "Godfather II."
Definitely a fantastic career given how short it was- Fredo, Sal in Dog Day Afternoon- very memorable performances. He would be spoken about in the same way as Al Pacino and De Niro today if he had continued for sure. F*** cancer.
"Amazing career, would have loved to see him continue."
Would have been kind of hard, if Wikipedia is correct:
Died: March 13, 1978. Which would mean after the release of the movie and only 42 years old. Lung cancer, maybe from chain smoking.
@@autohmae yeah that’s what he’s saying
You need to check out these 3 movies: the killing fields, the color purple and the mission from 1986. You will loved all 3 of these films.
The color purple Steve spielberg was Rob of an Oscar for directing this film.
Chuck Aspegren, who played Axel, was not an actor; he was the foreman at an East Chicago steelworks visited early in pre-production by De Niro and Cimino. They were so impressed with him that they offered him the role. This is the only film he was in.
The last scene between De Niro and Walken has to be one of the most gut wrenching scenes I've ever seen.
That war was on another level of horror, from all I've read and heard.
Two of my uncles, Pete and Tommy, were both sent to Vietnam. Tommy was sent home, due to a death in the family. Pete stayed.
He made it back home though, but according to my Aunt Debi he wasn't the same person. God knows what he went through there, but he was broken from it.
He shot himself on a beach in Florida in 1998. He was 45 years old.
OMG YOU TWO!!! THIS REACTION VIDEO WAS SO INTENSE!!! Those Russian Roulette Scenes are one of the most intense in cinematic history!!! It's been some time since I've seen this movie & watching your reaction video was such a gut punch reminder of what this film was!!! TBR Schmitt, your view is spot on with Mike taking the whole experience as "I'm already dead from this. It's time to move on." While Samantha's view of "Steve & Nick already losing hope over all of this" rang true. WOW YOU TWO, THIS REACTION VIDEO WAS EPIC!!! Both of you captured every essence of what this film is!!! Well done!!! Keep it going!!!
Here's a list of Michael Cimino movies:
Heavens Gate, epic western.
Year Of The Dragon, action thriller.
The Sicilian, action crime epic.
Desperate Hours, crime thriller.
Sunchaser, his last film. Road drama.
John Cazele who played “Stan” in this movie (and “Fredo” in godfather) was dying of cancer and actually finished his parts first but died before the movie was finished.. he was actually dating Meryl Streep at the time.. I found this article extremely touching: “During the filming, John was growing sicker and sicker, and the producers tried everything they could to nullify his contract and replace him. But Robert De Niro and Meryl threatened to walk away if they did, so in the end, Cimino rearranged his schedule and shot John’s scenes first. To keep up with the growing medical bills, Meryl took up a role for a nine-hour television drama, Holocaust, right after she was finished with her scenes in The Deer Hunter. Unfortunately, the series was mostly shot on real-life locations in a concentration camp in Austria so she had to leave for a while. “I was going crazy, John was sick, and I wanted to be with him,” she said later.”
"While she was away for two months, his old friend Al Pacino took him to radiation treatments and De Niro took care of the insurance policy. Just as she got back and things looked as if they were going to be fine, John was once again admitted to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and on 12th of March, 1978, a doctor woke her up early in the morning with the words, “He’s gone.” Reports say that Streep was so reluctant to let him go, that she threw herself on his chest, begging him to wake up. And as she was sobbing over him, he opened his eyes for a brief second and with the weak voice of a dying man, said: “It’s all right, Meryl, it’s all right,” after which he left this world for good."
My father came back from Vietnam in 1968. He never spoke of what happened there and drank himself into an early grave at 47. These kids that went to war came back broken... and this movie has those moments where you realize how fu*ked up things were there at the time. I have a feeling if our veterans got the care they needed at the time, there wouldn't be so many tragic stories with those returned.
I posted this on another reaction vid to this movie, but I think to re-post it here can only spread the word.
My dad came back from Vietnam in 1967. He spent several years on the wrong side of the law before cleaning up. Later on, he became an alcoholic and died in his early 50's.
He never would talk to me about the war. So after he died, I got online and found vets who were in his platoon. They filled me in on what all went down.
Thank you to his father for his military service and I'm so sorry for what happened to him. I know he experienced and saw many bad things in Vietnam. I'm an honorably discharged US Army veteran since 1991.
One of the few films that completely avoided glamorizing war. Brilliant but not rewatchable.
My aunt, uncle, and a few cousins lived next door when I was younger. We'd always get the whole family together for holiday. It was usually a normal gathering until that one year my uncle decided that we should all gather round and watch The Deer Hunter, everybody, children included, who at the time were no older than 12 or 13. The most disturbing Christmas Eve ever.
My favorite movie of all time.
You’re gonna love MIDNIGHT RUN.
Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin
Parts of this was filmed in Mingo Junction, Ohio, Welsh's Bar. The reception was in Tremont, a section of Cleveland.
