Timely reminder of anti-war message

All war films are anti-war films, it is said. But as a new generation of American war films - Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers among them - attempt to shift the war film's focus from personal loss back to personal bravery, it's timely of Warner to issue The Deer Hunter as a DVD.

Starring Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro and John Savage, it follows the three regular guys whose lives revolve around working and recreational shooting, and are then changed for ever by Vietnam.

Director Michael Cimino's three-hour epic is one corner of an agenda-setting trio completed by Apocalypse Now and M*A*S*H. Not much positive input from the Vietnamese - though a forgivable Seventies weakness.

Verdict: Bullseye.