Heat (1995)

I am alone, I am not lonely, says Robert DeNiro's character around the thirty-minute mark. Thirty minutes out of a hundred and seventy and I already knew I would love Michael Mann's Heat, an astonishing crime masterpiece. 

2020 Blind Spot Series: Casino (1995)

When I sat down to watch Martin Scorsese's Casino I only knew that it was a gangster film and that it is considered by many the filmmaker's finest film. The latter is actually the reason I picked it for my Blind Spot as I was curious to see how it could be better than Goodfellas. Turns out, it kind of it as it's essentially Scorsese's attempt to remake his own Goodfellas and yet it stands out on its own as a refreshing, highly entertaining and fascinating crime film.

The Irishman (2019)

Although the running time genuinely intimidated me — two hours are a lot for me so you can imagine my feelings toward a three hour and a half long film —, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman was on the top of my 2019 watch-list as I appreciate most of the director's work and I was really interested in seeing what he could do with all the freedom Netflix would grant him. And, there's no other way to put it, Scorsese's latest film didn't meet my expectations, it blew them as it is a tremendously enthralling, fascinating, charming, surprisingly funny and yet serious gangster film and easily Scorsese's most involving, engaging film on an emotional level.

The Deer Hunter (1978)

Genre

Drama | War

Director

Michael Cimino

Country

UK | USA

Cast

Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, George Dzundza, Shirley Stoler, Chuck Aspegren, Rutanya Alda, Amy Wright, Joe Grifasi

Plot

Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage) and Nick (Christopher Walken) are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. After some time and many horrors, the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp in which they are forced to play Russian roulette against each other. Michael makes it possible for them to escape, but they soon get separated again.

Opinion

Ranked by many, actually almost every single person who saw it, as a masterpiece, The Deer Hunter is one of the most overrated films ever, and one of the worst Academy Award Best Picture winners ever.

The film is boring, senseless and historically inaccurate. To begin with, it's too long - 3 hours seemed like an eternity. The wedding sequence at the beginning goes on and on - 30 minutes or so - but doesn't tell you more about the characters than a 10 minutes sequence could have. Then the action goes straight to Vietnamese jungle: the three friends don't need any kind of training, they just go, and they serve in the same squad too. The Vietnamese are portrayed as monsters or victims, there are no shadings. When Michael and Steven are back home, Nick is still in Vietnam and plays the Russian roulette for god only knows how many years - if it was a sport he would have been the World Champion. 

The acting is good. Robert De Niro is spectacular and should have gotten the Oscar instead of Christopher Walken - I am not saying Walken sucks in the film, he delivers a good performance, but, in my opinion, De Niro's better. Meryl Streep and John Savage are a great supporting cast.

Do you want to see a film about the Vietnam War? Watch Apocalypse Now or/and Full Metal Jacket, they are definitely worth the time.

Quotes

Michael: A deer has to be taken with one shot. I try to tell people that but they don't listen.