Product Details

• Actors: Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
• Directors: Michael Cimino
• Writers: Deric Washburn
• Producers: Michael Cimino, Barry Spikings, Michael Deeley, John Peverall
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: MCA/Universal Home Video
• DVD Release Date: March 31, 1998
• Run Time: 183 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (371 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783225997
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,387 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Deer Hunter" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, The Deer Hunter is simultaneously an audacious directorial conceit and one of the greatest films ever made about friendship and the personal impact of war. Like Apocalypse Now, it's hardly a conventional battle film--the soldier's experience was handled with greater authenticity in Platoon--but its depiction of war on an intimate scale packs a devastatingly dramatic punch. Director Michael Cimino may be manipulating our emotions with masterful skill, but he does it in a way that stirs the soul and pinches our collective nerves with graphic, high-intensity scenes of men under life-threatening duress. Although Russian-roulette gambling games were not a common occurrence during the Vietnam war, they're used here as a metaphor for the futility of the war itself. To the viewer, they become unforgettably intense rites of passage for the best friends--Pennsylvania steelworkers played by Robert De Niro, John Savage, and Oscar winner Christopher Walken--who may survive or perish during their tour through a tropical landscape of hell. Back home, their loved ones must cope with the war's domestic impact, and in doing so they allow The Deer Hunter to achieve a rare combination of epic storytelling and intimate, heart-rending drama. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Cimino's epic film about friendship chronicles the lives of three steelworkers and their friends who lives are irrevocably changed by a tour of duty in Vietnam. The film is renowned for the Russian roulette scenes.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Blu ray re-release of Vietnam War classic January 25, 2012

By M. Oleson

Format:Blu-ray

Not having seen this movie in years, it was with some trepidation that I watched. Like many films of this stature, it can be difficult to view at times. Of course many will remember the time when the 3 best friends are captured by the Viet Cong and forced into games of Russian roulette. Knowing those scenes pretty well, equal focus should be placed on the long build up in the first act which shows how those friendships evolve.

There is no doubt Christopher Walken deserved his Oscar, but watch the byplay between De Niro's title character and that of Meryl Streep's who is the girlfriend of Nick (Walken) and Michael's (Robert De Niro) best friend. At first there are the glimses and subtle attraction. Michael is clearly smitten by Linda (Streep), but stays at a distance because of her relationship with Nick. Linda likes Michael but more like a brother or best friend. This relationship awkwardly changes, but while Michael has romance in mind, Linda still loves Nick. Yet she is also very lonely and torn by the fact that Michael is there and has always paid attention to her. This is certainly some good writing but the acting delivers this aching relationship in a profound way. Yes the movie is long, clocking in at over 3 hours and can be grueling at times, but this is a landmark film by any standard.

This new Blu ray combo pack Blu-ray/DVD combo pack presents the film in its 2.39:1 original aspect ratio with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. The video transfer is excellent. It is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The colors are deep and vibrant, the detail is sharp, and the dark scenes are especially well presented. The DTS-HD Master Audio is incredibly immersive. The surrounds are often in play, especially in the Vietnam sequences. The dialog is clear and well presented. The LFE channel is used in critical scenes.

The disc also contains the following supplements:

Deleted and extended scenes
Commentary with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and film journalist Bob Fisher
100 Years of Universal: Academy Award Winners featurette

242 of 276 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch It Without A Scorecard October 17, 1999

By El Kabong

Format:VHS Tape

If you really want to get the most out of viewing this picture, don't make the mistake many of these Amazon reviewers do, by either assuming the politics of Cimino et al or using your own pro- or anti-America agenda as a critical yardstick. Because really this film isn't proselytizing a particular viewpoint, unlike Cimino's disastrous followup HEAVEN'S GATE. And don't think of it solely as a war movie. Actually, it's a lot like GONE WITH THE WIND: an epic-scale look at life and society in a specific place and time in the past (in this case, 1968, ten years before the film was made), and how folks send off their high-spirited young men to a war that no one pays a great deal of mind to - and how that war shatters not only the young men but the world they left behind, forever. The wedding scene IS long and in lesser hands on either side of the camera would be a dead weight but Cimino and lensman (sorry) Vilmos Zsigmond frame it in reverent widescreen grandeur, and a once-in-a-lifetime cast nails every character nuance and conversational tic, so that the scene flows on and on, vibrant with life and perfectly evoking not only a rust-belt town but the fast-fading rust-belt values of the nation. Besides, with a cast like this movie's, working at the height of their powers with inspired material, you really don't want scenes to end. When the movie segues to Vietnam, the tone shifts to horror and finally surrealism. Many consider this portion of the movie horribly racist, but that's a safe, kneejerk-liberal reaction. These aren't Harvard freshmen, they're barely-educated steeltown kids being sent to a faroff jungle to kill VC, who get captured & tortured by the men they are trying to kill. For enlightened liberal pieties to inform the dialogue or the tone of these scenes would be criminally false. That's probably what makes this a great flick, however, that right-wingers can despise it for its obvious liberalism and the bleeding hearts can hate it for its reactionary jingoism. Ain't consensus wonderful? Check your own politics at the door before watching this (widescreen version only!) and savor four transcendent performances by DeNiro, Savage, Walken & Streep, plus the late John Cazale doing his patented sweaty-weasel turn as an added bonus.

57 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One Shot July 27, 2000

By Neville Blender

Format:DVD

We've seen alot of Veitnam war movies since Deer Hunter. Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Oliver Stone's trilogy & various others. All have great moments,especially Kubrick's version,but Cimino's "Deer Hunter" is the Grand Daddy,in my opinion. De Niro's incredible acting is only equalled by Walken,Streep,Cazale & Savage. It's Streep's first film appearance & Cazale's last~(They were a couple at the time, Cazale died of cancer before the film's release)~. I have never taken the Academy Awards seriously since they awarded Jon Voigt & Jane Fonda oscars for "Coming Home"~(another Vietnam film)~ instead of De Niro & Streep for "Deer Hunter". Walken walked away with best supporting actor,& deservedly so. It is an incredibly powerful movie. The DVD,although a little dark looking,is great to watch. To be able to access any scene...I still marvel. This is a film you HAVE to see if you have any kind of love for the movies.