The Deer Hunter (1978)

Director: Michael Cimino
Cast: Robert de Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, John Savage

The Deer Hunter is not about the Vietnam war but rather about people. The movie uses the war merely as a tool to develop charcters and emotions. We can all learn from Cimino's masterpiece and it certainly helps us understand how the war drastically changed the lives not only of the men who faced the terrors in Vietnam, but also the people back in the U.S. who welcomed home family and friends who had been unrecognizably transformed by the brutality of their experiences.

The movie opens on a happy note with the introduction of some of the characters. It is the day before Steven Pushkov's (John Savage) wedding, and two of his friends, Michael and Nick (Robert de Niro and Christopher Walken), have convinced him to enlist in the army with them and head to Vietnam to become heros and have an adventure. The viewer watches the joyous celebration unfold with a sense of dread, as the three are being bid farewell and wished good luck during their time with the service. The soon-to-be soldiers are excited and enthusiastic rather than afraid. A pivotal encounter occurs during the wedding when Michael and Nick meet a veteran who has already experienced the nightmares they are so avidly anticipating. The heavily inebriated and overly social Michael approaches the vet and, with wide eyes and a beer in his hand, asks, "What's it like over there?" The vet does not so much as make eye contact with Michael, never mind answer his question. After several more fruitless attempts to break the vet's haunted silence, Michael and his comrades move on to other things. That night, while drunk, Michael strips naked and runs down the road whooping and yelling, with Nick in pursuit. Deep down, Nick knows that Michael is wrong about war being a heroic adventure, and he makes Michael promise that he will not leave him behind.

The day before the three friends are due in the service, they embark on a hunt. Michael tracks a beautiful buck through the vibrant mountains and kills it with a pull of the trigger. They strap it down to the top of their Cadillac and drive it like a trophy back into town, where they celebrate with a couple more beers. To Michael and his friends the corpse of the deer is merely an achievement; the loss of the animal's life isn't even contemplated.

The camera moves now to a strikingly different atmosphere. Every surface is grimy. Houses burn, surrendering thick clouds of smoke to the air. The now beardless Michael lifts himself to his feet just in time to see a Vietnamese soldier dropping a live grenade into an underground bomb shelter full of traumatized women and children. The next prolonged sequence in the movie takes place in a disheveled hut on a muddy riverbank. Michael, Steve, and Nick are held captive along with others in the water under the hut. Above them a sinister act is taking place. Hostages are being brought up from below, then their measly, one-in-six chance at life is being bet upon by their vicious hosts. These intense portrayals of Russian roulette are perhaps the most memorable sequences in "The Deer Hunter".

Although "The Deer Hunter" is gritty and unsettling, the violence is not for entertainment but rather to heighten the truth and realism of the film. Emotion and character depth are the glue that hold everything together, and the real theme of the movie is the war between people and their feelings, rather than the war between the North Vietnamese and the U.S.-supported South. The game of Russian roulette is symbolic throughout the movie. A connection can be made between the game and the characters' dawning revelation about the pointlessness of war. In Russian roulette, a person's life is toyed with and life and death are turned into a pointless exchange of money. This is the way the characters come to feel about the war they are fighting. They have been captured, their existence is in no way benefitting U.S. cause, and their lives are being sacrificed without reason.

The prospect of life and death returns during the time Michael spends with his friends after he comes home from Vietnam. Steve and Nick, the other two of his comrades who share his knowledge of war, are not present at this time and Michael and his pals embark on yet another deer hunt. Michael breaks off on his own and frantically chases a large buck, similar to the one that he ruthlessly eliminated at the beginning of the movie. Now, though, when faced with the opportunity to kill, Michael cannot bear to end another life and simply walks back to the hut, where he confronts Stanley. Stanley has not endured the terrors of Vietnam and is wildly waving a gun around as a playful joke. Michael's dominance of Stanley in this scene is clearly visible; he's no longer the jovial, social party guy he was before the war. Stanley claims that the gun is not loaded when he sees that Michael finds his joking to be disgusting rather than funny. Michael angrily snatches the gun, empties each round except for one, and pushes it to Stanley's head, yelling that life is only a game. This is one of very few times that Michael loses his composure, but the outburst shows his passion for life and his newly found respect for its beauty.

