Michael Cimino

[Cold Bishop]

Michael Cimino (Born 1939)



"In the movie The Sunchaser there is this line from a half-blood gangster : 'Be the beauty in front of me, be the beauty behind me, be her by me, be her above my head, be her under my feet, be her all around me'. This explains my idea of cinema, better than I can explain it myself."

~ Michael Cimino (from interview with Michel Ciment, 2005)


Filmography

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) MGM (R1 + R2 UK + R2 France)

The Deer Hunter (1978) Universal (R1) / Optimum (R2 UK + Blu-Ray) / Studio Canal (R2 France + Blu-Ray)

Heaven's Gate (1980) MGM (R1 + R2 UK) / MGM (R2 France) [144 Min Cut]

Year of the Dragon (1985) MGM (R1 + R2 UK + R2 France)

The Sicilian (1987) Lions Gate (R1) [Pan-and-Scan Director's Cut] / Momentum (R2 UK) [Widescreen Director's Cut] [OOP] / Studio Canal (R2 France) [Widescreen Director's Cut]

The Desperate Hours (1990) MGM (R1)

The Sunchaser (1996) Warner (R1) [Pan-and-Scan] / Seven7 (R2 France) [Widescreen]

"No Translation Needed" from Chacun son cinéma (2007) Studio Canal (R2 France)

Additional Screenwriting

Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) Universal (R1) / Image (R1) / UCA (R2 UK) / Aventi (R2 France)

Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973) Warner (R1 + R2 UK + R2 France + Blu-Ray)

The Rose (Mark Rydell, 1979) [Uncredited Early Draft] Fox (R1 + R2 UK + R2 France)


Forum Discussions

Michael Cimino


Web Resources

Film Reference Links and Article - Robin Wood


Books (by Cimino)

Cimino, Michael. Big Jane. Série noire. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

Cimino, Michael, and Francesca Pollock. Conversations en miroir. Paris: Gallimard, 2003.


Books (about Cimino)

Bach, Steven, The Final Cut: Dream and Disaster in the Making of "Heaven's Gate, ". New York: W. Morrow, 1985, revised edition, 1999.

Bliss, Michael, Martin Scorsese and Michael Cimino. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985.

Adair, Gilbert, Hollywood's Vietnam. London: Proteus, 1981, revised edition, 1989.


Selected Articles (Books)

Wood, Robin, "From Buddies to Lovers" + "Two Films by Michael Cimino” Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, New York, 1986. [The former discusses the homosexual subtext in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot; The latter is a close reading of both The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate.]

Andrews, Nigel, “Michael Cimino,” Talking Films: The Best of the Guardian Film Lectures, Ed. Andrew Britton, Fourth Estate, 1991.

Hickenlooper, George, "Michael Cimino: A Final Word," Reel Conversations, Carol Pub. Group, 1991.

Marchetti, Gina. "Ethnicity, the Cinema and Cultural Studies." Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. Ed. Lester D. Friedman. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. [Year of the Dragon is one of the two films under discussion]

Woolland, Brian. "Class Frontiers: The View through Heaven's Gate." The Book of Westerns. Ed. Ian Cameron and Douglas Pye. New York: Continuum, 1995

Marchetti, Gina. "Conclusion: The Postmodern Spectacle of Race and Romance in 'Year of the Dragon.'" Romance and the "Yellow Peril": Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

Ben Lawton, "America Through Italian/American Eyes: Dream or Nightmare?," Ed. Anthony Julian Tamburi et al, From the Margins: Writing in Italian Americana, Purdue University, 2001. [Cimino is said Italian/American]

McGee, Patrick, "The Multitude at Heaven's Gate," From Shane to Kill Bill, Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.