First time watching y'all. Movie is very dark but beautiful. Great acting! Cazale was married to Streep and was in 3 movies that awarded best picture. Correction, he was in 5 films over 7yrs....all were nominated for best picture
They were never married, they were engaged.
Also have to say that I really enjoyed the discussion the two of you had about the film afterwards. It is hard to summarize and I've never forgotten that experience of actually seeing it "at the movies" and then walking out in the cool night air. It was something.
Cheers 🍺
I believe you guys are the first reactors to watch this movie. Maybe you'll start a trend for others to follow. The 1970's were an era that saw people playing Russian Roulette for kicks and sometimes money, likely heavily influenced by this movie. I've seen this movie several times, even owned a copy long ago. I can't say it's a war movie though. It's more about friends being able to cope with civilian life after seeing the atrocities of war.
I remember seeing this in the theatre when it first came out. At the end the theatre was in complete silence. I mean you could hear a pin drop silence. Everyone was emotionally overwhelmed and stunned. I was just a bit too young to be eligible for the draft for the war but I had relatives who served and older brothers of friends who served. So this movie hit all of us who lived through that period hard because we could so relate to it.
Schmitt, Mrs. Schmitt,
Just so you know (sure you found out later), this film is set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In addition, I'm pretty sure the crowns you saw in the wedding, are part of the ceremony in a traditional, Catholic wedding. Perhaps also in Eastern European cultures, which I'm pretty sure is the case; such as with Nick (Christopher Walken) who's character is Russian.
The crowning ceremony is part of Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine-rite Catholic weddings. Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Ruthenian, etc.
Samantha was correct when Michael and Nick were playing Russian Roulette at the end , Nick had a moment of clarity when he remembered one shot and then shot himself . He was a Heroin addict they showed the Heroin tracks ( collapsed veins ) on his arm . That's why he didn't recognize Michael and how they got all the others to play ~ Heroin .
Up next you guys need to react to " Deliverance " another great movie from the 70's .
One of my favorite films of all time.
just remember, this is this, it aint something else.
Seeing the Russian Roulette scenes in a darkened theater when this movie first came out was an experience indeed. People were riveted to the screen.
There's a drinking game called "The beer hunter".
The players start with a 6-pack of beer. Someone shakes the hell out of one can then mixes 'em up. The players take turns opening beers right against their heads, tilted at a 45 degree angle for maximum soakage.
This was director Michael Cimino's last true masterpiece. Before his ego ran amok on his next film Heavens Gate. Some other noteworthy films of his are Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Year of the Dragon,and Desperate Hours.
_"He was literally tortured with this; why would he play this now?"_ I think that's one reason why the movie opens up on the steel mill. Such is life.
Or such were these characters' lives in their own ways, some chaos and tension and sacrifice in everything they grew up with. They thought their being able to conquer the everyday rough and tumble parts of living in blue collar Pennsylvania prepared them for anything else. The conquering of nature like they were ancient Slavic heroes. Everything was a game, everything was reckless, everything was there for the taking. Until it wasn't. But they kept going back to it, because that's what defined them, even when it stood to either elude or kill them. Like you said, once something triggered that part of them, they were never able to leave. Maybe it was or wasn't the intent, but the movie's sort of a metaphor for when addiction is mixed with a sense of comfort or home, with anything. Even abuse.
For many soldiers, especially career soldiers, war is a big adrenaline rush, and it becomes addicting. When a war is over and the soldiers are sent home, the people that leave the military often still need that rush. That's how the original incarnation of the Hell's Angels came into existance: Hell's Angels was the name of a B-17 and its crew. When they came home, they still needed that rush, so they got into motorcycles - and the rest is history.
That's also how "extreme sports" came to be.
All these actors in their youthful prime is an experience
you absolutely must see the killing fields of 1984 it's a true story
That Russian Roulette scene is one of the greatest acting moments in cinema
Absolutely right my friend.
The Vietnamese guy who was in charge of the Russian roulette was played by an actor who hated Americans. That's why Cimino chose him for the role.
Saw the movie in the theater in its original run. This scene made me literally sweat. Intensity unequaled on film.
I remember seeing this when it first came out as a teenager. When I was in grade school in Southern California I remember surfers leaving their surfboards on my mom‘s covered porch and heading off to Vietnam. You’re right, One of the most intense and difficult movies ever made. These characters struggled with what many people do, excepting the obvious truth that God exists, but stiff arming God as if there are never going to be consequences.
That reminds me of the movie Big Wednesday.
@@guymorris6596 Exactly Guy, Some of my closest friends and I, when mentioning something from back in the day will often just say “that was a Big Wednesday”.
Great movie, wish somebody would do a reaction of that!
This was released only a few years after the Vietnam war ended. When this was first shown on TV the number of suicides by self-inflicted gunshot went up sharply. A extremely good movie but also deeply depressing.
I saw this on WOR channel in NYS and it was on ELECTION night 1980, and was amazed that they allowed the F word and cursing all thru it. talk about being shocked wow
i love when you guys guess what might happen cause if you are wrong it's neat and when you are right it's neat!