... Perhaps a little cumbersome, but it’s hard not to get caught up in the film’s big, sentimental sweep.

So many of the elements are so good that it all adds up to a pity. Someone, or more than one -- writer or producers or director or editor or all -- fogged up about why this picture was being made and whether it was on the rails.

A film to be debated and argued over seriously because it is an earnest, serious and impressive work, despite the reservations it is necessary to have about it. In a thin and evasive year, The Deer Hunter joins a thin company that aspire to greatness.

It is a flawed but important movie, both as a work of art and for what it has to tell us about ourselves.