One Shot (The Deer Hunter) - Maniac (2021)

Video quality is very good. Audio isn’t too great, and sometimes the levels change, but I suspect that the original is at fault. Cuts are largely unnoticeable. A few rescores, are were well chosen.

The Deer Hunter is one of my favourite films and, in my view, a masterpiece that moves just a little too slowly at the beginning. I was interested in this edit as it promised to reduce the first act, which features a very long wedding sequence. This goes further than that and takes out quite large chunks from the film. I estimate that about 30 minutes is cut from the first act and a little over 30 minutes from the second and third. Since I’m a big fan of the original, I’m not sure what to make of that. While the edit does progress at a far higher pace, a lot of great stuff has been cut. Outside of the first act, I was mostly fine with the pace of the original. The edit does however (largely) work narratively.

The first act is reduced to just under 30 minutes, which is very impressive, and it allows us to get to the superb second act a lot more quickly, with all the moments preserved from the first act being the most relevant ones to the story and main characters. I do still miss the absence of some scenes, but the edit works without them. Two critiques of the new first act:

24:48 the characters are talking about what Stan said earlier, but it’s not clear what about. I suspect something during the wedding that was cut.

Michael and Stan’s conflict is not set up in this version, as the scene from the first act in which they quarrel over clothing is cut, meaning that their confrontation in the third act makes less sense.

All in all, it’s a technically and narratively sound edit, and it has its merits in making the film an easier and shorter watch. However, I didn’t think that the second and third acts should’ve been cut so much, and so I do still prefer the original - with the exception of the first act, which is mostly improved in this cut.