The Deer Hunter 1978

Looking back, I saw this film when it first came out and remember it as a De Niro film but didn't remember Meryl Streep was even in it. Her performance lead to a best supporting actress nomination and of course this film won best picture of the year.

I was alive during the Vietnam war. When they were younger, my kids asked me if I was a hippy and they really wished I had been. Truth is I was obvilious to the world around me in the 60's, I was only 10 in 1968. My parents lived a relatively conservative life. Dad worked for Lockheed and Mom stayed home and helped out at the school. There was a lot going on outside my little world.

This film starts out with a group of buddies in Pennsylvania working blue collar jobs in the steel mill on their last weeks before heading to Vietnam. They've enlisted to contribute to what they believe is a noble cause. Steven (John Savage) marries his pregnant girlfriend, Nick (Christopher Walken) is dating Linda (Meryl Streep) and Michael (Robert De Niro) is also in love with Meryl Streep's character.

Because a cloud formation tells them the hunting is good, a bunch of the guys head out to the hills. De Niro kills a deer and the group of them seem to get high on the kill.

When they get to Vietnam, they find a country in chaos. The film proceeds to show us the horrors we have come to know were the Vietnam war. The Viet Cong did not discriminate against women and children, they killed anyone. The three buddies were captured by the Viet Cong and were forced to play russian roulette as an example of one form of torture. There appeared to be no purpose beyond self preservation and survival.

The war changed the three of them profoundly in different ways. Steven would go on to lose his legs and could not bare to come home to his wife and child. Nick tried to contact Linda but what would he tell her, how would he explain what he had been through? Nick ultimately shot himself in a game of russian roulette of his own desire. Michael returns home to Linda a changed person. The life has somehow died out in him.

Meryl Streep's character, just as many who did not experience first hand the horrors of this war, tried to understand but there was no way that she ever would.

When Michael heads back out to the mountain to hunt, he finds himself unable to kill. He goes on to observe others enjoying life, but how could he surpress the horrible memories and bring himself to smile or laugh again? I guess some of them did with time. Very sad film.

Julia 1977

Set in the 1930's at the rise of Nazi Germany, two young women, Lillian (Jane Fonda) and Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), just out of college in New York and very very close friends, go their separate ways. Lillian stays in New York to become a writer and Julia accepts admission to Oxford University. While Lillian struggles to find success as a writer, Julia is learning a lot about herself and the world. Julia moves to Vienna, Austria to study medicine but gets caught up in an antifascist activist group.

Meryl Streep, in what I believe is her first film, appears just several times as an old friend of Lillian and Julia, a socialite that is seemingly unaware of what is going on in the world outside Manhattan. She is convincing and beautiful.

Lillian hits it big as a playwright but really spends the entire film desperately trying to find and communicate with Julia in Europe. Lillian, a Jewish woman, takes a great risk to help Julia and her activist group by smuggling $50,000 in cash into Germany. When she finally reaches Julia, their meeting is short and tense due to the circumstances. This would be the last time Lillian would see Julia before Julia is found and murdered by the Nazis. Although, Lillian loved Dashiell (Jason Robards) who she had an mentor and romantic relationship with for 30 years, Julia may have truly been the love of Lillian's life.

As the film opens, the narrator explains "Old paint on canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent, and when that happens, in some pictures it is possible to see the original lines to show how the painter changed his mind".

I think both Lillian and Julia started out with certain ideas about the world and as their paths took various turns, they found the world to be quite a different place than they first imagined.

It was really interesting to get a perspective of young educated women during this male dominated time in our history. I love Jane Fonda and really loved her in this film!

The film won many awards including 3 Oscars (both Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Robards for Best Supporting Actors, and Best Screen Play) and 2 Golden Globes (Jane Fonda, Best Actress and Vanessa Redgrave, Best Supporting Actress)

The Journey Begins

Last year my daughter Alison and I saw Doubt and were so amazed with the acting. Meryl Streep once again took us along with her as if we were in her shoes. We couldn't stop talking about Meryl's performance. When we got home from the theater we watched Kramer vs. Kramer, which when it came out in 1979 was probably the first time I saw Meryl act. Over twenty years between these films!

Then this week Meryl won a Golden Globe for Julie and Julia, in which she truly captured the essence of Julia Child. After I saw this film, I went home and rented The French Chef with Julia Child TV series because I remembered them from my early twenties.

When Meryl accepted the Globe she mentioned that she was simply the vehicle through which these amazing characters have flowed over the years, and that she has sometimes been mistaken as one of them. I say, Meryl, you put on the dress and accept the awards because YOU Meryl Streep are truly amazing!!

And so, just as Julie endeavored to cook every recipe in Julia's cookbook, I decided I must watch every Meryl Streep movie...and blog about it!