Selected Articles (Online)

”Michael Cimino” ["Stalking the Deer Hunter"] Interview from “Film Directors on Directing, Volume 1989, Part 2”

”Michael Cimino’s Final Cut” - Steve Garbarino (Vanity Fair)

”Last Typhoon: Cimino Is Back” - Nancy Griffin (The New York Observer)

” Paris Heaven's Gate Master class” - 2005 Interview with Michel Ciment (Translated)


Selected Articles (Periodicals)

Carducci, Mark Patrick. "Stalking the Deer Hunter: An Interview with Michael Cimino." Millimeter Mar (1978)

Cimino, Michael. “Ordeal by Fire and Ice.” American Cinematographer Oct (1978)

Fox, Terry Curtis. "Stalking the Deer Hunter." Film Comment Mar (1979)

Pym, John. "A Bullet in the Head: Vietnam Remembered." Sight and Sound 48 Feb/Mar (1979)

Masson, Alain. “Comme un cerf en automne.” Positif 217 Apr (1979) [on The Deer Hunter]

Benayoun, Robert and Michel Ciment and Michael Henry. “Entretien avec Michael Cimino.” Positif 217 Apr (1979)

Pilger, John. “‘The Deer Hunter,’ le mensonge sur le Vietnam.” Jeune cinéma n118 Apr/May (1979)

Auster, Al and Leonard Quart. "Hollywood and Vietnam: Triumph of the Will." Cineaste 9 Fall (1979)

Pease, Nick. "The Deer Hunter and the Demythification of the American Hero." Literature/Film Quarterly 7 Winter (1979)

"Heaven's Gate Issue." American Cinematographer Oct (1980)

Assayas, Olivier. “L'Ayatollah Cimino.” Cahiers du cinéma n319 Jan (1981) [on Heaven’s Gate]

Kroll, Jack. "Heaven Can Wait." Film Comment 17 Jan 1981

Lardeau, Yann. “Le cercle brissé.” Cahiers du cinéma n326 Jul (1981) [on Heaven’s Gate]

Predal, Rene. “La porte du paradis.” Jeune cinéma n136 Jul/Aug (1981)

Ciment, Michel and Michael Henry. “Nouvel entretien avec Michael Cimino.” Positif n246 Sep (1981)

Eyquem, Olivier. “Deconfiture amere.” Positif n246 Sep (1981) [on The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate]

Henry, Michael. “le rêve perveti.” Positif n246 Sep (1981) [on The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate]

Pym, John. "Almost Anarchy: Afterthoughts on Heaven's Gate." Sight and Sound 51 Dec/Jan (1982)

Toubiana, Serge and Bill Krohn . “Entretien avec Michael Cimino”. Cahiers du cinéma n337 Jun (1982)

Burke, Frank. "In Defense of The Deer Hunter OR: The Knee Jerk is Quicker than the Eye." Literature Film Quarterly 11.1 (1983)

Francis, Don. "The Regeneration of America: Uses of Landscape in The Deer Hunter." Literature Film Quarterly 11.1 (1983)

Greene, Naomi. "Coppola, Cimino: The Operatics of History." Film Quarterly 38.2 Winter (1984)

Bach, Steven. "Once upon a Time in the West." American Film: a Journal of the Film and Television Arts 10 Jul/Aug 1985

Chevrie, Marc. "Le point de mire." Cahiers du cinéma n377 Nov (1985) [on Year of the Dragon]

Chevrie, Marc and Jean Narboni and Vincent Ostria. "The Right Place." Cahiers du cinéma n377 Nov (1985) [Interview]

Masson, Alain. “L’année du dragon.” Positif n297 Nov (1985)

Toubiana, Serge. “Il n'y a pas d'affaire Cimino”. Cahiers du cinéma n378 Dec (1985) [on Year of the Dragon]

Camy, Gérard. "L'année du dragon: un film ambigu." Jeune cinéma n171 Dec/Jan (1985-1986)

Viviani, Christian. "Entretien avec Michael Cimino." Jeune cinéma n171 Dec/Jan (1985-1986)

Pym, John. "After the Deluge." Sight and Sound 55 Dec/Jan (1985-1986) [on Year of the Dragon)

Wood, Robin. “Hero/Anti-Hero: The Dilemma of ‘Year of the Dragon.’” CineAction! n6 Summer/Fall (1986)

Krohn, Bill. "Le pacte avec le diable." Cahiers du cinéma n389 Nov (1986) [on The Sicilian]

Wood, Robin. “‘Heaven's Gate’ reopened.” Movie n31/32 Winter (1986)

Krohn, Bill. "L'oiseau noir." Cahiers du cinéma n391 Jan (1987) [on The Sicilian]

