The Deer Hunter

The Deer Hunter was a controversial and commercially successful film that explored the human cost of America's longest war and colonialist glorification of anti-Asian violence. Brad Prager's study examines its significance as a war movie and contextualizes its critical reception, highlighting how its formal elements were used to bolster its troubling depictions of war and race.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 120 pages
Publication date: 07 September 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Michael Cimino's 1978 film "The Deer Hunter" achieved both critical and commercial success but also faced significant controversy and was seen as a powerful statement on the human cost of America's longest war and as a colonialist glorification of anti-Asian violence. Brad Prager's study of the film examines its significance as a war movie and contextualizes its critical reception. Prager draws on an archive of contemporaneous materials and conducts an in-depth analysis of the film's lighting, mise-en-scène, multiple cameras, and shifting depths of field. He argues that while Cimino had no responsibility to historical truth, he used the film's formal elements to bolster his troubling depictions of war and race. Prager compares the film with later depictions of US-led intervention, such as Albert and Allen Hughess' "Dead Presidents" (1995) and Spike Lee's "Da Five Bloods" (2020), and illuminates the film's major presumptions, blind spots, and omissions while also presenting a case for its classic status.

Weight: 194g
Dimension: 189 x 135 x 7 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781839025419