Reviews

Maybe its the fact that the majority of the users who have commented on this film have been Americans and are therefore too involved in the subject matter or maybe that they rented the film in the hope of seeing a blood and guts war movie, but they seem to be completely missing the point. The Deer Hunter is not a war movie, it is a movie about the effects of and the horrors of war on ordinary people. The characters are in the main uninteresting because it is mainly uninteresting people who fight in wars, wars which "interesting" people create. Yes the dialogue is often in the background but does it really matter? These characters are not compelling (perhaps with the exception of De Niro).Indeed some are downright idiotic. Yet these are the people who suffer through war. For me the final scene where they sing "God bless America" is made more poignant by the fact that these are the children of immigrants, people who are maybe not fully accepted by the society where they live. Yet they have laid down their lives for what is essentially their "American Dream" while the children of the rich(interesting?!)people went to College. This is a movie which truly dispels any illusion that anyone ever had about the glory of war.Not non-stop entertainment but compelling and thought-provoking.(Definitely not Kelly's Heroes)

The Field is film which carries a universal message about the ongoing struggle between modernity and traditionalism. It is also a uniquely Irish film which may make some of the scenes lack relevance for an international audience. The meaning of such scenes as the "American Wake", which was essentially a death wake which was held for young Irish people up until as recently as the 1960s on the night before they left for America never to be seen again, might be missed by non-Irish people. However the final scene where the Bull McCabe aka Richard Harris attempts to push back the incoming Atlantic tide speaks of the universal futility of man's attempts to control nature or indeed, inevitable progress.An excellent movie.