Michael Cimino
Il cacciatore

The best war films, especially those about Vietnam that so preoccupy American filmmakers, usually portray the drama of soldiers engaged on the front line, far from home and their certainties, striving to fight for their country until they realize they are fighting for nothing: indicative in this regard are both "Platoon" ('86) and the more recent "Jarhead" ('05), which, while transferring the events to the Iraq war of '90, still adheres to the underlying idea of this filmography. The quasi-journalistic approach of these films, akin in some ways to the literary masterpieces that emerged in Europe around the events of the First and Second World Wars (Lussu, Rigoni Stern, Remarque) tears apart the rhetoric hidden behind the apparent feats of war heroes, illustrating - almost pedagogically - the futility of conflict and the costs it eventually incurs on the public, weakening entire generations (both present and future).

Other films, like "Full Metal Jacket" ('87), highlight the premises of war and violence, the mechanisms through which the individual is deprived of autonomy of thought and action until he becomes, literally, cannon fodder for military strategies decided by the Army's top brass; others still, like the recent "Flags of our Fathers" ('06), emphasize the consequences of war on those who took part, clarifying how rhetoric mystifies, in hindsight, certain individual, insignificant events, creating Heroes and forgetting the men and their feelings.

"Il cacciatore" - "The Deer Hunter" ('78) diverges from the aforementioned models, using the war events as an occasion to reflect on human nature, the emotional bonds between individuals, and the destinies of single individuals. In this, the film takes on the tones of a universal drama that, in some ways, can be found in the contemporary "Apocalypse Now" ('79), albeit with the necessary and notable differences between the works of Cimino and Coppola.

Cimino's film tells, as is known, the story of three friends, belonging to the working class of the vast American Province, meticulously describing their lives, those of their friends and families, the Ukrainian minority to which they belong, as well as their passion for deer hunting in the Appalachian Mountains. Lives that flow normally, almost boringly and without possibility of redemption, destined to culminate in exhausting duels with mountain deer, in the solitude and silence of nature. Lives that, in the second part of the film, are shaken by the sudden call to war of the three friends, destined to leave for Vietnam like many other young people of their generation. The war, which will see the three once again close, will bring them into contact with the unprecedented cruelty of the Vietcong, the harshest imprisonment, until a laborious liberation, a prelude to a return home and to normality.

Normality that, however, seems only hoped for: one of the three (the excellent John Savage), due to injuries sustained in war, will remain forever paralyzed, marked in body and soul; another (Christopher Walken at the peak of his career) even remains in Vietnam, forever marked by the war in his psyche, until becoming a champion of that same Russian roulette that the Vietcong forced him to participate in during imprisonment. Only the third (played by Robert De Niro) seems to have withstood the impact of the war, revealing himself as the strongest and most lucid of the group, while carrying within himself the regret of the friend left in Vietnam, until vainly returning to the places of war to retrieve and bring him home, in a different and new manhunt, which here bitterly takes the place of deer hunting.

The film's Italian title is ambiguous, almost suggesting De Niro's dual hunt. In the first part of the film, the man hunts in the most traditional sense of the word, extending his dominion and power over nature, and affirming himself as pack leader, as the most skilled among the men of his group/tribe. In the second part of the film, the man, devastated by war and awareness of physical and moral pain, seeks to restore the violated order by re-establishing the pre-existing social bonds, now frayed and compromised: De Niro's hunt for Christopher Walken, almost the "hunt" of the good shepherd for the lost sheep, in his spasmodic need to rebuild lost affections, the integrity of the group, and the same pre-existing hierarchies within it, acquires a non-physical and subjective, but existential and interior dimension, however leading to the defeat of the hunter.

If, in fact, in natural hunting, the one who kills their prey wins, in our spiritual hunt, the death of the hunted represents the ultimate defeat inflicted by the war on men, the impossibility of restoring the order and harmony violated by pain. In this, it does not seem inappropriate to compare De Niro's nostos and companions with Ulysses' return home in "The Odyssey," or Sam Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings," since in all the cases recalled, the return can no longer mean "new beginning," retroactively erasing what was seen or suffered in war, but a retreat into the domestic place, as the last domain in which (attempting to) hide from the violence and horror.

From a strictly technical standpoint, "Il cacciatore" is well-written and shot, benefiting from the excellent performances of the three main actors and supporting actors, such as a young Meryl Streep and Coppola's character actor John Cazale.

The locations and cinematography are interesting: the squalor of American Province (I believe Pennsylvania), amidst industrial fumes, unadorned interiors, wedding scenes, and bars frequented by bored customers, has an almost neorealistic touch, in my opinion akin to the poetics of a Cassavetes; the deer hunting scenes are thrilling and already suggest De Niro's inner torment, heralding the different hunt that will be seen in the second part of the film. The part set in Vietnam is more hectic, full of tension and anguish, symbolizing the explosion of violence already implied in the first part of the feature film, and akin, on a strictly technical level, to many genre films.

Flooding and lengthy film, "Il cacciatore" perhaps presents some lengthy sections and drops in tension, often emphasized by those who consider themselves faced with a classic war film, where action prevails over reflection. If, however, it is recognized that the war represented by Cimino is only a pretext for reflection on Man, these limitations can also be scaled down, giving the film the value it deserves.

Without any doubt, a five-star film.