A Deer Hunter Caught In the Headlights in Crosstown Traffic

So, it's been a bit since my last post. The longest bit yet, I believe. I've been doing a lot of things that are hard to blog about, like pushing friends on swings and eating cheese and jelly sandwiches. All the same, excuses aside, I saw Deer Hunter two nights ago.

Deer Hunter is an emotionally exhausting film to watch. And simultaneously boring. A dangerous combination. You spend an hour wondering what the point is, and then the next hour not breathing for fear you will upset the fragile balance of the characters' lives. And you do have to consider the film in terms of hours rather than minutes, since it has three of the former. Too long. It could have been trimmed significantly without any harm coming to the plot.

It tracks three friends from their jobs as steelworkers in Pennsylvania to the jungles of Vietnam and back again. The three primaries are Mike (Robert De Niro), Stevie (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken). If nothing else, the movie proved that Walken can act. I was most impressed by him, and least impressed by Savage, who just fades into the background.

I think the movie's biggest problem was pacing. It still would have been a leisurely film if cut to two hours, but it would have hit harder in a shorter time frame. And, for the record, I don't mind long movies (Lord of the Rings, for example). I just mind this long movie. So, given that it received an Academy Award for Best Picture, I find it overrated. I certainly wouldn't watch it a second time. I'll admit that the middle hour is well above average quality, but it is so painful to watch that you have to be in a slightly masochistic mood for it to strike the right chord.

I'll say this much--I can see why certain people would like it, but I don't see it appealing to a majority of people. It just isn't that good.

Second: It's strange to write about something extremely famous and popular, because I know I have so little new to say, and what I do say can't make that much of an impact. That aside, I love Jimi Hendrix. I will soon have more to say on the topic of Electric Ladyland, as I am now 2/3 of the way through the 33 1/3 on it (making me 22 2/9 knowledgeable about it). But at the moment, I have to say how much I love the kazoo (actually just paper and a comb) on "Crosstown Traffic." If you don't know precisely what I'm talking about, please find it on Youtube or Last.FM and take a listen. Gorgeous.

Sincerely,
Spencer Miles Kimball