Terrific acting in the "The Deer Hunter" is essential to its raw power, and the star-studded cast displays just that. Robert de Niro as Michael is utterly convincing as an emotionally reserved character; although he doesn't reveal his feelings externally, de Niro clearly shows us that Michael has been deeply, irrevocably changed by his experiences. Christopher Walken as Nick proves himself as one of the finest (despite rarely appearing in a leading role) actors of his generation, and John Savage embodies the heartbreaking story of one of the soldiers who just couldn't deal with himself after his return. Meryl Streep is more than convincing as the worried and traumatized girlfriend of Walken.

"The Deer Hunter" is the most powerful evocation of the subtle effects of war. It is a movie that only those who actually served our country during those terrible years in Vietnam can afford to miss; they already know the story. Everyone else should view this portrayal of a particularly painful chapter in our history. It deserves endless praise and should be remembered for years and years to come. The beautiful production of this movie makes it in every way one of the best films to come out during the seventies, a decade considered by many to be the best years in American film.
-Jack Lewers

Rating --- 10

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopoez, Maribel Verdu

Pan's Labyrinth is an original Spanish film that takes a fairy tale and puts it into adult context to teach lessons about cruelty, hope, and compassion. Although the movie portrays a child's interactions with fairies and fauns, and the story has every aspect of a fairy tale, it is definitely not a movie for kids, but rather a very thoughtful and deep cinematic experience with a meaningful message.

Pan's Labyrinth takes place during the Spanish Civil War. Ivana Baquero plays Ofelia, an 11-year-old girl who has gone with her pregnant mother to live with her ruthlessly vicious stepfather. Every aspect of this life is full of death and terror. Captain Vidal, the stepfather, is using Ofelia's mother to bear him a son, just to preserve his family name. He treats both mother and daughter just as cruelly as his other sevants. However, this harsh existence is only one aspect of Ofelia's life. The other one takes place on a separate plane of reality, perhaps visible to others, or perhaps merely as a figment of the girl's wandering imagination. During her stay at the Captain's home, Ofelia is guided by a mythical fairy and a faun who speaks poetically about her expected return and the forsaken destiny that awaits her in the mysterious labyrinth behind the Captain's mansion. As in the common fairy tale, Ofelia is given several assignments that introduce difficult obstacles that she must overcome.

Certain characters are undoubtedly good or evil and they strengthen each opposing side of the story, but throughout the film the faun remains enigmatic. Moving easily between the two realms, he is not attempting to persuade Ofelia to take one path or another, but rather reminding her of her ability to choose.

Pan's Labyrinth is about contrast. Real or imaginary, good or evil, these are themes of the film. The world of the humans in a time of desperation plays beautifully against the world of Ofelia's imagination, which is no more benign than the harsh reality she confronts every day. The way in which the tasks and obstacles are proposed to Ofelia are highly relevant to decisions she must make in reality, and as Ofelia realizes that one must be sacrificed to obtain the other, the challenge for her to choose between the two paths turns out to be the most difficult obstacle of all.

The visual style of Pan's Labyrinth is yet another aspect of the film that sets it far apart from other fantasy films. The color palette, limited to drab greens and greys, helps convey the listlessness of this crumbling world. The fantasy world of the faun is portrayed beautifully, with fluid animation of the bizarrely designed creatures and sudden flashes of vibrance amidst the gloom. Yet the world of the faun is certainly as nightmarish as Ofelia's real, everyday life, and the creatures who inhabit it are each terryfying, though in a completley different way.

The acting is perfectly done and each of the characters conveyed the right emotions to me, despite them speaking in a foreign language.

Each scene is expertly shot, and the unrealistic sequences in the movie are there exclusivly to contribute to the stylized feel. Social behavior and personal choices are major themes, but the film is so deep that no review can adequately capture the meaning, it must be experienced first hand.

