Playing 'The Deer Hunter': An Interview with John Savage (2003) Online

This is one of the three featurettes on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Deer Hunter, with a running time of 15 and a half minutes. It consists of an interview with John Savage, one of the stars, intercut with footage from the film, occasionally cleverly used. He shares anecdotes, and we find out how ridiculously dangerous and irresponsible the production was at times(seriously, if you're going to screw around like that, the least you could do is end up with a result as compelling and mindblowing as Apocalypse Now). You can tell that it meant a lot to him to do the movie, and that he still gets deeply affected thinking and talking about it. This leaves us wondering what on Earth he's trying to convey at one fairly brief point, but in the end(literally, like, right before it goes to a still frame of him and fades into the credits), he does say a poignant thing or two. I suppose if you love the picture and you want to know what it was like appearing as one of the leads, this does the job nicely enough. There is a bit of disturbing content in this. I recommend it only to fans of the flick. 6/10

I saw this movie when it first came out. I would still watch it again. It was a long story line about young men going off to fight a war. I guess they get caught up in the " go USA. " It shows them as young men before the war, and then after the war. Some may question the accounts of the film. I don't know about that, I was never in that war. I felt it was a film that was worth watching, and it was always fresh and exciting to watch. This is one film about the Vietnam war one must see. It's more the just guns and taking a hill. A different view of a Vietnam veteran. If you don't want to see blood and killing, then skip this one. It's a war movie. Get over it.

Joe