The Deer Hunter is the first postwar Vietnam epic, a film that tries to say it all…. Into three hours of well-written, artfully edited, superlatively acted color film, director Michael Cimino has packed an extraordinary emotional wallop, making The Deer Hunter the most memorable American saga since Coppola's Godfather II. Like Coppola, who chose the Mafia as a microcosm of America, Cimino uses Vietnam to try to explain far more that one particular war. The white-faced, silent audiences leaving the theater tremble from a sense of knowledge they think that they understand not just Vietnam but some larger truths about America.

Like most great war stories, The Deer Hunter is a Bildungsroman tracking the passage of young men to maturity, Cimino's ambition is impressive. (pp. 95-6)

The movie is structured as a symphonic song cycle. From a number-one single it moves to a Slavic dance at the wedding...