Katsahnias, Iannis. "La colère d'Achille." Cahiers du cinéma n401 Nov (1987) [on The Sicilian]

Katz, Pamela. "Gore Goes to War." American Film: a Journal of the Film and Television Arts 13 Nov (1987) [on Gore Vidal and The Sicilian]

Krohn, Bill. “Un album de famille”. Cahiers du cinéma n401 Nov (1987) [Interview]

Thirard, P.L. "Le Sicilien." Positif n322 Dec (1987)

Cimino, Michael. "Conquering Horse". Cahiers du cinéma n400 Oct Supplement (1987)

Stanbrook, Alexander. "Year of the Leopard." Sight & Sound 57 n4 (1988) [on The Sicilian]

Hess, John. "Matewan. The Sicilian: History, Politics, Style, and Genre." Jump Cut: a Review of Contemporary Media n33 Feb (1988) [Link]

Stanbrook, Alexander. "The Sicilian". Films and Filming n386 Feb (1988)

Jaubert, Jean-Claude. “Virlite et machismo dans le cinema de Michael Cimino.” Jeune cinéma Sep/Oct 1988

Katsahnias, Iannis. "Le temps retrouvé." Cahiers du cinéma n422 Jul (1989) [on Heaven's Gate]

Linroth, James. "From Natty to Cymbeline: Literary Figures and Allusions in Cimino's Heaven's Gate." Literature Film Quarterly 17.4 (1989)

Pym, John. "Michael Cimino." Sight & Sound 60 n1 (1990) [on The Desperate Hours]

Katsahnias, Iannis. "La maison et la monde." Cahiers du cinéma n439 Jan (1991) [on The Desperate Hours]

Krohn, Bill. "Rendez-vous avec les genres." Cahiers du cinéma n439 Jan (1991) [Includes discussion on The Desperate Hours]

Jousse, Thierry and Iannis Katsahnias. “Je n'irai jamais a Monument Valley”. Cahiers du cinéma n439 Jan (1991) [Interview]

Vachaud, Laurent. "Les inconnus dans la maison." Positif n359 Jan (1991) [on The Desperate Hours]

Pym, John. "Desperate Hours." Monthly Film Bulletin 58 Mar (1991)

Burke, Frank. “Reading Michael Cimino's ‘The Deer Hunter’: Interpretation as Melting Pot.” Literature/Film Quarterly 20 n3 (1992)

Stevens, Brad. “Not Just a Bandit: Michael Cimino's ‘The Sicilian.’” CineAction! n29 Fall (1992)

Jousse, Thierry. “Michael Cimino”. Cahiers du cinéma n462 Dec (1992)

Brown, Richard Maxwell. "Western Violence: Structure, Values, Myth." Western Historical Quarterly 24.1 (1993)

Cimino, Michael. “Ceux qui filment…” Cahiers du cinéma n477 Mar (1994)

Rauger, Jean-François. "L'Amérique ferme 'La Porte du paradis.'" Cahiers du cinéma 19 Hors serié Jan (1995) [on Heaven's Gate]

Camy, Gerard. "Sunchaser." Jeune cinéma n238 Summer (1996)

Troubiana, Serge. "Loin d'Hollywood." Cahiers du cinéma n503 Jun (1996) [on The Sunchaser]

Saada, Nicolas and Serge Troubiana. "Entretien avec Michael Cimino." Cahiers du cinéma n503 Jun (1996)

Cieutat, Michel. "Sunchaser." Positif n425/426 Jul/Aug (1996)

Ciment, Michel and Laurent Vachaud. "Un film optimiste et plein d'espoir." Positif n425/426 Jul/Aug (1996) [on The Sunchaser]

Feeney, F.X. "Between Heaven and Hell." People 46.20 (1996) [Interview]

Kemp, Philip. "The Sunchaser." Sight & Sound 7 Jan (1997)

Burns, Mickey. "'Heaven's Gate' Takes a Swing: Slamming the Capitalist Patriarchy." CineAction! n46 June (1998)

Frappat, Hélène. "Cimino : 'Toute forme d'écriture est dramatique.'" Cahiers du cinéma n561 Oct (2001) [Interview]

Shin Huey Chong, Sylvia. "Restaging the War: The Deer Hunter and the Primal Scene of Violence." Cinema Journal 44.2 (2005)
_______________________________________________________________________________________

[lord_clyde]

Just to revive a dead thread about Cimino, what are any thoughts out there on Year Of The Dragon? I've always thought it to be one of the most, I don't know, off crime movies of the 80's. Mickey Rourke pretty much plays a complete bastard and the plot seems convoluted. But I like the fact that it talks about the Chinese Tong gangs.
Discuss if you like.

