MOVIES - July 15, 1987

Director Michael Cimino’s vision of the Vietnam conflict in “The Deer Hunter,” once condemned as racist by Soviet cinema officials, has been hailed at the Moscow Film Festival as a talented portrayal of young men at war. At one news conference this week, an elderly Soviet journalist asked Robert De Niro whether he had not made “compromises with his conscience” in acting in the film, which dealt with young Americans of Russian origin in the Vietnam War. “No. It was a film against war. I certainly do not regret playing in it,” replied the actor. The news conference audience, largely younger Soviet reporters, critics and festival helpers, burst into applause. The comment was reported in the festival’s official daily journal by critic Oleg Anatolyev, who recalled that one Soviet handbook on the cinema referred to “The Deer Hunter” as “a scandalous, racist and militarist film.”