The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter is an awfully long title for a comedy, a drama or even a dramedy about a father-son bounding and unbounding on a hunting trip. To shorten it to just The Deer Hunter weighs this charming movie down with too much significance and cinema legacy. Somewhere between significance and mediocrity is where Legacy’s place exists.
Josh Brolin, Danny McBride and Montana Jordan as the elementary school age son are the hunters looking to bag the kids first non-special Whitetail, a twenty pointer by all accounts. Getting in the way are cellphones, first girlfriends, learning the manly rituals (of drinking, smoking, responsible sex and porno viewing); and facing the death of marriage, career, childhood, and outdated macho notions of manhood.
The characters are balanced between varying notions of responsibility, wisdom and regret. Josh Brolin particularly impresses with a balance performance that shows he has learned how to be a good hunter, father and responsible man from all the hunting videos he has made and peddled.
When the expected Deliverance moment comes it is both false and awkwardly right. They all get through the rapids not shattered, just a little bit better men, friends and maybe understanding and appreciative parent and child.
It may be nice to note that their maybe some blood on the boots moments, not a single deer is ever harmed or kill– which makes The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter a different kind of Deer Hunter.
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