I like Year of the Dragon. Heh, at least I mean it's better than Heaven's Gate (sorry, easy target) but seriously, I though Rourke was very cool. I like unredeemable assholes like him (at least in movies like this). Tracy Tzu is pretty hot, but a shitty actress. But this isn't really a film that benefits from performances, the only performance you could call 'good' is John Lone's ambitious Triad leader. The action scenes are great though, from the shootout in the resaurant (0ne of Tarantino's all time fave movie moments) to the informant getting brutally gunned down in the street. Not a film on par with the Deer Hunter, but much better than it's rep. And I didn't find the film racist at all, maybe it was the times.

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Just to revive a dead thread about Cimino, what are any thoughts out there on Year Of The Dragon? I've always thought it to be one of the most, I don't know, off crime movies of the 80's. Mickey Rourke pretty much plays a complete bastard and the plot seems convoluted.

Yeah, Rourke was quite good in this one. I'd rank it as one of his finest performances (right up there with Rumble Fish and Johnny Handsome). And let's not forget Oliver Stone's trademark hard-boiled dialogue (this and Scarface would make one helluva double bill!).

Also, I came across this on Digital Bits site:

And Warner's announced Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Third Season and Gilmore Girls: The Complete Third Season for release on 5/3, with Year of the Dragon following on 5/31.

It'll be nice to see Cimino's film finally released on Region 1 DVD!

[Alonzo the Armless]

I loved the wedding scene in THE DEER HUNTER. Being of Eastern European descent, I identified with a wedding being held in a church hall with long tables and folded wooden chairs like in the weddings I'd attend as a kid during that time. George Dzundza and John Cazale added such a realistic presence to the proceedings. I'd never seen them before that movie and their more realistic looks made me forget I was watching actors.

[Polybius]

Dylan, my only real disagreement with your excellent post is in that I think they could, and should, have cast someone other than Huppert (a fine actor in French, but a bit of a distraction speaking English) in that role.

I agree about Walken (of course) and I love Kristofferson, myself. He always brings an understated eloquence and a real feeling of verisimilitude to any role he plays. I'm always glad to see his name in the credits.

Apprently, the roller skating sequence is based on real life examples from the era.

The west was a lot more complex and interesting than Hollywood made it out to be for decades.

[filmfan]

I just through viewing "Year of the Dragon" and it's was INCREDIBLE !

Action packed to say the least and EXCELLENT acting all around! Nice to see it available !

There is Michael Cimino commentary....but I'm saving it so I can enjoy it.

[Dylan]

Thanks for the recommendation. Huppert and Chabrol are a great combination. She's been in nearly 90 films, I really have a lot to sort through (the recent "Ma Mere" sounds very good, though, as does "The Piano Teacher").

I just got finished watching "The Deer Hunter" (purchased the excellent Warner R2), which left me in tears. An intense, depressing, very beautiful film. The Russian Orthodox wedding reception was magnficently realized. Perhaps the most emotionally intense film I've ever experienced, I found myself nervously cringing during the roulette scenes (and I honestly can't remember the last time I cringed during a film). I was involved from the first shot till the last, and I truly felt like I had been through something tramatic, beautiful, and intense when the film ended.

Vilmos Zsigmond's gorgeous, painterly photography (which he calls his greatest work on the R2 DVD extras) is one of the finest examples of beautiful images flawlessly servicing a story (I've watched three Zsigmond-shot films in a row this month, and he has quickly become my second-favorite cinematographer). The positioning of the actors across the 2.35:1 frame is impeccable, and the scenery is pure bliss.

Come on, where is all of the Cimino discussion? This guy is fascinating. "Deer Hunter" and "Heaven's Gate" are both masterpieces in their own ways, and then he just disappeared. It's sad how early success led to a career death for him. Somebody must realize that a potentially great director is doing nothing. Apparently, he has written around 30 screenplays.

