The Deer Hunter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the unrelated video game, see Deer Hunter (computer game).

The Deer Hunter
Directed by	Michael Cimino
Produced by	Barry Spikings Michael Deeley Michael Cimino John Peverall
Written by	Deric Washburn (story & screenplay) Michael Cimino Louis Garfinkle Quinn K. Redeker (story)
Starring	Robert De Niro Christopher Walken John Cazale Meryl Streep John Savage
Music by	Stanley Myers
Cinematography	Vilmos Zsigmond
Distributed by	Universal Studios (US) EMI Films (non-US)
Release date(s)	December 8, 1978
Running time	182 min.
Country	US
Language	English Russian Vietnamese French
Budget	US$15,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Deer Hunter is a 1978 English language film that tells the fictional story of a group of Rusyn-American steel workers during the Vietnam War era. Most of it is set in either Vietnam or their hometown of Clairton, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Most filming was done in Cleveland and Mingo Junction, Ohio. It stars Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and George Dzundza.

Inspired by German First World War soldier and author Erich Maria Remarque's 1937 novel Drei Kameraden (Three Comrades), which depicts the lives of a trio of disillusioned World War I veterans in 1920s Weimar Germany, the film explores the meaning and effects of war, violence and manipulated patriotism on one tightly knit ethnic community. The concepts of ethnicity, family, friendship and community each play a very prominent role.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Credits 2.1 Producers 2.2 Cast and roles include 3 Filming locations 4 Awards and recognition 5 Controversy 6 DVD releases 6.1 Trivia 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The story is essentially told in three acts. In it, De Niro (Mike), Savage (Steven), Walken (Nick) and Cazale (Stanley) portray a group of American steel workers -- who are also avid deer hunters -- of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry.

The first act of the film covers the life of the friends in Western Pennsylvania -- at work, at home, at a bar, at the Eastern-Rite Catholic church. Its apogee is the (shotgun) wedding celebration of Steven and Angela, who as it turns out is pregnant with what is implied to be Nick's child. The wedding itself is extensively portrayed and fleshed out, replete with Rusyn and Russian songs, various wedding traditions, traditional dances, and generally wild and drunken celebrations for all involved. Following a final hunting trip, Steven, Mike, and Nick leave for a tour in the ongoing Vietnam War, longing to go where "the bullets are flyin". Following a bit of streaking through town the night of the wedding, Nick makes Mike promise that he will not "leave him behind" should something ever happen to them in Vietnam.

In the second act, the three friends are shown on a river pontoon-prison, captives of the Viet Cong. They are forced to play Russian roulette against each other for the gambling amusement of their Vietnamese captors. Mike first considers abandoning Steven (whom he believes has been broken mentally and cannot survive), but eventually engineers an escape for all three men by killing their captors during the game. Soon after an American patrol helicopter appears but is only able to rescue Nick. Mike and Steven fall back into the river and eventually swim ashore. Steven's legs are broken by the fall; Mike carries him until they reach an American convoy, with whom he then leaves Stevie. Mike then continues his tour of duty and returns home alone for the third act.

Meanwhile Nick is recuperating in a hospital in Vietnam, and goes AWOL by one day walking out. He then takes up with a rogue Frenchman in the city of Saigon who promises him riches if he participates in Russian roulette competitions. Back in the US, Mike reunites with Stevie, who has had both his legs amputated and his left arm paralyzed, and recovering in a Veterans' Administration hospital. Stevie shows Mike the large amounts of cash he has been receiving by mail, proving that Nick is alive and still in Vietnam.

Mike then travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975, where with the help of the Frenchman he finds Nick and learns that his best friend has become a champion of the deadly Russian roulette. Nick appears at first to have no recollection of his friend or their lives in Pennsylvania. They then face each other in the game with screaming gamblers looking on. During the final match, Mike "buys" Nick and tries to persuade him to come home. Nick finally acknowledges that he does remember Mike, by repeating a line the two used together while deerhunting ("one shot"). Nick then takes the gun, and shoots himself.

Mike brings Nick's body back to America, sadly fulfilling his promise from the night of the wedding. The film ends on the morning of Nick's funeral at his Ruthenian Catholic parish, with the surviving friends quietly singing God Bless America.

[edit] Credits

The film was written by Michael Cimino, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn K. Redeker and Deric Washburn, and directed by Cimino.

[edit] Producers

• Joann Carelli - associate producer
• Michael Cimino - producer
• Michael Deeley - producer
• John Peverall - producer
• Marion Rosenberg - associate producer
• Barry Spikings - producer

[edit] Cast and roles include

• Robert De Niro - Michael Vronsky, "Mike"
• Christopher Walken - Nikonar "Nick" Chevotarevich
• John Cazale - Stanley Stosh
• John Savage - Steven
• Meryl Streep - Linda
• George Dzundza - John Welch
• Chuck Aspegren - Peter "Axel" Axelrod
• Shirley Stoler - Steven's mother
• Rutanya Alda - Angela Ludhjduravic-Pushkov
• Amy Wright - Bridesmaid

[edit] Filming locations

Filming locations include:

• Saint Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Cleveland
• Patpong, in Bangkok, Thailand - the area was rented for two days for the film, to represent a part of Saigon.
• Sai Yok, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand
• North Cascades National Park, Washington state.
• Mingo Junction, Ohio, where the steel mill scenes were filmed

[edit] Awards and recognition

The Deer Hunter won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Michael Cimino), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken), Best Film Editing, and Best Sound. In addition, it was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep), Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

It has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry and is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films. It is also ranked number 79 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time [1].

Its theme tune, Cavatina, written by Stanley Myers and performed by guitarist John Williams is commonly known as The Theme from The Deer Hunter,

[edit] Controversy

Dr Thomas Radecki, a psychiatrist and former spokesman for the National Coalition on TV Violence, contends that The Deer Hunter sparked a string of Russian roulette suicides because of its dramatic depiction of captured American soldiers forced to play Russian roulette by their Viet Cong captors [2].

There is no record or substantiated account of prisoners and captors from either side playing Russian roulette during the Vietnam War. Many veterans groups were highly critical of the film, considering it exploitive because of its gratuitous violence.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] DVD releases

The Deer Hunter has twice been released on DVD, first with no extra features (and a non-amorphic transfer) in 1998 by Universal. This version has since been discontinued.

On September 6, 2005, Universal re-released the film with a new anamorphic transfer as part of its Legacy Series. This two-disc set features a commentary by director of photography Vilmos Zsigmond, multiple interviews from the cast and crew, and deleted/extended scenes.

Also of note is the region 2 version of ' The Deer Hunter ' exclusive to the UK, which features a commentary track from director Michael Cimino.

[edit] Trivia

In order to give himself a ghost-like appearance, Christopher Walken ate only rice, bananas and water for the week prior to filming his final scene.

The piece played by John (the bartender) on the piano after the hunting trip and just before Mike, Nick, and Steven leave for Vietnam is Frederic Chopin's Nocturne Op. 15 No. 3 in G minor.

The Russian roulette scene has been parodied in television (e.g. The Simpsons), and even advertisements. The movie popularized the Vietnamese sentence "Di-di mao!", which loosely translates as "Go ahead!" or "Get outta here!"

[edit] External links

• The Deer Hunter at Filmsite.org
• The Deer Hunter at the Internet Movie Database
• The Deer Hunter at All Movie Guide
• The Deer Hunter at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Deer Hunter screenplay
• The Deer Hunter: Viewings of the film The Deer Hunter have been tied to a number of Russian roulette suicides (Snopes.com)
• The Deer Hunter Fan Page
• The Deer Hunter Review