Peter Biskind on THE DEER HUNTER

If you’ve already read This Book Does Not Exist then you know the Michael Cimino directed, Robert DeNiro-Meryl Streep-Christopher Walken-John Cazale starring movie THE DEER HUNTER plays an important role, in part because my dad rocked me to sleep while watching it when I was a baby and also because sections of it were shot in Cleveland, which is the principle setting for the story. 

Yesterday morning, I went through the offensively long list of cached articles in my Instapaper account, and I found an article entitled “The Vietnam Oscars.” The piece, by Peter Biskind, examines the first two successful films about Vietnam - COMING HOME and of course THE DEER HUNTER.  

From the article —

“The celebrated wedding scene was filmed in Cleveland in a magnificent Russian Orthodox church, obscenely ornate, actually, given the poverty of the fictional surroundings.”

If you haven’t seen it before, this is the exterior of the church, St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the Tremont neighborhood —

And here is the full article by Biskind, which I recommend to anyone interested in movies, Hollywood, or the manner in which art interacts with society.