I may be rash, but I think I've probably seen the best of what Cimino was able to accomplish (but what accomplishments they are!). I probably should see "Year of the Dragon."

Dylan

[Michael]

I've just rented The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate today. Will be watching them for the first time. I've been avoiding those films because: The Deer Hunter has a subject that is too touchy and depressing for me simply because my long-despited father was a Vietnam war veteran and Heaven's Gate appears too Western - the genre that I never care for but based on this thread, it looks like I'm definitely wrong.

[Lino]

I've just rented The Deer Hunter

That film is a visceral experience you will never forget, I'm sure Michael. Go easy on it. I don't watch it too often myself and I like this sort of films, generally. I think it touches a nerve in people - not only americans - that turns them inside out in an unforgettable way. Gut-wrenching might be a word.

[flyonthewall2983]

The only film of his that he's directed that I've seen from start to finish is Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, which is one of my favorite films of all time. It's kinda sad, from the way I see it, that he didn't write more instead of directing. Other than Thunderbolt, he also wrote Magnum Force (which is how Eastwood signed on for Thunderbolt) which is in my opinion the superior film of the Dirty Harry series.

[Polybius]

I definitely agree about Magnum Force. It's long been my favorite.

Cimino and John Milius collaborate on a story that re-enforces the idea of the rule of law. There is a book, in and of itself.

I can't speak to Bach's book (having not read it), but I still recommend Michael Epstein's documentary that is based on it.

He conducts interviews with many of the principals and the gathering of contemporary source materials is invaluable (including the justifiably infamous interview of Gene Shalit's, where that clown basically accused Cimino of taking money from famine victims to make a vanity picture.)

[flyonthewall2983]

What I liked most about Magnum Force, is that it basically spits back the criticism of the first film in a big way. Especially the scene in the car between Clint and Hal Holbrook, where Clint spins Holbrook's vigilante rhetoric into something more truthful.

[Polybius]

Agreed, which is why I'd like to know more about the writing process and who brought what perspectives to it.

Plus, Clint has a well tuned ear to public opinion and the general zeitgeist and I think he realized that as much as he may or may not have bought into the weltanschauung of the first film, that it needed to be counterbalanced, at least a bit.

"A man's got to know his limitations." is, for me, on a par with the "I kinda lost count in all this commotion..." and "Go ahead...make my day" speeches for sheer iconic bravado.

[Polybius]

^ Jesus...watch the German fly...

[lord_clyde]

Well, if you can get it as cheap as I did, (see above post) then hell yes, blind buy all the way.
And I will second that Cimino's Year of the Dragon commentary rulez.
How are his later films? Like the Sicilian, Desperate Hours, and The Sunchaser? I've seen them pop up in the cheapass dvd bins, but I've never really felt the urge to watch any of them. Comments?

[lord_clyde]

I wrote:

How are his later films? Like the Sicilian, Desperate Hours, and The Sunchaser? I've seen them pop up in the cheapass dvd bins, but I've never really felt the urge to watch any of them. Comments?

To answer my own question I rented The Sicilian and Desperate Hours. I enjoyed Desperate Hours, it was well directed and fast paced for a Cimino film. Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins are in fine form.
The Sicilian on the other hand could have been a great film. The movie does a lot of things right, but the main thing it gets wrong is its star. Why, oh why did they cast Christopher Lambert in the title role? It's true that there aren't any standout performances (scratch that. Terence Stamp was very good) but Lambert was plain bad, and he drags the movie down around him.
I want to watch the Sunchaser now, but it's only available on VHS.

[Gordon]

The Sunchaser was shot in Panavision (2.40:1) and has never had a letterboxed release.

[Tom Peeping]

The Sunchaser DVD came out in France.
Anamorphic 2:35. Removable French subs.

Watched it last night. It's a total disaster. Miscast, bad acting all around, mess of a script. Cimino completely lost it on this one.

Two things of interest though. On opening credits (with appalling font & color : green and pink), Woody Harrelson sings along with his car radio Esther Phillips' disco hit "What a Difference a Day Makes" (the songs pops up again on closing credits). And most of all, the presence in a couple of scenes of stunning 70 y.o. Capucine look-alike supermodel Carmen dell'Orefice (glorious name!), in a silent role. You can't get your eyes off her when she's on screen.

