Word: deere
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MICHAEL CIMINO GOT LUCKY. Back in 1978, Vietnam was just becoming hot movie material, Cimino, the spunky young director with one movie under his belt (the insipid Thunderbolt and Lightfoot), sold the British recording company EMI the idea for a terrific film--a gut-wrenching Vietnam drama. The Deer Hunter. A hot idea, Vietnam laced with contemporary American pop romanticism. The Vietnam War the way Bruce Springsteen would probably sing about it. Workin' class guys, they go and they fight for their country, 'cause their country ain't so great, you know--it's real bad sometimes--but they...
...followed, but Boorman has not clipped his wings with Excalibur: it is extravagantly conceived, and it sprints like a deer through the thickets of legend...
...Jenkins. Folk tales have retained their appeal through the centuries partly because they are parables of good and evil. The man of good in Swop is H.E. Rowe (Ken Jenkins), an 81-year-old who communes with nature, wears hawk masks and goes "buck-dancin' " with his favorite deer. The man of evil is Lanny (Robert Schenkkan), a mean-spirited drunk and a cancerous coward of a man who relishes dashing a kitten to death against a wall. A surprisingly animated wooden Indian presides over the pair's rendezvous with destiny...
...Sarde's gushy score highlights Polanski's excessive Romanticism. When lovers passionately embrace or horses gallop into the distance, the music swells dramatically, reminding that this is a stirring moment. The Romantic flourishes become so predictable that Polanski almost parodies soppy filmmaking. He bombards with shots of gentle animals: deer, cows, wans, all of them looking as though they might, at any moment, transform into a Stubbs oil. Polanski even presents the film's little bit of gore with extreme tameness. His relentless diffidence weakens a potentially powerful story. We watch with a dreamy disinterest as Fate designs it tapestry...
...Deer Hunter turned in a healthy profit and won the New York Film Critics Award and the Oscar as Best Picture of the Year. But the Quandary aside, Fort Apache, despite its emotional jerry-rigging, stands as a silly sham and a dismal artistic failure...