ARTS RicK and powerful The Byronic Man CTHE 1970 Berlin Film Fes- with an elegiac tracking shot JOHN MINTON fitted the Still M i n t o n presvd on, tival ground to a halt when around a bar-room at dawn, image of the artist as a hopinc snnirii ow tn achiev* the American jurors objec- from face to face, and a fated young romantic only tfii " Tr.tc ic .i.'iii H<"nic in Chopin nocturne being ' nine t e e n t h - !>! M - v r n t f r n r h - o r ted to a German film called too well. Hi * ' Sseli l'or- WILLIAM FEAVER on fw i-j iTur-v * O.K.1 about some G.I.s PHILIP FRENCH on played on a piano is gradu- traii , 1953 " is quintessen- e v e i] f o u r s r r u i ' The Deer Hunter. ' ally drowned by a beating of John Minton. t e r m - !!r :iu-<! b nr i -.:: n:; ntl a raping a native girl in Viet- tia l Byronic Man : liie s i m i of wings that sounds like the , m o H e m i M i i " vci' nam. Last week it was the angel of death. This is the shock of dark, u n r u l y hair he presented .is emblematic M ;u-|i-.e " s Pf. i l - : !! V-N na ' melanchol y eyes, rhe !>! turn of the Eastern Euro- parallel scenes two years rotor of a helicopter and the the tu ck-ins with olives , p ine- tmi ra! i n ri:e i l m i s i ' l. ^r n V peans to walk out in pro- later in Vietnam , and five film jumps forward two years tendency to pout , the open- app les , art i chokes , h.i m-.. the Tiii' effect is c m U i i - i ' if . add test against the depiction years after that back in to a bloody battle in th« necked shirt. lot, du mped in the grounds !ewei inu .mil :: i v m i i ) ;iav> of Viet Cong atrocities in served , < > • u n i t e .. enmi ivKi t fr America and in Saigon at jungles of Vietnam. Within This paintinc now belongs nf the biggest cIi.i Umu\ evei . ' Michael Cimino's The Deer the moment of collapse. minutes the three friends to the Nat ional Portrait (^ti- Minimi wasn 't one for under- for ' I..iiiy H . i n n i t mi ' nn are prisoners of the Viet ' statement. rc-relea srv A ' FV.it!; 'nf Hunter (ABC Shaftesbury The film centres on six lery — it s one ill the tew ' Avenue, X) . Both gestures friends from a tight-knit Cong and in a series of stab- yood post-war picture; there Indeed , he strove like a Cori oliiiuis ' t lii iowrii anil , leas t coiivini'iiii: I aH; .were as foolish as they Rusian immigrantc ommunity bing, swiftly cut ciose-ups in —but has been allowed out la rterdav Palmer or under- " were predictable. who live in the shadow of the a water-logged prison com- for a John Minton revival at stud y Sutherland in portray ano ther s:\-fnnte: . .1 Cruci- steel mill and their mush- pound and their captors' hut the Morley Gallery in West- locales straining and fructi- f i x i o n set in stmiii r It 'The Deer Hunter ' is not room-domed church. One above, the trio are forced to minster Bridge Road. fying in accordance with his appear* :o ho Mitnnn'i a political or a polemical film. -on r i l u m <b <! runs a bar, the other five play Russian roulette as the Minron committed suicide moods. When llie subject- •i f t e m p i at roi . As the title suggests there styles of Kdwani Bawden S.nd are links with Fenimore work together in the blast fur- enemy gamble on the out- in 19!>7 largely, it seems, he- matte r especiall y appealed tn nace. Three of them—M ike come. This must rank among cuuse he felt out-dnted. spe nt , him — scenes from H . K. Kl Greco . Cooper, and its themes and ( Like t h e ma jor p s - i n t i n c * of situations take us direcdy to Robert De Niro), Nick (Chris- the most shocking sequences thwarted , condemned tn sud- Bates. cnr nucopiou.s food- topher Walken) and Steven ever filmed , and it introduces den obscurity as an irrele- stul rs and anywhere south B e n j a m i n R n h i 'i : Il.iyclnn. t tift Hemingway's Great War ihosn ' Soldier s (John Savage) — after a an elaborate metaphor for vant sort of artist at a time nf tile ciictus-line — his pen- v a i n e l o r iiHi- d i a r i s t . stories. One recalls ' celebrating motif C o m p o s i t i ons h ,i v r » Home.1 where an army vet- Saturday spen t war and rhe dominant when the non-figurative was work became tireless. It whir- eran finds himself incapable Steven's marriage and a final for the rest of rhe film. fast becoming tlie norm. He led around t he .sun or, mure |>;itluil<iKicai i n t e r e s t . !