-Jack Lewers
Rating---9.75

Raising Arizona (1987)

Director: Joel Coen
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Holly Hunter

Shying away a bit from the violence that was portrayed three years ago in their first low-budget thriller, Blood Simple, the Coen brothers deliver a hopeless failure of a comedy with "Raising Arizona."
Raising Arizona is a Coen brothers film that seems to be missing everything that makes the Coen team great. It's a cliche-ridden, wacky comedy with nothing that we haven't seen before, and nothing that hasn't been beaten to death already. Unfortunately, this predictable little movie has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and, ironically, it isn't even very funny.
Nicholas Cage plays H.I. (or Hi as they call him), a low-life loser with a bizarre hobby of robbing conveniance stores. Going purely on visual attraction, he falls in love with Ed, short for Edwina, (Holly Hunter), the law enforcment officer who has taken his mug shot the past couple of times that he's been caught and brought to jail. After H.I. swears off performing his petty crimes and has finished his time in the joint, he and Ed get married and decide to start a family. But when H.I. finds out that his bride is incapable of bearing a child, the wild couple resorts to kidnapping one from Mr. Nathan Arizona, a rich shop-owner who happens to have five.
The plot sounds stupid on paper and so indeed it is. The film's got a few memorable characters, including one played by Coen Bros. favorite John Goodman as an irreverant fugitive, and Randall "Tex" cobb as the lone biker of the Apocalypse, equipped with duel shotguns and an arsenal of highly lethal artillary. But even sterling cameo appearances by talented sidemen can't save Raising Arizona. This is just an extremely disappointing movie.
Along with Scorsese, the Coen brothers are my favorite filmmakers, but if you are interested in their works, this is the last movie you should see, and only with low expectations. Treat yourself to the spectacular "Miller's Crossing" or "Fargo" instead.
-Jack Lewers

Rating-----4.75

The Departed (2006)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg

After a long break, Martin Scorsese finally returns to his roots with an intense, violent mob movie, this time set in Boston. Everything comes together beautifully in this movie, from the harsh screenplay to the abrupt, realistic violence. The result is a flawless concoction comprised of everything we mob-movie fans have always dreamed of.
The film boasts a star-studded cast but has no lead actor. The combination of the most sucessful, sought-after up-and-coming stars (Dicaprio and Damon) alongside Jack Nicholson, arguably the greatest actor in American cinema today, makes for a perfect ensemble in which no one steals the spotlight.
Jack Nicholson delivers a freakishly convincing performance as Frank Costello, an Irish-American Mob Kingpin with underground roots all over "Southie." With his scraggly beard, beady eyes, and yellow, chiseled teeth, Nicholson practically makes the character smell bad on-screen. Matt Damon portrays Collin Sullivan, a handsome young law enforcment officer born in Southie but raised by Costello from childhood. Seargent Sullivan has earned everyone's trust in the police department; nobody suspects him as a rat. Leonardo DiCaprio is Billy Costigan, another emotional chararacter born into a family of Irish thugs with thick connections in the mob. However, Billy doesn't fall into this lifestyle; instead he is is bent on breaking free of his roots and doing good in the world. After years of rejection, he finally gets a job with the P.D. His job, ironically, is to use his mob roots to join Costello, earn his trust, and twist his arm into giving up the name of his mole in the P.D.
The plot only gets more interesting from there, twisting and turning its way through a barage of wild ironies and complexities -- all utterly convincing. But I won't be the one to give it away. This movie is adeptly shot with a very modern feel, easily moving back and forth between the realms of action, emotion, and comedy, all brilliantly rolled into an epic two and a half hour feature.
In every scene Scorcese is throwing something crazy at you, whether it's one of Jack Nicholson's ridiculously crude, sarcastic jokes, or a character being eliminated instantly with a swift, unexpected gunshot to the face. The story moves at a rocket pace and after picking your jaw up off the floor after the Hamlet-esque ending, you'll definetly want to watch the whole thing again and notice many more details the second time around.
So, the bottom line is that if you are a Scorsese fan, then you'll thank him for sticking tight to his gritty reputation and delivering the best film in the mob genre, a work that will be a true classic years from now. If you can take the violence and the profanity-soaked script, put this movie at the top of your queue.
-Jack Lewers

