Cinema Egzotik: Cacciatore Night

The two late 1970s Vietnam dramas The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Nowstarted a mini-wave of Italian-American cash-in Vietnam films that had army units disappear into the jungle. Cacciatore Night joins restored 4K classic and exploitation film in an evening on hunting and being hunted.

Egzotik programmer Martin Koolhoven: “The Deer Hunter is Michael Cimino”s masterpiece and one of the best war films ever. Back then Italian filmmakers were happy to cash in on a number of Hollywood hits, but this one is a most peculiar Macaroni Combat film: the plot of L”Ultimo Cacciatore (also known as Il Cacciatore 2; The Deer Hunter was released in Italy as Il Cacciatore) owes as much to Apocalypse Now as it does to Cimino”s anti-war film, but old genre hand Margheriti turned his film into something of a Rambo avant la lettre.”

The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino US 1978, 183' 4K DCP, English spoken)

The Deer Hunter ranks with Apocalypse Now as the ultimate Vietnam war film. Director Michael Cimono depicts the life and trials of three young steelworkers who are drafted to teach the Vietcong a lesson. None of them exits the battle unscathed. With Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken. The film won five Oscars.

Il cacciatore 2 (Antonio Margheriti IT 1980, 95' 35mm, English spoken, Dutch subtitles)

Captain Henry Morris (David Warbeck) lives in a state of emotional torpor in a Saigon brothel following the suicide of his best friend Steve and is all too keen to head an operation to destroy a Vietcong radio station in Cambodia. The mission through the jungle is not without incidents, which is exactly the point. A remarkable feature: the cast also frequently acted in the films of Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, filmmakers who became far better known than Margheriti.