The Deer Hunter: I re-visited the 1978 Michael Cimino directed classic Oscar Best Picture yesterday, which I had not seen in a number of years. Starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Cazale and John Savage this drama set in steel town Clariton, Pennsylvania tells the story of good friends who three of which are about to head off to Viet Nam in the war effort. Those three are Michael (De Niro), Nick (Walken) and Steven (Savage). Savage before deploying is getting married, and there is an elaborate wedding sequence not unlike that within The Godfather. The wedding sets the stage for how the friends interact, and their romantic attachments including Steven acknowledging that he hadn’t had sex with his new bride Angela, despite the fact that she is pregnant. We also see that Michael and Nick are both romantically interested in Linda, played by Streep. The buddies together all enjoy hunting for deer in season, and they do so one last time.

Fast forward to Viet Nam, and quickly the three friends, despite being in different areas of the military end up being POWs to a group of sick gamblers who force the prisoners to play russian roulette before them. Russian roulette is one bullet put into the chamber of a handgun, and then each of two players one at a time has to put the gun to his temple and pull the trigger. The captors bet on the results. Michael the alpha male of the group decides to bravely convince his close friends on a plan to keep living. Dramatic things happen, which are heart wrenching and intense. The three friends get split up. Michael returns to Pennsylvania alone. He meets up with Linda, who despite being engaged to Nick, hasn’t heard one word from him. Michael later visits with Steven in a difficult meeting. The movie continues to a conclusion that is both shocking and reflective of the US involvement in the war.

This picture is over 3 hours long. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Walken). In all five Academy Awards. All well deserved. It is a really good story, with tremendous acting from all concerned. I found that it was too long, and certainly too long in the opening wedding sequence. The return for Michael is also a bit too long as well. This should have been a movie less than 3 hours. The POW sequences are some of the most iconic in film, and in stories about Viet Nam. If you have not watched this movie, it is worth your time, if for nothing else than seeing Hollywood legends working at their best. Some fun facts about this movie from some research:

• The deer hunting sequences are filmed in mountainous Washington State and no where near Pennsylvania
• Robert DeNiro was paid $1M in 1978 for this role, and he has stated that this was the most physically exhausting film of his career
• DeNiro and Savage did their own stunts in this film
• Real rats and bugs were used in the POW sequence
• The slapping in the russian roulette sequences was all authentic and real
• John Cazale was riddle with lung cancer during the filming and died for the film was finished and released. Robert DeNiro paid the insurance fee to allow Cazale to participate in it
• Michael Camino famously followed up this film with the Hollywood bomb Heaven’s Gate, and his career never fully recovered
• The film doesn’t indicate who the father of Angela’s baby was, but later Camino admitted that it was Nick’s
• The wedding sequence took over five days to film. DeNiro at one point collapsed from exhaustion

Conclave: This is a new film released, directed by German-Austrian director Edward Berger. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini in the main screen roles. It is based on the 2016 book of the same name by Robert Harris. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and the intrigue involved from beginning to end. There were excellent performances all around, but I believe that I just witnessed the Best Actor Oscar winner in Ralph Fiennes, who carries the movie and all of its intricacies on his face. Conclave is a process within the Catholic church for the nomination and election of a new Pope to succeed a Pope who has just passed away. It involves bringing all the cardinals throughout the world to the Vatican and sequestering them until they come to a decision with a vote with one member who achieves two-thirds majority of the vote. We have seen this drama unfold fairly recently cinematically from the Dan Brown book and film Angels and Demons.

Fiennes plays the Dean, a position, by the name of Cardinal Lawrence and he is in charge of the process. The movie is fiction, and addresses a conclave in turbulent times. I think that this movie is very timely because it also addresses many of the same issues in the present US election to take place later this week. The church and leadership is divided among the traditionalists and the liberals. The traditionalists wish to go back to the old ways and old teachings with hardline stances on issues like abortion, divorce, women in the church among many. Issues that in 2024 have seen continued attendance drop within the pews throughout the country. This is compared with “the liberals” as stated by the traditionalists who fear that the core of the faith is eroding away with too much flexibility and a lack of structure. The liberals wish to accommodate people with different views and attitudes. Church in their eyes should be bringing people together and embrace their diversity. This conclave is viewed as fundamental to protecting the progress made over the past 40 years. The traditionalists feel like a war is coming and that the church needs to take a stance, and it is time take the offense, and separate “them” from “us”. What is explored are deep issues of faith and leadership. Issues like, how far are you willing to go to explore deeply into a nominees past to see whether they are fit to lead? What about a conflict of interest when you have also become a nominee? When you make such a decision, then how far are you willing to move your initial commitment in the face of new concerns? Other issues like, can one who questions their faith lead an entire church? Or would you rather vote for one who seeks out power like this, or those who claim that they have no interest? Do you vote for and choose among the “best of a bad lot”? The dynamics of any election come into play. Fiennes ably has to deal with each of these issues, in a series of events, along with external events, that are having impact on the proceedings and him personally. He is joined by John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci who have their own motivations in how things turn out. The acting and writing is superb. There are significant plots twists that keep the audience guessing and second guessing. It is so very satisfying. There are no car chases. No gun fights. No love interests, beyond the love of the church and God and doing the right thing. But there is an unusual playing out of a process that the church has been undertaking since 1492, in the most dramatic way, taking it to the extreme to make a point, and be entertaining. Each conclave has been held at the Sistine Chapel since 1878. Despite all of the traditions and outfits, this is still a story about power and those who look to wield it. I am fully expecting many award nominations to come from this picture. I agree with other reviewers who have been very positive about it. In my view, you should seek this movie out.