Rating---10

Fight Club (1999)

Director: David Fincher
Cast: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt

Fight Club is a very stylized movie, a rush of adrenaline that seems exciting and fresh. This isn't to say that Fight Club is without its flaws... the movie drags on quite a bit and is quite cynical and nihilistic, offering close to nothing in the way of good moral values. It is twisted and violent but it's certainly well made, not a good movie for the squeamish. If you're in the mood for something hip and won't mind a few brutal beatings -- scenes that will definitly be hard for some to watch -- then this could be worth your time.
Edward Norton plays a nameless character troubled by insomnia and sick of the monotonous, droning office work that plagues his life. Counseling has failed to bring him relief and he is desperate for some sort of treatment. An energetic punk named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) thinks he has the answer, and together they form an underground wrestling group for men, looking for some spice in their life and a place to vent male aggression. All the characters are portrayed exactly as they should be, but don't expect any blowout performances here. What really caught my eye (or ear) about Fight Club is the deliciously flourished script. Every line narrarated by Norton is wonderfully poetic and fits the stylized feel of the movie absolutely perfectly. The dark comedy sprinkled here and there throughout fits in with the spectacularly edgy, bizarre cinematography.
There are reasons that I choose to review the films that I do, and one important one is that I'm trying to take a fresh look at some of the films that may have been dismissed by the general public. Perhaps not everyone has understood, or even seen the point of, some of these movies, but that doesn't mean that they are totally without merit. I think that Fight Club is a movie that was quickly rejected by many viewers -- or potential viewers -- as a just another crazy, violent Hollywood movie. The truth is, it is a deeply flawed original, a film that stands out from the pack, even if it doesn't have a lot of redeeming qualities.
-Jack Lewers

Rating---7.5

Scarface (1983)

Directed: Brian DePalma
Starring: Al Pacino

Due to its widespread popularity, Brian DePalma's Miami mob film has been turned into a cult classic. Nearly every profanity- riddled line of dialogue has become a quote used in today's vocabulary. Although this film is very well made and highly entertaining to watch, I can't help but think that it's mediocre in comparison to many other movies in the mob genre.
Al Pacino delivers a very intense, over-the-top performance as Tony Montana, a Cuban imigrant looking to become a powerful man in Miami. The entire script for the movie is unrelenting, saturated with colorful, profane speeches as it follows the story of Montana rising to power as an underground druglord in the city. This movie delivers no message written in stone but gives a very detailed view of life in thhe drug dealing business and why not to tamper with fragile frienships or connections.
Pros of this movie are definitely the cinematography and the script, but the film is simply eclipsed by other mob movies. ''Goodfellas" and "Reservoir Dogs" are only two.
I recommend this movie for the screenplay, and it is worth seeing just for that -- but don't turn it on with high expectations if you've already seen "Goodfellas."
-Jack Lewers

Rating---8

Raging Bull (1980)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci

Martin Scorsese and Robert de Niro team up again, this time to tell the tale of self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta. Robert de Niro delivers the acting role of his life and is frighteningly convincing from start to finish. Although this movie is definitely a masterpiece for Scorsese, I never really found myself caught up in the story and, by the end I didn't much care about what finally happened to LaMotta.
This movie is stacked with amazing, memorable fight scenes, and the characters are top notch, but I couldn't help but feel that Scorsese was making this film just to showcase his favorite actor, de Niro, and not to teach us a lesson or tell a story. I would recommend putting this movie at the back of your queue, because you might be disappointed with it, but I still suggest that you see it at some point, if only for superb acting and the assured directing from Scorsese, one of the best, most consistently interesting directors working today.
-Jack Lewers

Rating---7