[John Cope]

I remember disliking Sunchaser as well and I generally adore Cimino. However, I always thought that it may have suffered terribly because of the atrocious pan and scan job on the VHS. His compositions are so important after all and always so well considered. What were your thoughts on that aspect of the film, Tom? If you haven't seen it before than I realize you can't compare it but were you struck by Cimino's eye this time around?

[Tom Peeping]

No, John, I wasn't much impressed by the widescreen composition of frames here. It is good, not great. Of course, all the scenes that take place in the wide open spaces of the West are stunning but wouldn't any person with a camera do something fine with a scenery like that? The scene by the lake in the end is only the hint of what the movie could have been.

[denti alligator]

Is it blashemous to not like The Deer Hunter that much? I watched it for the first time last night (on Universal's admirable-looking HD DVD) and although there were some very powerful and beautiful sequences, I felt as a whole it did not cohere. On the one hand the film felt too long (wedding sequence), on the other hand there was a lot I felt went unexplored. Structurally I didn't find it very satisfying. The two hunting sequences, though beautifully shot, were too simplistic in their contrasting of pre-Nam/post-Nam character development.

I felt the whole Russian roulette element to the story could have made a fascinating study in and of itself, but that the writer/filmmaker was more interested in character relations--in a way that seemed ambitious in its "epic" breadth, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Am I alone in finding the film overrated?

[Cold Bishop]

I go back and forth with Deer Hunter. Yeah, I find everything you said above true at times, and I also agree that the whole Roulette subplot could of been used for its own film.

At other times, I just love how detailed and capacious it is, despite its sometimes simplistic nature. While the structure at times feels contrived, I find it fascinating that the events and character withing the contrived events never do. Yeah, the pre/post Nam hunting sequences seem simplistic, but the way that the sequences are filmed, and the acting, and the drawn-out rhythm of it all, allows it to breathe a life of its own, the kind of which you don't find in most "complex" works. It's exactly because sequences like the wedding scene (admittedly not as magnificently staged and filmed as the dance scene in Heaven's Gate) are drawn out as long as they're are that I like the film, and if there is a problem, its that certain sections, such as the Russian Roulette, went unexplored, as you say. However, what's there is admittedly great, and how jarring that section is, because it is so short, is probably the point. We're hoping for something more, but Walken's character, who we remember so fondly from the drawn-out beginning, and who we have been wondering about for the long lapse of time since his arrival at the army hospital, dies so quickly that it messes with us.

It's no Heaven's Gate, definitely, but few films are. But like Heaven's Gate, I feel Cimino works by taking what could be simplistic, and imbuing it with much more detail and life and emotion than you would think possible. With a film like Gate, he takes what could have been a mediocre, throwaway 80 minute western and raises it to the operatic level of something like The Leopard, and unlike what critics may say, it never feels self-indulgent or pretentious, since it's the overlong, grand nature that seems to be the point.

I almost can't help but think of something like Satanstango, a film, which narratively speaking, has a plot which has no reason to be 7 hours long. However, its exactly the drawn out length which makes the film work, because its the things that you can reveal when you stretch out the moments that are important. There's world of difference between Tarr and Cimino, and their respective goals, but I feel there is a similar principle there.

[miless]

Am I alone in finding the film overrated?

no. Even as a teenager I felt the film was overhyped. (and this is coming from someone who, at the time, adored Tarantino) Nearly all of my friends who 'liked movies' recommended it to me, so I took a gander. It didn't connect. I felt like I was watching something that wasn't finished. It had some great parts to it, but overall I felt like it was being made up as they went along. To this day I view the whole Russian Roulette sub-plot as something made up in the mind of Cimino to make it shocking and daring. I also thought that the portrayal of the Vietnamese was ridiculous.

[exte]

The film is amazing, as is the Cimino commentary on the UK dvd...

[souvenir]

Count me as another dissenter on The Deer Hunter. It's like bits and pieces of an intended miniseries. I actually like the wedding sequence because it sort of washes over you. It's the rest that I found unconvincing. Not a fan of the ending either. I wish Ashby, Dern and Coming Home had won the Oscars instead.