The Deer Hunter

Initially released on DVD in 1998, this extraordinary drama about friends surviving the Vietnam War has long been overdue for a spit shine and augmentation with extras, and Universal delivers the goods with this latest entry in the studio's “Legacy Series,” featuring a newly remastered version of the film and supplements, including a commentary by the film's cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, a slew of deleted and extended scenes, and the Academy Award acceptance speech of director Michael Cimino. Winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, The Deer Hunter demonstrated that leading lady Meryl Streep, who had heretofore only been seen in supporting roles, was one of the screen's great actresses, while also establishing Cimino, a relative newcomer, as a formidable director (although he subsequently failed to live up to the promise of this auspicious sophomore outing). Perhaps most importantly, it cemented Robert De Niro's burgeoning reputation as a dependable if offbeat leading man. De Niro, John Savage, and Christopher Walken (who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance) play three buddies from a Pennsylvania steel town, drafted in the 1960s and sent to Vietnam, where shattering experiences irrevocably alter their lives. Streep plays the young woman beloved by both De Niro's and Walken's characters. Although Cimino's three-hour-epic occasionally rambles, the filmmaker's protracted emphasis on ceremony and cultural ritual—demonstrated early on in both a wedding sequence and a deer hunt that precedes the friends' deployment to Vietnam—has resonance in a later episode immortalized in cinematic history as one of the most harrowing ever: the game of Russian roulette forced upon De Niro and Walken by their Vietcong captors. Intense, powerful, and fascinating, 1978's The Deer Hunter not only rates highly among those distinctive ‘70s films that changed the way Hollywood made movies, it offers a look at some of cinema's most popular and talented performers in their salad days, displaying the promise that each of them ultimately fulfilled. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (E. Hulse)[Blu-ray Review—Mar. 13, 2012—Universal, 184 min., R, $19.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1978's The Deer Hunter sports a fine transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and film journalist Bob Fisher, deleted and extended scenes (17 min.), a promo on “100 Years of Universal: Academy Award Winners” (10 min.), trailers, a bonus digital copy of the film, and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a welcome Blu-ray debut for this multiple-Oscar-winning ‘70s classic war film.]