-n!it>* of com municating with his Sunday hunting trip ro the Through Michael' s re- wouldn 't adapt. But then why often , t he moon (this being are, in t h e i r wa y. heroic. R u t old frie nds, and ' The Bis sourcefulness, a result of his should he luive ? His whole lohn Minion is be<i remrm- Two-Hearted River,' in which stoic preparation for such •itvlc was illustrative. ' ncree) for rlinse vicncirr spot* Hemingway's fictional alter confrontations, the three During the late forties, where he coiild always ink in ego Nick Adams (one of escape. But they remain when we as a nation were extra shadows to see him Cimino's characters is also forever stamped , by the longing to get away from throug h called Nick) goes on a soli- experience. Years later , ration book-keeping a n d A chance has come over tary fish ing expedition in Steven is incarcerated in a lingering austerity. Mi ntim t he paintings nf Willinsn. Michigan after he returns veterans' hospita l, Mike is a was a prolific supplier of vis- Henderson ( I n n RirkMcad trnumatised from Europe. much decorated sergeant, ual feasts ; black and white in Gallery. Flask Walk. NW .l,. The picture is about that though incapable of sharing the Radio Times and the Three years ago he wu.i pre- his experience with those cookery column of Vokhc. fot docKcd ly pursuing an irlral perennial American prefer.i hi v occupation fthe subject of back home, Nick has des- instance, and mulii-colour of monochrom e ! the cended info the city of dread- on dust jackets . He helped £i"c*y J austerity He wasn 't Cimino's earlier film , ( , Clint Eastwood vehicle ful night that is Saigon , con- l:.li7abeth David change ilie the onl y we. Si nce then and Light- tinually to replay the game eating aspirations of an entire however , he has changed hi" ' Thunderbolt mind , seen the light and left foot '} with male friendship, of Russian roulette. The once income group with his sedui seen as a finer and stronger gentle Nick and the formerly live vi gnettes for ' A Bonk t he elephants ' graveyard . thing than love between men lethal Mike have symbolic- r>f Mediterranean Food ' and A bout a year ago h«i end women. And it 's about ally exchanged roles. Now " French Country Cooking. " showed snme paintin gs in !ii« the other side of that coin , Anthon y Quinn in ' The Mike the healed man, the true With pen and ink he compiled Minion self-purli' iiit. I'J.vL fresh vein at the Air Gallery . loneliness, the broo ding cos- Passage ' : A Zorba in hero who has learned from frontispiece gluts : shingle , They were riddled with rain- mic solitude Americans have grapes , neo - romantic terr itory), how stri pes clash ing at oflrl snow-shoes. his experience, must again , garlics winkles, lob- , (hnngh he felt ever since they confron- save his friends, by action ster-pots, peppers and glad- darkened the skies filled the angles . It was as ted the overpowering vast- eye fisher lads washed up on undergrowth with prickles. had switched over to colour mountains, are off to the army and by example, and this is " 1947 , TV. The three latest lion- ness of their continent. as airborne volunteers. the matter of the film 's third De Niro and Savage try to escape fr om the Viet Cong by Helicopter. exotic shores. Wine harvests ' Treasure Island . ' Dog Sol- was his greatest triumph as dersons still look recently . Unlike Reisz's Through the Russian Ortho- hour . liberated , but t hey have :«.n diers,' "The Deer Hunter ' dox service, the reception in a "The Deer Hunter ' is a with his leading lady and , as begins with the 1925 ' Bulldog an illustrator , a surge of inky ethnic com- usual, Bronson, looking more Drumrnond's Third Round ,' hysterics extendin g from the extra charge of incidents and deals with an local community hall, and the rich and powerful picture nuances. munity largely untouched by hunting expedition, Cimino that without a trace of pat- than ever like a tired movie in which Jack spars with first creak of the shivery tim- , just narrows his British heavyweight champ Celestial sounds bers of the old Admiral The first of them , ' Boanc ' the creat social currents of and his cameraman Vilmos ronisation or the slightest Mongol 1 by name, involves a h ectic the 1960s and is constructed Zsigmond locate their charac- touch of cultural superiority eyes and thinks of Ireland.